Road bikes for young children

lotus49

My daughter is 7 and very sporty (quite where she gets it from is a mystery) and we have both really enjoyed going out on bike rides together. Because she is only young and has a small single speed bike, we have so far stuck to traffic free routes but we cannot keep doing this for too long as the only ones we can find that I can take my road bike on are just too short (she managed 15 miles easily).

She is starting to outgrow her Prodrive Princess (complete with tassels on the bars) and is starting to talk about her next bike. She is fascinated by my road bike and the associated clothing ("can I have some special shoes/bib tights/base layers like yours Daddy" she keeps asking) so I have started to wonder what options are open to us in terms of a real road bike.

I have seen a couple of children of about 9-10 on road bikes but never anyone as young as my daughter. Are there any proper road bikes for children of this age? Are they sex specific? Does anyone have any recommendations?

wellbeloved747

This may be usefull
http://www.bikerumor.com/2012/08/18/cul ... mall-fast/

lotus49

wellbeloved747 wrote:

This may be usefull
http://www.bikerumor.com/2012/08/18/cul ... mall-fast/

Thanks for the link, that looks absolutely perfect except for the $1,600 price tag.

At least I now know they do exist. My daughter would love this which is why I shan't be showing her that picture. I'd never hear the last of it .

passout

There is a specific section of the forum for kids & family stuff, but the short answer is this: http://www.islabikes.co.uk/ More specifically: http://www.islabikes.co.uk/bike_pages/luath24.html
May be a little on the big side now but come summer...? This company have an excellent reputation.

wellbeloved747

lotus49 wrote:

wellbeloved747 wrote:

This may be usefull
http://www.bikerumor.com/2012/08/18/cul ... mall-fast/

Thanks for the link, that looks absolutely perfect except for the $1,600 price tag.

At least I now know they do exist. My daughter would love this which is why I shan't be showing her that picture. I'd never hear the last of it .

I believe on their website it is $1295 and that includes a free jersey, but a lot of companies make them Moda,Cube etc

oxoman

Have a look in Kids & Family section as recently been done a fair bit. Basically starts at Decathlon triban3 junior, dawes espoir, moda minor and major, felt and kona do them. Islabike does a range but not junior road bikes until they are a bit bigger. Triban 3 junior is the lowest spec you want to go really. Viking do some but they weigh more than my MTB. The Triban isn't light but weighs less than my son's Giant MTX125 MTB which is why he has the Triban. Currently £229 at Decathlon. No good for kids under 125cm IMHO also take off the silly straps on the pedals.

Eddy S

Can't really add anything as far as bikes are concerned as was going to suggest the Moda Minor.

For clothing, have a look Just Juniors Cyclewear and also directly from ImpSport as they size from Age 6/7.

Shaun67

We got our son a B'twin Triban 3 (The red one) in a 45cm frame a few weeks ago and he loves it.
I looked at lots of junior "road bikes" and found them all very similar in spec but not price. I looked
at Moda, Vicini & Battaglin to name but a few and the B'twin had very similar spec but was the only
one with an alloy frame and carbon fork and it's at least £150 cheaper that the rest.

My lad is 8 and is about 134cm tall and he just fits the bike with the saddle lowered as far as I can
get it. We had his first 10 miles on Sunday morning followed by 15 on Monday morning and I must admit
it was great fun if a little scary.....he now tells me it's 20 miles on Sunday morning, god I hope we don't
have too much traffic. :shock:

lotus49

Thank you all for your help and suggestions. There are some promising options here and I'm sure she would be delighted with most of these.

It's time to get the tape measure out and find out exactly how tall she is. She is fairly tall for her age (not surprising considering I'm over 6'2") so I'm sure we can get one to fit.

Mccaria

The Islabikes are excellent. Got a mountain bike for my daughter about 4 years ago and a road bike last year. They are very well set up (shorter brake lever reach for smaller hands) and my daughter loves that her road bike looks very much like mine, complete with sti shifter !

MichaelW

Mccaria wrote:

The Islabikes are excellent.

and they have a high resale value.