Recreational & Family - 9 year old on vintage ride

(i'm shamelessly recycling my post from the classic & vintage forum)

My LBS sold me a near new Shogun Samurai for $75.00, sporting a full & complete 105 group with Biopace and Nitto bars and stem. The frame is Tange Prestige, good double butted stuff. While at first glance I didn't quite care for the bike, I really needed the wheels for another project, and the price for such a quality ride was right.

Well, I brought it home, and started thinking. My son, who's relatively athletic, has shown declining interest in biking in the last year or so, with his ride being a Chinese Raleigh MTB tank of sorts. He doesn't do stunts and jumps nor does he tear up the trails with his buddies, so why a MTB?. He kept asking me about how fast I go on my road bikes, and why skinny tires make it all so much better. Maybe he was ready to do some real biking?

The Shogun frame is 48cm ctc with 700c wheels, a little big, but with the saddle jammed all the way down, and the horizontal reach shortened with a flat bar I figured it worthy of a try. To make a long story short, he loves it. Weekends and evenings are now best spent with dad on a road ride. And he can go relatively fast. Downtube shifters and 12 speed 52-42 / 13-30 gearing seems to be fine for him. The high degree of pink paint worried him a bit, though.

I cross my fingers that this might be lasting passion, but are also quite aware of the vagaries of child rearing...

Last weekend enjoying the fall colors along the river:

Nice find!

Now only if they would start making kid sized clipless shoes. I've looked and can't find them.

How about women's cycling shoes? The smallest sizes would fit a 9 or 10 year old. Plenty of women's cycling shoes come in non-girly colours, just scratch out "women" on the box.

Great find, btw! Your son looks like he is having a fantastic time!! The handlebar arrangement was a great idea. I wonder if next year if he'd want to join a kids road team?

How about women's cycling shoes? The smallest sizes would fit a 9 or 10 year old. Plenty of women's cycling shoes come in non-girly colours, just scratch out "women" on the box.
...

The smallest shoes I have found (Men and Women) was a 36 (6 M/4.5 W). I don't know about your kids but my 9 year old is in a size 1, IIRC.

I did the same with my now 13 yrs old. He still likes the road / sports bikes- he enjoys speed and light bikes alot.

The downtube shifters may be easier to handle with drop bars (& shorter stem), because he wouldnt need to change body position to shift, only move his hand across 8". That is pale red, not pink.

Nice find!

Now only if they would start making kid sized clipless shoes. I've looked and can't find them.
Look harder. :)

---> http://www.upsideover.com/Kids-Cycling-Shoes-s/147.htm

Look harder. :)

---> http://www.upsideover.com/Kids-Cycling-Shoes-s/147.htm

Not bad. MTB only, but still not bad at all.

Nice bike!

That's awesome! MTBs can be fun, but it's a whole new level of fun when the kids can get out on the roads with dad. :)

If you weren't clear across the country I'd suggest them riding together.

Here's my 11 year old on a bike as old as I am.



and once at the top of the mountain....




As for the shoes question. Since he already had MTB shoes with spd pedals, I just picked up a set of spd pedals on ebay and put them on his roadbike. You could check into that option, vs road shoes and Look or Spd-sl cleats.

What a Steal!

It's too bad we had to go through the mountain bike era pushed solely by marketers (IMO). Many vintage bikes are miles ahead of the common bikes of today from an engineering standpoint.

We looked for something similar for our daughter without any luck.