Recreational & Family - The kind of bikes that kids REALLY want

My kid was riding BMX bikes as a tyke, then graduated to a mountain bike in 6th grade. He finally got large enough in 2004 to fit onto my old road bike, a 1986 Centurion. So I let him use it.

Now he uses the road bike as much as possible. He still takes the MTB to school, because kids have been messing with bikes, and he doesn't want the road bike to be wrecked. So his MTB is now his "beater" bike.

He says that the slowness of the MTB relative to the road bike is frustrating to him. Yeah, little boys who don't really ride, but just "pose" on the bikes in front of their houses while hanging out with friends like the rugged, SUV-like knobbies... but kids who really ride to get places fast want a road bike!

BTW, my kid just did a 50 mile ride this past weekend, and got the Boy Scouting Cycling Merit Badge. Yes, I am proud!

That rocks. How old is he now?

13. He's racing this weekend, too.

And my post is not meant to impugn mountain bike users at all... it's just that kids reflexively say "I want a mountain bike" because that's all they see, or it looks "tough" like an SUV or military tank, but you know how it is with kids..

They don't know what they don't know

You put a kid in a race with one of his friends, put him on the MTB and his friend on a road bike, when the friend cleans your kid's clock on a race to school or the swimming pool, you can bet your kid's mantra will change to

I want a faster bike !



That rocks. How old is he now?

Nah kids his age don't pose, they only use MTBs because that's all anyone has.

Yes, it's HARD to get road bikes for kids, pity, they had them when I was young!


Nah kids his age don't pose, they only use MTBs because that's all anyone has.

You put a kid in a race with one of his friends, put him on the MTB and his friend on a road bike, when the friend cleans your kid's clock on a race to school or the swimming pool, you can bet your kid's mantra will change to

I want a faster bike !

When I was a teenager, I raced my friend from one end of town to the other. He used his roadbike (Trek 400). I used my mountain bike (Specialized HardRock Sport). I beat him... but not by much. Of course we only specified the destination so I took a few "shortcuts" he would never have been able to take with his roadbike. ;)

HA HA HA !!!



When I was a teenager, I raced my friend from one end of town to the other. He used his roadbike (Trek 400). I used my mountain bike (Specialized HardRock Sport). I beat him... but not by much. Of course we only specified the destination so I took a few "shortcuts" he would never have been able to take with his roadbike. ;)

I find it hilarious to see young teenaged posers out front of the middle school with there Nexts, Huffys, Schwinns, Pacfics, and Quaser bikes. My bike rack cost more then those POSes.

All the kids around here are on BMX bikes or the Schwinn Stingray chopper. I see them everywhere! FINALLY...it's good to see kids riding! :)

All the kids around here are on BMX bikes or the Schwinn Stingray chopper. I see them everywhere! FINALLY...it's good to see kids riding! :)

Same here. All the kids around here ride dj/urban/bmx bikes and home built chopper style bikes (it has been this way since I was a kid). Then the kids around 18 start riding dh bikes and freeride bikes because they are into the extream gravity sports. Most of them are not posers and can ride the wheels off their bikes. I do not think that, in the 5yrs i have lived at this location, I have seen any one under the age of 18 or 19 ride a road bike. Guess it is just demographics though.

:beer:

As a kid- yes we want road bikes! However, parents think the slick and narrow tires, light frames, and speed are too unsafe. Anyone show me some literature to disprove this?

"However, parents think the slick and narrow tires, light frames, and speed are too unsafe."

In my life (44 years old, riding seriously since 16), I've had 3 significant crashes... 2 on a mountain bike, 1 on a road bike. None of them had to do with tires, frames, or any kind of excess speed that a road bike would allow above and beyond what a mountain bike can do.

All were due to operator error (me).

Tell your folks that.

It is great to see kids on bikes...any sort of bike. My nine year old nephew has several bikes, and his current favorite is a one speed BMX bike. He WANTS a mountain bike, because he says "having all those speeds...the bike will go a lot faster".

Frankly, I want him to be able to focus on maintaining his precise position on the road, while monitoring the antics of the brain-dead driver behind him who is using the rear view mirror to put on her lipstick, and the moron passing on his left who is babbling into his cell phone while changing the radio station.

And, he lives in an inner city neighborhood where there are few places to ride that are safely away from motor vehicles. So, I'm gonna try to stall him another year or two on getting a mountain bike.

I may need to convert one of my bikes to "one speed" to convince him that the number of gears is meaningless...I'll be just as slow on a one speed as on any of my other bikes.