Here's my problem: 15-year-old nephew is arriving from Australia next week (v short notice!) to stay with us until January. We are really happy that he can come along on our SaarLorLux tour (leaving 10 August), and we can beg/borrow/steal the camping kit, but we don't have a bike for him. He will need a bike for the trip (2 weeks) that he can also use to go to and from school for the 4 months until he returns.
I don't have the time or the skill to find one at short notice second-hand, I think, so I thought maybe a very cheap, horrible bike from Halfords or Tescos or something. With the sales on, I can see a lot of bikes - mountain bikes or hybrids - for around £100. We have a BOB trailer that he can pull (we'll need to slow him down anyway, so my 10-year-old doesn't get demoralised!), so we don't have to have lots of braze-ons etc, and the route is fairly flat (10-year-old again!) so the quality shouldn't be too much of an issue.
I thought I'd ask his mum to measure his inner-leg height and just buy one and cross my fingers. Is this a really stupid idea?
I don't have the time or the skill to find one at short notice second-hand, I think, so I thought maybe a very cheap, horrible bike from Halfords or Tescos or something. With the sales on, I can see a lot of bikes - mountain bikes or hybrids - for around £100. We have a BOB trailer that he can pull (we'll need to slow him down anyway, so my 10-year-old doesn't get demoralised!), so we don't have to have lots of braze-ons etc, and the route is fairly flat (10-year-old again!) so the quality shouldn't be too much of an issue.
I thought I'd ask his mum to measure his inner-leg height and just buy one and cross my fingers. Is this a really stupid idea?