children and wrong sized bikes

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

mr Mag00

rising member
Location
Deepest Dorset
been doing some bikeability and the amazing amount of children on bikes way way way too small, not many on bike too large to be fair.

being too small makes it v v difficult to control and this is where all the handling issues i have seen have come from. problem is parents dontwant to go up in stages, happier to have too small then go too large to save buying a bike for a few years in between.

other than that the speed they pick up on it has been excellent
 

upsidedown

Waiting for the great leap forward
Location
The middle bit
It's surprising the amount of families you see out where the dad had a nice light roadie, and the mom and kids have ill-fitting Asda bikes made from the same stuff as anchors.
 

summerdays

Cycling in the sun
Location
Bristol
Have you been to many council estate areas ... that's where you tend to see kids riding adult bikes - ones where they can't actually sit on the saddle and pedal at the same time:evil:.

Do you tell the parents that their child has out grown their bike?
 
OP
OP
mr Mag00

mr Mag00

rising member
Location
Deepest Dorset
it is something i am going to look at tomorrow, should hand out info on the bikes when the children do their safety checks. i am not running this course just helping out . there is a thin line between adjustments and repairs
 

snorri

Legendary Member
Nowadays you never seem to see young boys out on adult bikes way too big for them, pedalling along with one leg through the triangle below the cross bar.
I always admired that skill.;)
 

summerdays

Cycling in the sun
Location
Bristol
Wow I would like to have seen that ... but that's probably as most of the kids on those over sized bikes now a days would be on mountain bikes so likely to be a lower top tube therefore less triangle.
 

Davywalnuts

Chief Kebab Taster
Location
Staines!
upsidedown said:
It's surprising the amount of families you see out where the dad had a nice light roadie, and the mom and kids have ill-fitting Asda bikes made from the same stuff as anchors.

Am teaching my eldest (12y/o) quite a bit about cycling now and I feel like the above, hahaha. Albeit her bike isnt that bad as a BSO but trying to find a very small sized decent road bike with 700c wheels is proving very difficult... then again, I am wanting to push her into track biking! ;)
 
We found the solution to the whole issue. Have 2 kids with a suitable age gap (3 years for us) so the second one gets the hand-me-downs.
Falls down a bit with the girl not wanting a boys bike though.
 

BigSteev

Senior Member
snorri said:
Nowadays you never seem to see young boys out on adult bikes way too big for them, pedalling along with one leg through the triangle below the cross bar.
I always admired that skill.;)

Aaahh, memories. I can still trackstand like that.
 

Mad Doug Biker

Just a damaged guy.
Location
Craggy Island
Piemaster said:
We found the solution to the whole issue. Have 2 kids with a suitable age gap (3 years for us) so the second one gets the hand-me-downs.
Falls down a bit with the girl not wanting a boys bike though.

Yes my parents did that (not just with the family bikes but also with old hand downs from friends, etc) until we were a bit too big and then I got a seccond hand MTB. It was a Raleigh Aztec which was yellow and green, and I loved and used that bike for probably 4 or 5 years until I got 'The Tank' which has reigned for the last 14 years instead :sad:.

My big brother got a Raleigh Lizard, which is a model that seems to be notorious purely for being GREEN!! :ohmy::laugh:


The Tank seems to have been notorious even when new for being too heavy and oversized, hence why I call it 'The Tank' and not it's real model name.
It's due over the next few days for a repaint and full overhaul so that I can use it as a winter bike when the weather is thouroughly grotty.

I have found the exact kind of blue I'm looking, so I just hope I can get it!!
 
Top Bottom