Pedals for a small child

slowbike
slowbike Posts: 8,498
edited October 2019 in MTB buying advice
Little Slowbike may just be getting an MTB for Christmas - if FC thinks he's been good ...
It comes with the standard plastic pedals - but just wondering if any family want to get him something for his bike - what pedals would be advised to replace these ... ?

Comments

  • figbat
    figbat Posts: 680
    Out of interest, to what end? For more security of foot-on-pedal? For looks? For better power transmission?

    My kids have Cube MTBs (one a Race 200, one a Race 240). These come with ordinary plastic pedals that neither I nor they have thought about twice. They tend to wear whatever shoe/trainer is nearest to hand.

    One thing I am currently in the middle of doing though is something I wish I'd done much sooner - replacing the grip-shift shifters with thumb/trigger ones. I did Master Figbat's last night (on the 20"er) - the old shifter was stiff and quite well beaten up. The new Altus 7-speed shifter went on in 10 minutes and he loves it, declaring it much easier to use. Plus it has indexed perfectly, unlike the old shifter. I have a 3x7 Altus setup ready to go on Miss Figbat's 24"er. Both are getting new grips too, to compensate for the missing grip-shift.

    Other than that they have both also received mudguards and lights as auxiliary bike-related gifts. Oh and cycling gloves.
    Cube Reaction GTC Pro 29 for the lumpy stuff
    Cannondale Synapse alloy with 'guards for the winter roads
    Fuji Altamira 2.7 for the summer roads
    Trek 830 Mountain Track frame turned into a gravel bike - for anywhere & everywhere
  • slowbike
    slowbike Posts: 8,498
    figbat wrote:
    Out of interest, to what end? For more security of foot-on-pedal? For looks? For better power transmission?
    Well - yes- not being a MTBer myself I'm not entirely sure - although I'm contemplating asking Santa for some flats to replace my shin graters on my 29er ... Probably for more security of foot-on-pedal - certainly not better power transmission as at that stage it doesn't matter ...
    figbat wrote:
    My kids have Cube MTBs (one a Race 200, one a Race 240). These come with ordinary plastic pedals that neither I nor they have thought about twice. They tend to wear whatever shoe/trainer is nearest to hand.
    He'll still be wearing trainers
    figbat wrote:
    One thing I am currently in the middle of doing though is something I wish I'd done much sooner - replacing the grip-shift shifters with thumb/trigger ones. I did Master Figbat's last night (on the 20"er) - the old shifter was stiff and quite well beaten up. The new Altus 7-speed shifter went on in 10 minutes and he loves it, declaring it much easier to use. Plus it has indexed perfectly, unlike the old shifter. I have a 3x7 Altus setup ready to go on Miss Figbat's 24"er. Both are getting new grips too, to compensate for the missing grip-shift.

    Other than that they have both also received mudguards and lights as auxiliary bike-related gifts. Oh and cycling gloves.
    His current bike can be used off road but we're looking to add mudguards (and he's asked for a rack) - he already has lights (yes, we take him on night rides sometimes) - and as it's his school commute bike we think it would be nice to differentiate between that and mountain biking.

    We've already converted his twist grip to triggers on the existing bike and the new one has triggers too... far easier for small hands ...
  • gomezz
    gomezz Posts: 99
    Must admit the best upgrade for a kids bike is to ditch the Gripshift for trigger shift.
    My 8 year old granddaughter found it impossible to use.
  • edward.s
    edward.s Posts: 230
    My son is 8 and adult size 5 feet, he's using 5-10s and some of my old Sixpac Racing Menace pedals. that seems to get him around trail centres and the local woods no probs. Any decent flats would probably do, I'd probably go with plastic DMR ones.

    I lot of kids bikes come with very flat, non-grippy pedals.
  • slowbike
    slowbike Posts: 8,498
    gomezz wrote:
    Must admit the best upgrade for a kids bike is to ditch the Gripshift for trigger shift.
    My 8 year old granddaughter found it impossible to use.

    We're a bit earlier on than you - LSB is only 4 ...

    So far we've found the best upgrades to be
    1) geared bike - the single speeds were fine for on the flat & firm ground - hopeless as soon as it went up or rough
    2) like you (and I didn't think of it - I found it online) - gripshift -> trigger shift.

    Right now he's on a 20" Islabike which is a hand-me-down from cousins - it's a nice bike, if a bit battered - we're just after the N+1* so he can have a MTB set up for offroad, whilst keeping the Islabike for the onroad/path stuff and the school commute.


    * it's only fair - we have multiple bikes for different uses - why shouldn't he?!

    Oh - and whilst we're on the subject of upgrades - if they did a eWheel in 14 or 16" wheels I would've probably have bought one as when he had the smaller bike he found it hard on the trails (they were really muddy) - and if it didn't cost quite so much I'd still be tempted by electronic shifting for his current bike and have a control on mine so I could shift it for him - but we're coming out of that stage now ... :)
  • slowbike
    slowbike Posts: 8,498
    edward.s wrote:
    My son is 8 and adult size 5 feet, he's using 5-10s and some of my old Sixpac Racing Menace pedals. that seems to get him around trail centres and the local woods no probs. Any decent flats would probably do, I'd probably go with plastic DMR ones.

    I lot of kids bikes come with very flat, non-grippy pedals.
    ok - ta

    It's a good brand bike - but it still comes with the plastic flats - I'm hoping they've got some grip as it is sold as a MTB - I'll check before Father Christmas makes his delivery anyway ... ;)

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