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Road bike for children

Old 05-08-14, 10:10 AM
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Road bike for children

I'm wondering if they made or make road bikes for children? My 6 year old daughter has a 20" specialized mountain bike with hand brakes and 6or7 gears. We ride long distances together, and she goes kind of slow, I may have her ride her skinny tire. Bmx race bike to see if it will make her go faster. I think it would be cool if someone made a small 10 speed with 20" wheels or something. If they do they are probably expensive. Any thoughts?
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Old 05-08-14, 10:20 AM
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Trek and Specialized both made such road bikes. 24 inch wheels. Here is an e-Bay example. My son had an earlier version like this.

Trek KDR1000 Youth Road Bike 43cm | eBay
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Old 05-08-14, 10:33 AM
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Felt and Pinarello made/make small Juniors bikes. Yes, both pretty expensive when new, and probably a little big for a 6 year old girl. I've seen some VERY small C&V road bikes, 20" wheels or so, but they are quite rare.
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Old 05-08-14, 11:17 AM
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^ You can still buy a kid's Motebecane Nomade.

Budget Bicycle Center - 1976 Motobecane Nomade 18" Juvenile Kids Bicycle Bike Huret Svelto

Rather pricey. For actual use there are a lot better options, but its a cool bike.

The bikes direct store here has one in the window, allegedly the owner's bike as a kid.
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Old 05-08-14, 11:30 AM
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Originally Posted by merlinextraligh
^ You can still buy a kid's Motebecane Nomade.

Budget Bicycle Center - 1976 Motobecane Nomade 18" Juvenile Kids Bicycle Bike Huret Svelto

Rather pricey. For actual use there are a lot better options, but its a cool bike.

The bikes direct store here has one in the window, allegedly the owner's bike as a kid.
Mon dieu, this is adorable. I can't see it riding all that well, but it sure beats the other options on cool factor.

Around here, most kids race crits and such on BMX bikes with road tires.
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Old 05-08-14, 12:31 PM
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We sold one of these a few weeks ago -

F24 - Felt Bicycles
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Old 05-08-14, 12:42 PM
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Scott Speedster 24" is pretty cool, too. Also probably a tad big for 6yo girl, though.

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Old 05-08-14, 12:46 PM
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I'd probably get some 20" slicks on the Spec.

Continental Sport Contact 20 Inch) at BikeTiresDirect

Also, many 20" MTBs come with a lot of heavy parts, with seatpost, stem and bars often being steel, so if you have some good co-ops or bike shops with used bins in your neck of the woods you could swap out all those for $5-8 apiece.

Maybe even go whole hog, get some barend shifters and do a drop bar conversion of the Specialized.
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Old 05-08-14, 12:59 PM
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Redline make a nice line up of kids bikes including some very nice cyclocross race bikes which would provide a lot more versatility for both road and light trail/fire road use etc.
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Old 05-08-14, 01:42 PM
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It's a tad early, but I bought this from another forum member for my daughter. She was 4'5" when we bought it. She's 4'8" now and it fits better, especially since we put a SHORT stem on it. I'd have to look it up, but I think it's a 44cm frame and it does have 700c wheels. Ultegra mix. Somewhere around 16 lbs. Crazy-light.



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Old 05-08-14, 01:53 PM
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I went through this a couple of years ago with my kids; there's pretty much no current production "kid-sized" road bikes at reasonable price points. ( By reasonable I mean $300 or less. )

I spent months and months looking at Craigslist and Ebay before finally coming across a NOS Javelin 24" tri-bike at something like $150, so I snapped it up. At the start of the season, it was a little large, but usable, for my 11yo son. One year later it was much, much too small by any standard. It passed on to my daughter at 10yo and 18 months later it's too small.

So, while it's possible to find small road bikes, it may take a long time to get a reasonable used one, unless you're willing to spend many hundreds of bucks for something new that they will quickly outgrow.
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Old 05-08-14, 02:08 PM
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Originally Posted by skol
Redline make a nice line up of kids bikes including some very nice cyclocross race bikes which would provide a lot more versatility for both road and light trail/fire road use etc.
This is what I'd recommend to someone looking to buy a 24" road bike. They're quite the hot item these days.

My son (8) rides a 24" Fuji and loves it. If I were to do it again I'd go with the CX bike for him. It's easy to switch out the tires for road.
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Old 05-08-14, 07:02 PM
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a 42cm version of one of these popped up on the local CL and I considered grabbing it for my 12yo daughter. But she's growing like a weed and already 5'3", so I figure I'll wait for her to hit 5'6" or so and get her something that'll last a little longer. But at half the retail price (already cheap at $300) it was hard to resist...

Save Up to 60% Off Women Specific Road Bikes, Roadbikes - Mercier Elle Sport Womens Road bikes
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Old 05-08-14, 11:41 PM
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Originally Posted by goenrdoug
my 12yo daughter. But she's growing like a weed and already 5'3"
My daughter is 13 and she's 5'8"! Talk about growing like a weed!

Regardless, I bought a 44cm 700c Fuji for my son, who was in the mid 4' range at the time (maybe 4'8"). I didn't really want different size wheels because I didn't want to carry 2x as many spare parts but it works well for him. (Same size and general look as PhotoJoe's bike above, but apparently much heavier)

OP - until your daughter gets older, shes going to be slow. Just live with it and enjoy. You might consider putting slicks on her MTB if you stay on the road, but my 11 yr old son on a road bike goes significantly slower than I want him to go (and no, I don't say it out loud). Let your kids grow into it, that's all I'm suggesting.
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Old 05-09-14, 10:48 AM
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Originally Posted by TrojanHorse
my 11 yr old son on a road bike goes significantly slower than I want him to go (and no, I don't say it out loud).
Maybe we should start a 'We will yell at our kids' thread?
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Old 05-09-14, 12:05 PM
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Originally Posted by goenrdoug
Maybe we should start a 'We will yell at our kids' thread?


Dear lord no, he'll be faster than me any year now and then he'd be yelling at me. can't have that!
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Old 05-09-14, 12:17 PM
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Looks like Diamondback has a 24" Juniors version of their Podium for $500.

Diamondback Podium 24 Kids' Bike 2014 | Diamondback | Brand | www.PricePoint.com
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Old 05-09-14, 12:34 PM
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Islabikes is a UK company specializing in high quality kids bicycles. They have recently started selling in the US High quality lightweight children?s bikes from Islabikes

They make high quality, well thought out bikes for little riders. Sure they're more expensive than the boat anchors you can buy at department store / Toys r Us but good value for the money. We got my 8 year old son Beinn 20 large and it is a great little all around bike. For slightly older children they make a differentiated road bike, the Luath that looks pretty nice.

Under 10 years old, I think you're better off with the typical mountain style bike. Easy for them to use and versatile, just change the tires to suit the conditions. I'm planning on getting my son to try junior 'cross racing on his.
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Old 05-09-14, 12:49 PM
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Found a Fuji Ace 24 for my 9-year-old son... he's kinda short, so he's still stretched out a little. But he'll grow into it.

Not Ultegra-equipped, by any stretch!
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Old 05-09-14, 04:58 PM
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Both of my boys have been eying up these Fuji's over at Performance. It comes in Orange too. Fuji Ace 24" Kid's Road Bike - 2014 - Road Bikes
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Old 05-09-14, 05:51 PM
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I'd be willing to sell my son's Felt F24 that he outgrew. Its sora 9spd. Sadly, it was hardly ridden.

PM me if interested.
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Old 05-09-14, 06:12 PM
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Originally Posted by tiiger
Found a Fuji Ace 24 for my 9-year-old son... he's kinda short, so he's still stretched out a little. But he'll grow into it.

Not Ultegra-equipped, by any stretch!
Llq
My 10 year old 4'11 daughter loves her Fuji ace. Hers is built around the 650 wheel. The bike was $200 used and the guy I got it from bought it for $200 from a guy that bought it for $200. The cost of the bike is only a refundable deposit that is .ore than
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Old 05-09-14, 08:02 PM
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I picked up one of these Amazon.com : Giordano Libero 1.6 Girls' Road Bike (24-Inch Wheels) : Childrens Bicycles : Sports & Outdoors for my daughter from Woot for $200, but even at $350 they compare pretty well with the 24" from Trek, Felt and the like.

They make a boys version, too.
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Old 05-10-14, 11:08 AM
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Originally Posted by f4rrest
I'd be willing to sell my son's Felt F24 that he outgrew. Its sora 9spd. Sadly, it was hardly ridden.

PM me if interested.

I just bought a Felt F95 juniors bike for my 10 year old daughter. The F24 is nice. I wish i would have seen that a couple years ago. To the OP you should look into these they carry them at some large retailers like REI, and Sports Basement.
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Old 05-10-14, 07:10 PM
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I would trade my children for a road bike.
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