My little mans first road bike

Joeblack

Hi Guys, iv been letting my little guy have a go on a few road bike recently with a view to getting him one soon, he's doing well and doesn't find the cycling part hard he's just got a problem when in the drops, not a issue I hear you say, that's what I thought but the problem is because he has small hands he's struggling to get enough purchase on the leaver to operate the brake!! So when riding on the hoods he basically can't brake!! Big problem, so he's struggling to ride and keep balance in the drops but can't brake on the hoods.

What do I do?!!!

Mike Healey

Joeblack wrote:

Hi Guys, iv been letting my little guy have a go on a few road bike recently with a view to getting him one soon, he's doing well and doesn't find the cycling part hard he's just got a problem when in the drops, not a issue I hear you say, that's what I thought but the problem is because he has small hands he's struggling to get enough purchase on the leaver to operate the brake!! So when riding on the hoods he basically can't brake!! Big problem, so he's struggling to ride and keep balance in the drops but can't brake on the hoods.

What do I do?!!!

All our Islabikes Luaths have supplementary brake levers which most of the kids use until their hands can operate on the hoods. We've noticed that, because there are the extra levers, it takes them some time (particularly on the Luath 24s) to graduate to riding the hoods even if their hands are large enough.

othello

Joeblack wrote:

Hi Guys, iv been letting my little guy have a go on a few road bike recently with a view to getting him one soon, he's doing well and doesn't find the cycling part hard he's just got a problem when in the drops, not a issue I hear you say, that's what I thought but the problem is because he has small hands he's struggling to get enough purchase on the leaver to operate the brake!! So when riding on the hoods he basically can't brake!! Big problem, so he's struggling to ride and keep balance in the drops but can't brake on the hoods.

What do I do?!!!

Until their hands are big enough, braking on the hoods is really hard, if not impossible. Children either need to brake on the drops or use supplemntary levers if they have them. Even on the drops you might need to bring the brake levers in towards the bars. I did this using zip ties (see my video guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt1WRx11dTk), but some brake levers will have adjustment built in.

baudman

Also, spacers in the brifters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG_UwcqaAKw