Road bike for 11 year old girl

gdcfc1

Daughter desperate for road bike. Is v keen on Frog Road 70 in Sky colors. Also noting Specialized Allez Jr which is about same price. Don't want to go more expensive than those.

So... Anyone any experience with either and can comment? Anyone any comparisons? Cannot find much in way of measurements online so anyone know comparison of reach?

Thanks so much. Doing this remotely is hard but cannot get to dealers right now.

Of course, open to other suggestions but have trawled t'interweb quite a lot already

Steve-XcT

gdcfc1 wrote:

Daughter desperate for road bike. Is v keen on Frog Road 70 in Sky colors. Also noting Specialized Allez Jr which is about same price. Don't want to go more expensive than those.

So... Anyone any experience with either and can comment? Anyone any comparisons? Cannot find much in way of measurements online so anyone know comparison of reach?

Thanks so much. Doing this remotely is hard but cannot get to dealers right now.

Of course, open to other suggestions but have trawled t'interweb quite a lot already

The Frog is a "road bike" that weighs as much as a decent front suspension offroad bike... which is quite an achievement given an extra kg of forks alone. So IMHO less of a road bike than a "hybrid" general purpose bike.... so not really forr serious road use but probably takes a good few knocks!

If NEW and budget is the main thing then ....

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/triban-500-r ... Ah_98P8HAQ

A eBay search ....
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/Bikes/177831/ ... &_nkw=650c

Really depends how much you mean "road bike" .... but some of those look way better choices!

gdcfc1

Thanks Steve. I guess price is a limit but up to around 400 works so the BTwin is on my low end. Did not realize Frog were heavy..... Will keep looking and reading.

Steve-XcT

gdcfc1 wrote:

Thanks Steve. I guess price is a limit but up to around 400 works so the BTwin is on my low end. Did not realize Frog were heavy..... Will keep looking and reading.

They seem heavy as a "road bike" .but it all depends on what your daughter wants to do.... at least my perspective on this is my kids off road bike with 1.69KG forks and offroad tyres, wheels, disc brakes etc. weights about 9.6kg....
If I simply replaced the forks, wheels and components on the same frame that is "over specced" for offroad use I'd hope to drop at least a couple of kg....

I'm not looking for a road bike for him at the moment as he's 6 and I don't really want him on roads.... but it seems to me that given MTB components and frames are intrinsically heavier a half decent road bike should at least be lighter than my kids MTB.... (even though I spent quite a bit upgrading the bike itself was £250 new with the forks that would have cost over £100)

An incredibly expensive (£1500 quid) is 7.8kg.... so perhaps I'm being over optimistic but even just replacing the forks would drop 1kg... so ???? (Given the last 200g are the most expensive...) but then this is more of a cross country than road anyway...
http://www.islabikes.co.uk/islabikes-pr ... pro-series

The BTWIN on ebay seem higher spec than the new ones.... (either the parents have upgraded or the older model had better spec)

gdcfc1

Thanks oxo. Moda seem to have gone since 2010 and is Forme active still?

gdcfc1

Thanks again Oxoman. After more trawling i was able to find as you mentioned. However have gone ahead and got the Frog. Seems we got pretty much the last Black Team Sky bike in the country! Delivery arrived smoothly and the bike looks great. Liking the finishing too - internal cable routing for back brake for example and both drop and on top brake levers.

As I think I saw somewhere else, the front gear changer is a long push so she has to get used to doing that. Otherwise, all works very nicely. Overall gearing win over MTB is good.

Weight is not an issue - lighter than her MTB, for sure.