8-year-old child's first road bike

[Rob604]

Hi all

I have 8-year-old twins and recently bought them a second hand Dawes GB 2012 24" bike in good condition (it was barely used)
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/dawes/team-gb-2012-road-bike-ec037784
I promised that if they both liked it, I would get them another, similar, one. They do both like, and now I'm looking around and I'm considering one of these:

Claud Butler Ventoux 24
£180
http://www.bikes2udirect.com/B6007.html

Dawes Sprint 24
£207
http://www.bikes2udirect.com/B5457.html?

Dawes Espoir 24
£223
http://www.bikes2udirect.com/B5423.html?id=dRA6YLbE

The main difference I can see in these bike is that the Claud Butler and Dawes Espoir have gear shifters built in to the brakes. Is this a good thing ? The bike they have already has shifters on the top of the handlebars, and they do struggle to change gear sometimes....I'm not much of a cyclist myself but I've only ever had shifters on the top bar..... I guess there's some differences in the wheels/tyres too, but I don't know enough about that...

I would be open to other bikes in the same price range..

As for what they will use the bikes for - they recently joined a bike club for road racing, and they are also interested in triathlon (they've only done one and the cycling route was on a road).

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks
R

 

[Cycleops]

I would have thought kids might have a problem with drop bars and "brifters". Maybe something with flat bars and shifters on the bars might be better. There was a recent about this very thing but I can't find it now but Isla bikes were highly recommended http://islabikes.com/us/index.html and also http://www.frogbikes.com/lightweight-kids-bikes/
Sorry just noticed the bit about road racing, so I'm sure they get used to the bars and brifters.

 

[2pies]

Yes, they'll definitely want STI style gears if they are genuinely riding on roads competitively. However, my 8yr old daughter rides with a club and, while she likes riding in a few races, we agreed on a hybrid style bike and bought both skinny and nobbly tyres so she she could use it for a number of applications. I'd imagine her bike is considerably lighter than those you've listed too. As others will attest, Islabikes are the business. She went for the Beinn, but the Luath may be best if they insist on bikes with drop handle bars. They'll hold their value extremely well.

 

[Crackle]

^^ Islabikes, as said. Nuff said.

If you gulp at the price, bear in mind that you'll get your money back, nearly, when you sell 2nd hand. They retain their value incredibly well. many years ago now, I bought one new for 200, several years later, after being well used but looked after, it sold 2nd hand on ebay for 190, Crazy!