Kids Road Bikes:
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4 Things You Should Know Before You Buy a Kids Road Bike
When it's time to buy a bike, there's many things you need to think about. From size, to form and function, each brand and model gives you a slightly different vehicle, and it's important to get exactly what you're looking for, especially at the price you end up paying. And when you're looking for a kids bike, perhaps for your own children, you want them to be on a solid bicycle, something that will be durable, high quality, and comfortable. So before you go out to buy, here's 4 things you should know before you buy a kids road bike.
Before you even start looking at the various brands and models, you need to be sure that a road bike is really what you need. There's many different types of bikes out there, and often a mountain bike or a cruiser bike might be a better choice. Basically, a road bike is meant for driving on paved roads, so is best for those who live in a city and don't go off road too often. If you live in a rural area and have dirt roads, for example, you may be better off with a mountain bike. Even if you decide that a road bike is for you, there's a lot of models that look fairly different from each others. This can be the size of the wheels, how wide the tires are, how big the frame is, and so on. Each of these differences will affect how well the bike adheres to the road, and how well it will handle.
Past the basic shape of the bike, there's other things you should look at when you're out to buy a kids road bike. Quality and durability is of course very important, and you can't judge that solely on the cost of the vehicle. One thing you should look for is the materials used for the frame and other parts. The frame itself is often made of lightweight aluminium, which provides both durability and keeps the bike lightweight. Some other parts that are important and tend to break easily are the chain and back wheel, which need to be high quality since that's where problems usually happen. Then there's features that the bike provides, things like whether or not the seat can be adjusted up and down, or how many speeds the vehicle has. In this case, usually the price reflects the number of features pretty effectively, so when you pay more you get more features.
As you can see, there's many different things you might want to look for when going out to buy a kids road bike. Whether it's construction quality, durability, or available features, these are details you should look at before spending the big bucks. While kids grow up quickly, you don't want to have to change their bikes earlier than needed.
Kids Road Bikes: Four Models Reviewed
When it's time to get a bike, there's always many things to look at, such as the model, the brand, and what features it offers. That's why it's a good idea to take things methodically, and look at the brand and models first, before getting to what features they all offer. By setting your priorities and needs, you can narrow down the perfect bike for you. In the case of kids road bikes for example, your needs may be very different from your children, and that's why you should get together and go through the list of things you need, then compare the available bikes and find out which one seems to fit those kids the best. To help you get started, here's four models reviewed:
The first model we'll look at is the GMC Denali Girls' 24-Inch Road Bike, and like the name says, it's a girls bike. Now the difference between guys and girls when it comes to bikes mostly impact the size of the frame, weight, and overall design. In this case, you're looking at a 24 inch frame made of lightweight aluminium aimed at smaller figures, a triple chain alloy crank set, Shimano TZ40 derailleurs and 21-speed twist shifters, along with Kenda 24-inch tires. This a great starter bike for a young girl and can be bought for around $180. Not surprisingly, the same company makes a very similar boys road bike, the GMC Denali Boy's 24-Inch Road Bike. This one is still a 24 inch frame but its shape is different. The design is also different of course, with colors that would appeal more to young guys. The parts however are very similar, and use pretty much the same brands. This one can be bought for around $190.
The next model on the list is the 45cm Tour de France Pack Leader Road Bicycle. This is an European model as you may imagine, but don't let that stop you if you live in the west, you can still use it on American roads. The size is around the same as the previous models, but the frame is built more like a grown up bike, and simply looking at it, you almost think it's an adult bike, which can be very desirable for a kid. The bike offers 12 speeds and every part is fairly standard. This one will cost you around $239. The last model is slightly different, and it's the 2010 Novara Pulse Kids' Bike. Right away, the biggest difference is the price, at $499. But this is because of the parts used, like a Nimble 6061 aluminum frame, chromoly fork, Shimano 2300 shifters, FSA Tempo, Velo Junior Race saddle, and more. Here, you're getting very high quality and durable brands for every part of the bike itself, and that's what you pay for.
Overall, each of these bikes can work fine and serve a kid for many years. Regardless of what they require, they can use these road bikes and get transportation wherever they need to go. The main differences between them end up being the design and the parts used during construction, which also makes for the price as well.