Seeing a coworker's daughter racing BMX in a video that we played at the SORBA-Jax Pedal Driven movie screening that we held a few weeks back got me to thinking again about a looming question I've had rattling around in my head as I stroll the marble floors of One Utahdog Center, World Congress of the Americas. My daughter is 5, and is nearing 4 feet tall, so the Trek Surfer Girl bike she's been using is getting a little tight for her to say the least, especially in crank arm length.
Here's a picture of a comparable Surfer Girl that I shamelessly ganked without permission from the Interwebs.
A friend of mine has a daughter that rode this interesting lump of poo for the last few years, but she is old enough now to know better, so he gave it to me. It has both a coaster brake as well as the most sloppy rim brakes around. It also weighs, and I'm not exaggerating here, MORE than my Turner 5 Spot. Unacceptable. Don't get me wrong! I like free, but I'll never understand the point of introducing your children or your wife or significant other of best friend or whatever, to the sport of cycling and giving them an inefficient boat anchor to ride. I bet 90% of guys can't understand why their wives won't ride with them, when the man has a 4$K uber-bike, and the chick has a Murray or a 60lb Diamondback.
If you are introducing anyone to the sport, they deserve the best chance available to have fun. Period.
So THIS boat anchor, is not acceptable.
So the Surfer Girl Trek is too small, and the Hannah Montana bike is a POS boat anchor not even suitable in build quality or materials to be substituted into a road construction project for use as concrete reinforcement. I don't want to spend $250 on a bike before we even know if she likes to ride, but I don't want the bike to be the reason why she doesn't like it, so there is a line to toe here...
Lets take stock. The Hannah Montana bike has black tires and purple painted steel rims with the coaster brake. It has a white handlebar and stem and a one piece crankset with a single pie-plate chainring that has a purple flower sticker on it. I also have a purple flower print handlebar pad and purple plastic pedals, a chrome seat mast and a chain. All reasonably useful parts in good shape, just bolted to the heaviest girls frame ever to sport the name of a budding porn star.
Lets be honest here... I hate how much it weighs, but even more than that, I hate Hannah Montana. So I've got the parts. Time to shed the porn star.
What I need is a new frame...
2 comments:
On the other hand, I don't think either of us thought one whit about bike weight when we began riding. I just began riding whatever I was given, and I was fine with that. In fact, I was more concerned about aesthetics like color and whether it had a banana seat! Kids are very adaptable.
I still want her to have a bike that weighs less than she does. I think it makes a difference. When we were kids everything was a banana seat boat anchor and we didn't have a choice.
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