Bicycle Recommendation for 9 year old

My son is 9 years old and I would like to buy him a good bike for him
to cycle through city streets and parks/cycle paths. Basically a good
all-round bike. Is there a good site for bike reviews for children?
Does anyone have any good recommendations? I live in London, UK and if
anyone knows if the models are available, such intelligence would be
gratefully appreciated. thanks

On 20 Dec 2003 14:19:59 -0800, (Basia) wrote:

My son is 9 years old and I would like to buy him a good bike for him
to cycle through city streets and parks/cycle paths.

My son is 9 years old and rides a Dawes Kokomo 24" which has been
great. He rides on road and offroad (Sustrans style) trails.

We bought it because it fits (we don't buy the idea of "room for
growth" and buying a bike two years too big), because it's a sensible
weight (no el-cheapo suspension), because it's a Dawes and we've never
had a bad bike from Dawes yet, and because we hired one from New
Forest BikeXperience for him to ride for a day and he loved it. He
still does. He's had it 18 months and last Summer he rode 48 miles on
it on a CTC ride.

So I have absolutely no hesitation in endorsing that bike.

For a bit over half the price we could have got a Y-framed Magna with
front sus that weighed nearly twice as much. I am completely
confident that it would have been a significantly worse buy. Hills
are the problem when you're small, and weight is the enemy on hills.
The Dawes has a granny gear which has never let us down yet, even on
quite steep offroad trails.

Guy
===
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://chapmancentral.demon.co.uk

"Basia" wrote in message
om...
My son is 9 years old and I would like to buy him a good bike for him
to cycle through city streets and parks/cycle paths. Basically a good
all-round bike. Is there a good site for bike reviews for children?
Does anyone have any good recommendations? I live in London, UK and if
anyone knows if the models are available, such intelligence would be
gratefully appreciated. thanks

Children's bicycles such as those are not sold in the U.S., not sure about
the U.K.
Perhaps try a very small road bike (44 cm). These are "women's" sizes.

On Sat, 20 Dec 2003 23:46:38 GMT, "Steven M. Scharf"
wrote:


"Basia" wrote in message
. com...
My son is 9 years old and I would like to buy him a good bike for him
to cycle through city streets and parks/cycle paths. Basically a good
all-round bike. Is there a good site for bike reviews for children?
Does anyone have any good recommendations? I live in London, UK and if
anyone knows if the models are available, such intelligence would be
gratefully appreciated. thanks

Children's bicycles such as those are not sold in the U.S., not sure about
the U.K.
Perhaps try a very small road bike (44 cm). These are "women's" sizes.

perhaps, but i have the feeling one of those would break pretty
quickly when he joins his friends doing bmx stunts

In article ,
Arpit writes:
On Sat, 20 Dec 2003 23:46:38 GMT, "Steven M. Scharf"
wrote:


"Basia" wrote in message
.com...
My son is 9 years old and I would like to buy him a good bike for him
to cycle through city streets and parks/cycle paths. Basically a good
all-round bike. Is there a good site for bike reviews for children?
Does anyone have any good recommendations? I live in London, UK and if
anyone knows if the models are available, such intelligence would be
gratefully appreciated. thanks

Children's bicycles such as those are not sold in the U.S., not sure about
the U.K.
Perhaps try a very small road bike (44 cm). These are "women's" sizes.

perhaps, but i have the feeling one of those would break pretty
quickly when he joins his friends doing bmx stunts

I've been pondering the OP's question and the applicability
of BMX bikes, too. I can see several advantages to going
the BMX route -- including the relative ease of bike
maintenance, the sizing issue, and certainly not least of
all, simply the cachet of it, from the boy's perspective.
I believe BMX is a wonderful way to get kids hooked on
basic cycling. Besides, it seems to deliver what kids want
in cycling, these days.

Subsequent, "serious" road bikes (or any other fancy form of
bike, for that matter) are for aspiring-to, which makes the
experience of the ultimate consummation of their acquiring,
all the sweeter.


cheers,
Tom

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Tom Keats wrote:
In article ,
Arpit writes:
On Sat, 20 Dec 2003 23:46:38 GMT, "Steven M. Scharf"
wrote:


"Basia" wrote in message
om...
My son is 9 years old and I would like to buy him a good bike for
him to cycle through city streets and parks/cycle paths. Basically
a good all-round bike. Is there a good site for bike reviews for
children? Does anyone have any good recommendations? I live in
London, UK and if anyone knows if the models are available, such
intelligence would be gratefully appreciated. thanks

Children's bicycles such as those are not sold in the U.S., not
sure about the U.K.
Perhaps try a very small road bike (44 cm). These are "women's"
sizes.

perhaps, but i have the feeling one of those would break pretty
quickly when he joins his friends doing bmx stunts

I've been pondering the OP's question and the applicability
of BMX bikes, too. I can see several advantages to going
the BMX route -- including the relative ease of bike
maintenance, the sizing issue, and certainly not least of
all, simply the cachet of it, from the boy's perspective.
I believe BMX is a wonderful way to get kids hooked on
basic cycling. Besides, it seems to deliver what kids want
in cycling, these days.

Subsequent, "serious" road bikes (or any other fancy form of
bike, for that matter) are for aspiring-to, which makes the
experience of the ultimate consummation of their acquiring,
all the sweeter.


Besides, kids need to learn that you can't get along with just one bike. Let
them start out on a BMX and then once they handle it nicely they can have a
MTB also. Once they can handle traffic it's time for the roadbike I'm not
sure but there used to be a ten year old age limit for riding in the city.
Can't say if it was a recommendation or law.

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

I've been pondering the OP's question and the applicability
of BMX bikes, too. I can see several advantages to going
the BMX route -- including the relative ease of bike
maintenance, the sizing issue, and certainly not least of
all, simply the cachet of it, from the boy's perspective.
I believe BMX is a wonderful way to get kids hooked on
basic cycling. Besides, it seems to deliver what kids want
in cycling, these days.

Worked for me. Waaaaaaaaaaay back when I used to ride my bike all the time,
and getting more daring, doing jumps and tricks. I wasn't trying to emulate
BMX mind you, I was just doing this stuff on my own. Then when I was about
11 or so I got a nice Mongoose BMX bike (this was when Mongoose was a real
bike of course). Nice solid dependable bike. Not long after a road bike,
then my friend came back from California with the first mountain bike I ever
saw ... ahhhh, the 80's were a good time (c:

C.Q.C.

In article ,
"Per Elmsäter" writes:

Besides, kids need to learn that you can't get along with just one bike. Let
them start out on a BMX and then once they handle it nicely they can have a
MTB also. Once they can handle traffic it's time for the roadbike

I like that, because it sounds so evolutionary, transitional, and natural.

I'm not
sure but there used to be a ten year old age limit for riding in the city.
Can't say if it was a recommendation or law.

I believe Vancouver BC has a by-law that allows 16" (maybe 20"?)
wheeled bikes on sidewalks.


cheers,
Tom

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Tom Keats wrote:


I've been pondering the OP's question and the applicability
of BMX bikes, too. I can see several advantages to going
the BMX route -- including the relative ease of bike
maintenance, the sizing issue, and certainly not least of
all, simply the cachet of it, from the boy's perspective.
I believe BMX is a wonderful way to get kids hooked on
basic cycling. Besides, it seems to deliver what kids want
in cycling, these days.

Subsequent, "serious" road bikes (or any other fancy form of
bike, for that matter) are for aspiring-to, which makes the
experience of the ultimate consummation of their acquiring,
all the sweeter.


cheers,
Tom

Sounds so agreeable. If you mean first you can say "yes I can ride a
bike" and next you can look at road racers or hard core commuters or the
TDFrance or hard core randonneurs and say "I can do that", then sure,
this is a good thing.
I suppose not joking, now there are racecourse jockeys who first rode
Shetland ponies as children, and were stuck on horses and riding for life.
It makes sense to me.
Bernie

Sat, 20 Dec 2003 18:44:04 -0800, ,
(Tom Keats) wrote:

I believe Vancouver BC has a by-law that allows 16" (maybe 20"?)
wheeled bikes on sidewalks.

I couldn't find it last time I looked. Couriers were, and some still
are, riding small wheeled bikes on sidewalks.
As of March 30, 1999 - it just says:

60.
"No person shall ride any bicycle upon any sidewalk except where
posted by signs."
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zk