Xmas Time - Which bike for my son ?

Oldlegs

Having searched high & low for a reasonable entry level bike I have focused in on the following two :-

Raleigh Strada (€209) http://www.rutlandcycling.com/26045/Raleigh-Strada-2010---Road-Bike-.html
and the
Coyote Bug Sur (£219) http://www.rutlandcycling.com/27154/Coyote-Big-Sur-2010---Road-Bike-.html

Both look very similar ... Guys in Rutland recommend the Raleigh, but wanted to see if anyone has other opinions ?

Thanks.

Caroline_ie

How old is your son. Does he not need underage specific gearing?

Jawgap

My 12 year old is getting a Luath 700 (small) from Islabikes.

I ordered it last Tuesday and it arrived on Friday.

Oldlegs

Caroline - Specific gearing (?) - had not thought about that. But with the standard 700 wheels could i change out the block if neccessary ?

Jawgap - great looking bike but a fair bit above what I was hoping to spend.

Oldlegs

Caroline_ie wrote: »

How old is your son. Does he not need underage specific gearing?

Are you referring to the maximum gearing that is allowed for racing ? http://www.cyclesportpendle.org.uk/youth-category-gear-restrictions.html
or do you mean that I need to ensure that the easier gears are "easy enough" for hills ?

If the former, as he (12-year old) is only starting to do some cycling with me I do not think that would be too much of an issue. If the latter, would changing out the hub for one that provides a wider range suffice ?

The Islabike option does appear to be a great bike specifically tailored for youth riders, but does come with a price tag :eek:
Thx.

Jawgap

Hi,

I was initially put off by the lumpy price tag but in the end I found it seems to offer the best value.

The re-sale and secondhand values are pretty good so if he doesn't use it I should get a decent bit of the money spent back.

Second, he has a younger brother coming up behind him so I wanted something that would last and he could pass on. The Luath also seems quite versatile in terms of its set-up for use on the road, as a tourer and even for cyclo-cross.

CRC have a youth specific Dawes but it's about the same price. I had a look at one in Quay Cycles in Drogheda and was not terribly impressed with it. Btw - Quay Cycles were very competitive in their pricing compared to CRC. They were about 30 yoyos more expensive, but given you'd have access to the shop I'd have gone with them if I was getting the Dawes.

Felt also do a youth bike, but it was even pricier than the Luath.

As for the gears, I would have thought that he'd only use a few, no matter how many cogs are on the cassette - I'm just basing that on my observations of my own lad on his MTB, but maybe he'll be different on the road bike.

Don't forget to get him to inlcude his measurements when he's writing to Santa so the elves can do a proper bike-fit!!

TheBlaaMan

Maybe I'm missing something, but the Islabikes are the same price (£450) as a new Specialized Allez in small from Evans in the UK. OK, so you would have to arrange collection from the UK, perhaps - but is this not a better route in terms resale potential....?

Anyway, thats slightly off topic. I dont think that theres a lot available under €400 if you want anything decent/that HE'LL want/that is useful for club spins/sportives or that he'll not quickly outgrow - I've been looking for exactly the same reason !

eBay produces some good high-quality possible candidates, but the prices are still quite 'saucy'

Good luck

Oldlegs

So any opinions/comments on the two options which come in around €300 in the OP ?

I am tending towards the Coyote (purely 'coz it looks nicer, not really sure how the groupsets compare/differ, but expect them to be similar)