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Help bicycles for kids

CoffinDodger

Speeding Up
Dec 4, 2008
212
13
so my two small boys are fast outgrowing their Bridgestone 6 speed kids' bikes. which are 20 & 22 size respectively.

how long is a piece of string and also, which bikes would anyone recommend for a couple of 9 year old boys? I had a brief flick thru rakuten and see a 24" GT mtb clone for ¥35000. since the Bridgestone bikes have taken a beating over the last 4 years, is the rule of thumb to simply not bother with good quality components as the little swines will thrash their steeds?
 
How about the Fuji Ace 24?
http://www.fujibikes.jp/2013/products/ace_24/index.html

I tried to convince the daughter to get this but it's not really practical as a city bicycle.

If the bicycles are going to get thrashed and not appreciated, just get them a small chari. It would be under ¥150,000 and it will fit in with all baseball playing kids riding similar. Relatively bullet proof and cheap to maintain.
 
At the rate they grow anything you get will be too small in 24 months. Buy cheap and often. MTBs are more likely to survive the rigors of a 9 yr old.
 
More money tends to buy a bike that lasts longer and is lighter, but kids will outgrow a bike that lasts long and presumably they're not going do any racing where weight might matter.

The last three bikes my son used before he got his first road bike were a cheap but incredibly heavy (full suspension) MTB, a cheap (and therefore not light) folding bike and then another heavy BMX. They were his choice and he enjoyed all of them. They were heavy, but as a result of riding them he developed his muscles, such that I soon had trouble keeping up with him :)
 
They were heavy, but as a result of riding them he developed his muscles, such that I soon had trouble keeping up with him :)

The current issue of one of the fat bicycle-pr0n magazines has a feature titled "Let's start brevets!" or similar (but in Japanese of course). As is conventional, this shows successful randonneurs with their bikes. Two are mamachari that have carried their riders along 600 km brevets.

But back to the question. I was given a bike when I was 8. Of course I grew out of it. But as far as I remember I only grew out of one of its successors, and its second successor was for my fully grown self. With judicious use of replacement seatposts, stems and so forth, isn't there a fair amount of growth potential in a given bike? Of course a bike mustn't be too big, but maybe you can push back the time when it becomes too small.
 
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