Cycling UK Forum

Mick F wrote:.........

B. The cranks are 40mm long, but the saddle is only 250mm (at its lowest setting) above the top of the pedal stroke due to the height of the BB being 300mm off the ground. Yes, I could raise the saddle, but I reckon it needs to be this low for now.

Any comments on these last points A and B please?
Are these figures normal?

Mick, you need a new ruler, the cranks can't be 40mm, thats an inch and a half.

As for the rest of it, see my comments above about pedalling with his knees round his ears.

Mick F wrote:.....

Grandson wouldn't be the first child to learn to ride a bike which was too big/small/unsuitable. No doubt many of us learned to ride on a hand-me-down. I remember one lad in Wigan learning to ride a bike with a cross-bar and he had to pedal with one leg through the triangle coz he couldn't reach the pedals from the top!

Anyway, we'll see.

.....wouldn't be the first to be put off by a ludicrous "bike" thats miles too big, and ridiculously over-geared, either.

Anybody who has sold kids' bikes has seen all this before. You can't transfer your love of bikes to your son, daughter, grandson, whoever.
Kids are, quite literally, all the same and no two alike. A few will jump on anything and just ride it. A few will need something on the small side that they can easily be "in charge of". Most kids are somewhere in the middle, and will respond positively to a bike that gives them a realistic chance of an easy learning curve and a pleasant, easy ride.......over-geared on a too-big bike with your knees round your ears isn't it.

If you are going to insist on giving him this "thing", please don't put him under the pressure of making a big presentation out of it, just leave it in your garden, and let him "find" it. If he is interested, he'll be on it in a flash, and you can be all casual....."oh, OK. its yours, if you like"

Thanks Colin.
40mm cranks are ridiculously short. They'd be better at 400mm.

As for your advice, I agree with you.
I've been chewing this over for the last few hours, and it's pointless.
Forget it.

Anyone want a bike for £15?
Nice and clean, well maintained, fully functional.

I've seen kids riding worse in Bikeability, but BMX style ones tend to be the worst. The kids don't ride around eating their knees, though. They just don't use the saddles. They ride everywhere out of the saddles. I've watched them do it for miles.

Mick, I've lost the run of what height you can expect kids to be at different ages, and my first grandchild is only months old, so she is no help.
However, assuming the cranks are 140mm, and assuming the bike is meant to be "scaled down a bit" from a full size BMX , for a tenner why not just keep it for a few years, when the lad is at Junior school he can have a bike at his grandparents house for when he is visiting, how cool would that be?

(A "full-size" BMX as ridden by teenagers probably has 170 or 175mm Ashtabula cranks, still only 20" wheels, but the frame will be longer and it'll have outsize handlebars.....if they sit on the saddle they look like they could pedal with their knees!)

Vorpal wrote:I've seen kids riding worse in Bikeability, but BMX style ones tend to be the worst. The kids don't ride around eating their knees, though. They just don't use the saddles. They ride everywhere out of the saddles. I've watched them do it for miles.

not really applicable to a five year old who can't yet ride a bike

531colin wrote:

Vorpal wrote:I've seen kids riding worse in Bikeability, but BMX style ones tend to be the worst. The kids don't ride around eating their knees, though. They just don't use the saddles. They ride everywhere out of the saddles. I've watched them do it for miles.

not really applicable to a five year old who can't yet ride a bike

I wasn't suggesting it was. Sorry if I gave that impression.

Apparently this bike is:

16" is perfect for kids from 86 to 114cm tall (3.5 to 8 year olds)

'Single speed and low geared' http://www.velovitality.co.uk/collections/gents-bikes/products/reid-vintage-boys-bike-navy



Although it might be made of scaffolding pole.

Hi,

Vorpal wrote:

531colin wrote:

Vorpal wrote:I've seen kids riding worse in Bikeability, but BMX style ones tend to be the worst. The kids don't ride around eating their knees, though. They just don't use the saddles. They ride everywhere out of the saddles. I've watched them do it for miles.

not really applicable to a five year old who can't yet ride a bike

I wasn't suggesting it was. Sorry if I gave that impression.

Off on one of my 24 hr rides and tootaling along the flat at a laid back 15-16 mph...........go past a bmx'er one speed saddle down round his ankles and after two or three miles he's still with me

pete75 wrote:This seems to be well thought out as a bike for young children.

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/16-cop-troop ... nformation

Basically the same as the one we bought our middle child then passed on to the youngest, then finally gave away on freecycle. Bombproof and seems to ride well.

Thanks for the link.
I think our lad would prefer this one:
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/16-jack-pira ... 79429.html
He's into everything "piratical"!

The Islabike is the best by far, but if we can get him riding by not spending a vast amount, all the better. Maybe the Islabike for sometime in the future.

pete75 wrote:This seems to be well thought out as a bike for young children.

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/16-cop-troop ... nformation

Thanks Pete.
Me and Mrs Mick F have been at logger-heads these past few days.
I "finally" decided we would push the boat out and pay £300+ on an Islabike, but she said that it was way too much, and after all, the lad can't ride ANY bike yet.

This evening, we had a chat and I've just ordered this Pirate Bike.

For a bit of perspective, I learned to ride on two wheels on a Raleigh Sunbeam. Compared to much of what you're looking at it would have been excrement, with steel wheels, pretty dubious tyres and hilariously ineffective brakes, and having been thoroughly thrashed and ill-kept for the previous (at least) 7 years by my elder siblings.

I loved it, and was sad when I eventually grew out of it.

Yes, the Islabikes are better, but that can be saved for once he's actually mastered the basics of riding (for which one only needs to be able to cover distances of tens to hundreds of meters) and shows an interest in doing more of it. I'd think the one you've ordered will be perfectly up to the job of getting him mobile.

Pete.

+1
and there's a difference between playing out on your bike and taking up cycling as a hobby. Most kids bikes do what they are bought for adequately. They allow kids to learn to ride and are cheap, durable and comfortable enough for the use which they usually get before they are grown out of. When kids are cycling distances for transport or touring or show an interest in cycling as a hobby then that's where proper bikes come into their own.

Further data point with the Islabike... we bought them for ours when they started doing a 2.5 km commute to school with a bag and 50m of climbing to get home. Before that they had the BSOs that they had when we adopted them. #1 had taught himself to ride on the BSO and I put in a longer seatpost for him, #2 I taught on the BSO (a pinkified thing) once I'd removed the stabilisers. With my bike-snob hat on they were awful... but still good enough.

Pete.

Nice choice mick.
I do like the fact that decathlon supply their bikes with (admittedly a bit rubbish) lights. If they are the same as what's on my daughters bikes, the batteries cant be changed but they are plenty bright enough. My youngest actually enjoys our late-ish evening rides so she can put her lights on. They're cool apparently