Starter Bike For My 12 year old

[polliwog88]

I want to get my daughter a starter road bike. She's an avid soccer player, but I want to introduce her to the joy of cycling. We can spend time together, I can teach her a sport she can do her whole lifetime and she can strengthen her legs for soccer.

I ride a Trek Pilot WSD.

She is 12 years old, 13 in September, but she is very petite. I question whether I should get her a new starter road bike or get a good used one. I'm concerned with how quickly she will grow out of her bike. I'm 5' 3" so I don't think she'll be much taller when she is done growing.

Do any of you know of any other options? (I live in New Jersey, near Philadelphia)

Polly

[Mr. Bloom]

We got our 13 year old son a Trek Pilot 1.0 after a fitting at the LBS. The way I look at it, good bikes tend to hold their value, so you can trade in when you trade up...

[Eden]

How tall is she now? She may not yet fit on even a very small women's bike yet if she is much under 5 feet, but there are even smaller road bikes. The true road bikes for kids (Felt makes one) tend to be pretty pricey, but the kiddie cross bikes that Kona and Redline (Jake-24 and Conquest 24) are quite a bit less - around $600 and you can put skinnier slicks on them

[Triskeliongirl]

I would look at getting her a used terry bike, as they come in very small frame sizes with the small front wheel. There are some used ones at the terry site, and some on ebay. Maybe a 16" symetry would make a good starter bike. Having it fit is key to her enjoying the sport, let her upgrade later when she has stopped growing.

[KnottedYet]

Small Knot is riding my Kona Dew now. It has the slanting top-tube which makes size adjustments pretty easy. It is a flat-bar bike, but has 700c wheels. The LBS called it "bomb-proof" and so far SKnot hasn't done it any irrepairable harm. Kona makes tough bikes. $400, and I'll get it back when he's outgrown it. (it is my commuter) I've seen Kona's kid's road bikes, they really are pretty good! SKnot is too big for them now.

Is she comfortable with drop bars or would she prefer flat?

[Jo-n-NY]

How tall is she now? She may not yet fit on even a very small women's bike yet if she is much under 5 feet, but there are even smaller road bikes. The true road bikes for kids (Felt makes one) tend to be pretty pricey, but the kiddie cross bikes that Kona and Redline (Jake-24 and Conquest 24) are quite a bit less - around $600 and you can put skinnier slicks on them

Just to add to Eden's list, Specialized and Trek make a road bikes for kids also.

~ JoAnn

[singletrackmind]

A used Tandem!

That's working very well for our 11 year old, though she is NOT a bike rider (hates it by herself) at all she actually almost enjoys being a stoker. And we still get to go fast.

Our other kid is much more competitive and likes the single bike. She likes passing people and putting the hurt on her dad. :D
She's been riding my old bike for awhile now, since she was 11 or 12, it was a little big at first but after the growth spurt about fits. She's 14 now. Saddle heights are adjustable, stems interchangeable, and that's helped make something imperfect fit enough as to be comfortable to her.

There are many fine used bikes out there if you have a budget like ours and aren't sure how into biking she'll get...or how tall. If it turns into something she'll likely do on into the future like our oldest then you could always sell the used one and get something new, if that's what she wants. Thankfully, ours is pleased with the bikes (a mountain and a road) she has.