Recreational & Family - When is a child old enough for a road bike?

Hi,

My son (age 11, about 5 feet high) has a small adult-sized hybrid which he likes a lot; we've started doing some 12 and even 20 mile rides together, and he's very enthusiastic, except on hills.

I suspect that I'm about to get myself a road bike at some point this summer, mostly for longer rides when he's not with me. But I will be happy to get him a road bike at some point if he wants one.

My question is, though, is 11 too young for drop handlebars? Or is there anything else about a road bike that would be dangerous for a child? On the face of it I can't see a problem, especially since presumably we could swap in straight handlebars if necessary. But I wondered if anyone out there has any experience of this. I don't want to get him interested in road bikes only to discover that he has to wait for a couple of years. (He got all excited about electic bikes only to discover there was an age requirement).

Many thanks

There are no issues with road bikes other than fit. The choices of road frames for people that height are much fewer than for taller folks.

The road bike difference will only be position and maybe shifting mechnism. Other than that, it's just a bike. He should be able to go faster because the tires will likely be narrower and higher pressure. If he really would use a road bike, check out the Trek KDR1000. They are about $600 I think but very nice bikes.

I figure let the kids ride BMX until they're old enough for Adult frames. You buy it for them when they're young, and it's like a full sized bike, and if they become cool when they're teenagers, they'll ride to the liqour store to bug homeless guys to buy malt-liqour for them.

There is no appropriate age, only appropriate skill levels. A kid that can not safely get on and off the seat when they need to stop should probably not be on a road bike but otherwise I can not imagine a real safety issue with a road style bike. I would happily put my 8 year old son on a road bike as I he can easily ride my 22 inch frame hardtail mountain bike (pretty funny to watch), but would not consider putting my 11 year old daughter on one as she needs to be able to get her feet flat on the ground or she panics.

With the handlebars, you can not simply swap in a straight bar as the brake levers (and shifters if they are integrated) are specific to the drop bars in both their design and clamp size. To change from drops to flat bars usually involves a new bar and brake levers.

my 6 and 8 year olds each have road bikes (one a Felt F24 and one a Trek KDR1000) and, for the most part, I have no problems with either on the road. However, I do absolutely limit some of the roads we traverse, simply because they are still kids and don't fully understand what to do in emergency/panic situations.

We've 8yr olds racing on road bikes - closed circuit, natch.

They find the steering a bit squirrelly at first because the bars are narrower, but otherwise ok. Most for that age are 5 gears, single chainring, so some parents put a thumbshifter on the bar near the stem.