I like free

After much searching I finally found a real road bike for my 8yo daughter. I found a gently used Argon 18 with 24" wheels for $200. Has downttube shifters and only the drop levers. Do you recommend in line brake levers or just let her get used to the drops?

deepakvrao

My daughter is 13 and got used to drop bars very easily this year. A couple of years ago though, she could not use drop brake levers at all. Could not get enough leverage.

Mike F

My daughter has been riding a Fuji Ace since she was 9. She wanted "drop bars" like daddy. It did take her a while to get used to it. Braking was little challenging at first. At 9 she didnt really understand the concept of shifting. Down tubes may have been too much. Now that she is out growing it, she sneaks off when Im in a bike store looking at the XS road bikes This picture was taken when she first got it for a kid triathlon. Obviously I had to make some adjustments so she could fit that would send an adult to the Fred Hall of Fame

Walrus

I can't really help here, but I just want to say you guys are great dads! Would've been so excited to get a nice bike at that age.

TrojanHorse

I just picked up a used Fuji for my 10 yr old son (700c wheels on a 44cm frame) and he complained about hand pain until I adjusted his bars to where Mike F's daughter's are... very fredly but I'm just happy to go riding with him.

He's still getting used to shifting, and I thought about the brake interrupters but decided against them. He hasn't complained about braking yet.

youcoming

My 10 year old has a bike with drop bars and microshift 8 speed. I wish it had downtube shifter for the front ring as the sweep motion to put it in the big ring has a lot of throw which causes him to vear if he is not fully concentrating on his forward motion and as a 10 year old sometimes they don't. Perfect world would be downtube for front STI for back. Extreme perfect world, electronic, seriously that would be awesome for kids small hands.

I like free

Thanks for the replies! So far she is doing great with the drop bar brakes. Like a poster above she is having a bit of trouble learning gears. Her las bike was a 7 speed and this one is a 24 (has a triple). She's not going to be doing any climbing so I may lock out the front ring. She loves doing tri's and last year was up to riding up to 20 miles with us on a hunk of lead mtn bike. Nothing better for family time than a bike!

rbart4506

It's always nice helping your kids out...Even when they are older...

Just finished building up my wife's old 2010 Tarmac Expert frame with 105 parts and Fulcrum7 wheels for my 25yr old son who wants to get back into cycling. He's paying for the parts, but dad's been finding him all the deals and doing the work...

He might even be able to join the wife and I on training rides, if he can keep up

mulveyr 

My 10-year-old daughter just inherited a 24" Javelin bike. It fits her fine, although even short-reach brakes would be a bit much for her small hands. So I installed a set of $20.00 cross levers and they work great for her.

Sidney Porter

My son is 9. He is participating in his first Tri in June. He is more of a swimmer and has been on the swim team for the last 2 seasons. The race is short 150m (open water), 2mile bike, .75 mile run.

I am in the process of building out a drop bar conversion of a rigid mtb. I am slightly concerned about the geometry. But we shall see. I'll post pictures when completed. It is a 1x6 with 24 inch tires and a 12.5 inch frame. The shifter also is a bit of an issue. The mtb had grip shift. I am replacing that with a friction thumb shifter. I can't decide if I want to mount them at the stem or as "poor man's" barcons.

He has been riding geared bikes since he turned 7. He got a cheap Target "mtb" with 20 inch wheels and a 3x7 drive train. For the first 6 months I had to ride behind him and tell him when to shift based upon his cadence.

Felt makes a kids 650 bike that I really like. But $800 is a lot to spend on a kids bike. Assuming this build works out we will need to see how long it can last and wait until I can find a 48cm 700c bike and he will need to learn to deal with toe over lap.

He takes good care of his stuff and can hand he stuff down to his little brother (18 months).

Mike F

My daughter did her first kids tri on her princess bike with streamers. I believe she was 8yrs at the time. Half the kids had similar bikes or mtn bikes. They were there to have fun. The others had the Felt, Pinarello FP0's and equivalent. The kids in the next division up had better bikes than me (Zipps too!), down side was many were under so much stress from their parent(s) it was borderline child abuse. This one dad was yelling at his daughter calling her a quitter and she deserved to loose. Pretty intense for a 10 year old

Walrus

Really ruins my day when I see that at juniors races. Once saw a mom drag her son 11-12yo son through the parking lot screaming at him and asking why he sat up so early. Well, mom, maybe because it's 95* I'm 75lbs and you're living vicariously?

Have some perspective and know when to draw the line parents. It's good to be supportive...don't be an *******.

I like free

It's just great fun for me. She was doing tri's and won a few on a torker 16" cruiser then on her 20" mtn bike. If it had just been races she would have been fine with any bike but she likes distance and does pretty well so we felt it was time to try a road model. Thanks for the help guys!

Homebrew01

I would think that kids with smaller hands could have trouble with reach & grip on standard brake levers, especially in emergencies. So in-line levers could only help and give them the opportunity to ride the tops of the bars and still have braking ability without having to quickly move their hands.

My kids were happy enough with mtn bikes for the few rides we did, but I was planning on in-line levers if they wanted road bikes.

pmt

It *depends on the child* and the bike. If they're fitted ok, and can reach the brakes safely, then they don't need interrupter levers. If not, then they do. But they're not expensive, nor are they hard to install or remove, so put them on if you think it might help.

Interrupter levers are certainly good for kids racing cyclocross.

MetalPedaler

Here's my take: When I got my first multi-speed drop-bar bike as a kid, I'd ride almost exclusively on the tops, using the suicide levers. I hated the drops, and virtually never used them- but I see now, that was because my bikes at the time were too big for me. Had they been a better fit, I likely would have gotten used to the drops...heck, if I was able to take to them easily now, at age 50, it should have been easier at 13.

I'd say to stay away from the inline levers- especially ince you'll be getting a bike that fits your daughter. There's no reason she can't get used to the drops (or anything!) at 8- 8 year-olds are extremely flexible.

Here's the important part: Having the in-line levers will only encourage her to always ride on the the tops. And with today's bikes, with comfy rubber-clad hoods.....there's really no need for anyone to ride on the tops- even if they don't like the drops. Since I started cycling as an adult last year, I virtually never ride on the tops- there's no reason to.

jsharr

Neither of my boys rides drop bars yet. Oldest is on a Trek 7.3 FX with flat bars. He has no problem at all. Youngest rides a Trek MT20, also flat bars, also no problems. I would be concerned about them moving from tops to drops to brake and would consider interrupter levers for sure.

Is there any way you could take your child to the bike shop and let her test them out on one of their cross bikes?

mulveyr 

It's entirely possible to have a bike that fits a child perfectly, except for their hands not being large enough to use the drop lever brakes safely. As I mentioned above, that's exactly the case with my 10-year-old daughter. She's perfectly happy riding on the hoods or in the drops, but there's simply no way she can safely and comfortably use the drop levers, especially in an emergency stop. The much smaller hand extension needed for cross levers, on the other hand, works perfectly.

MetalPedaler

Ah, good point. I know with some brake levers (even the cheapo Sora ones on my BD bike) they include shims you can install, which hold the levers in closer to the bars, for people with smaller hands. Wonder if that would work for a child, or if they'd still be too big?

jsharr

After reading the bike description again, I would think seriously about this bike not being a good fit. Downtube shifters and brakes on the drops is asking for trouble to me for a child that young. Limited riding skills, limited coordination and putting them in a situation where they have to move hands off bars to shift or move hands to different bar positions to brake is questionable at best. Both of my sons have some conrol isssues if trying to brake and make a hand signal for a stop or a turn while on their bikes, and they ride flat bar bikes with brakes and shifters all at their fingertips. They are 8 and 11 in age.

I would look for a hybrid in an XS or even a 24" wheeled hybrid or see if you could convert this bike to flat bars and bar mounted controls. The cost of doing the upgrade though would make it cheaper to buy an inexpensive bike that is correct to start with.

antimonysarah

Also, some women with small hands have trouble getting full brake power on the hoods, period -- shims can help, etc, but aren't always enough. I'd ask her to ride it and get feedback, and maybe have her show you a few quick stops and see how she's doing. Fatigue over the course of the ride might also be a factor, even if she can grip hard enough at the beginning.

maxine

This. (And what mulveyr posted a few replies up.)

I'm (almost) 51, but I'm probably shorter than most 12-year-olds nowadays, with commensurately small hands. My bikes fit me just fine, I can (and do) ride them all day long without discomfort, but even with shims (tried them) I can't get much more than half of one finger and a quarter of the next one on the hood brake levers. The inline levers make me a much happier rider. I do ride on the hoods a lot, but I also have bar end shifters on both bikes, so maybe I'm already acclimated to moving my hands around to operate the bike -- I don't even think about it when I use the in line brakes.

merlinextraligh

This.

Our daughter, with small hands, and on a bike that was on the large end of fitting her, had trouble putting a lot of force to the brake levers riding on the hoods. In line brakes worked fine for her.

Really no down side to them, other than adding a bit of weight. They work well, unlike the "suicide levers" from our childhood.

Sidney Porter

Finished this last night for my 9 year old. It is a rigid mtb converted to a drop bar "road" bike. Total of $62 in the build a lot cheaper than a real kids road bike, which are hard to find used. 24 inch tires, 12 in frame, 1x6 friction thumb shifting, mid 90's Schwinn Thrasher.

pmt

Brilliant! Yes, my 2nd junior raced cyclocross on a similar build last season. His turned out lighter than the Redline 24" models, and has been bulletproof.