BMX Racing Bike Suggestions For a 7 Year Old Girl

[Lancerob2]

I just re-started BMX racing this last year for the first time since 1985. I am re-hooked! My 7 year old daughter went to a few races and has expressed an interest in racing. I think once she goes to a few races with me in spring 2008 she will be jumping up and down wanting to race. Can anyone tell me of personal experience they have with little girls BMX racing bikes? She is (now) 7 years old, 4'5" tall, and about 60 lbs. There are many good looking bikes online at Dan's and J&R. I am sure all of them would be decent. Money really doesn't matter. A new one will be between $299 and $450. (All expensive :eek::D) Thanks for your time.

[andymac]

My 8 year old son rides an FMF Jr/Expert, it is a pretty nice bike and is a little bigger than most Jr.'s but smaller than most Experts. Nothing has gone awry with it and it has seen a lot of action. I am really impressed with how strong the wheels have been, they have stayed true through an awful lot of failed attempts to clear the big tables. The rear wheel is a 36 spoke where a lot of the Juniors are 28 or 32.
It is his second season on the bike and in retrospect was a little big for him when he first started on it. I changed the gearing and cranks right away and it worked well for him. I was originally going to change the tires to 1 1/8 but he likes trying to jump everything in sight so I stuck with the 1 3/8 as I figured the extra air volume would help protect the rims. I have recently picked up a nice set of Bombshell cassette wheels for it and will keep the stock ones as spares, there is a suprising number of kids that break spokes during big pile ups on the corners.
I recently took a look at some of the Intense completes, the Intense Junior is a pretty nice bike and the cranks and gearing are about right for a smaller rider. The Free Agent and Redline JR's are the most common around our tracks (Vancouver, Canada).
You can spend almost an unlimited amount on these things but it doesn't seem to make much difference with the kids. After you get the gearing right the aggressive kids seem to be able to win on practically anything. My son is usually in the top 3 in 8 Expert locally and raced his heavy weight flat pedal (he started using clipless on his race bike) dirt jump BMX in one race for laughs and he was still able to pull off a 3rd. One of the little guys is running a titanium frame, 12 spoke wheels, a carbon fibre fork, carbon bars, hollow pin chain etc, probably a 1200 plus bike and I don't think he has placed better than 5th this year. He just doesn't like the close quarters and no amount of hardware is going to change that.

[herbie bmx]

I see young girls racing all the time, up and down the East Coast. Get her a bike and let her at it, She'll have big fun. Make sure you take her shopping for race pants, jersey, gloves, helmet, and I would add elbow pads. Make sure she picks out these Items. There's no way a Dad ,can get a young Ladies racing Accesories right.

[Lancerob2]

I see young girls racing all the time, up and down the East Coast. Get her a bike and let her at it, She'll have big fun. Make sure you take her shopping for race pants, jersey, gloves, helmet, and I would add elbow pads. Make sure she picks out these Items. There's no way a Dad ,can get a young Ladies racing Accesories right.

She has already been looking with me online and also in magazines for "pretty pink racing clothes and a helmet". If she decides to start racing she will be sporting her own pretty outfit that she picked herself. Elbow pads are a must in my book for the little ones. She will have a pair for certain.