look566 rider

Good day all,

With my almost daily travels on sales calls, I get opportunity to visit small town, big town and off the wall bike shops around a large portion of Ohio. Found this adorable used Allez Junior 24 inch wheeled road bike (Thanks Bike Crazy in Bluffton, Ohio). I know these youth size road bikes are harder to land in U.S. This bike has very little use, original tires, very good paint (metallic yellow on black) etc. Even has carbon fork! Dig the radial laced front wheel too.

Grandson is just 3 1/2, but will be ready to ride in a couple three years. 24 inch standover, 24 inch from seat top to pedal with seat in current position. Nice thing is he should have minimum of two years before he grows out of bike.

Cheers!

sdmc530

You have no idea how big of a score that really is. NICE FIND! Jr. road bikes are impossible to find in good shape or at all. My son and I are building his bike right now because no road bike was really his size. Not sure what you paid but it really can't be any less that what I am spending on a build.

mstateglfr 

Really cool. A couple of probably changes that I have seen with my kids' road bikes and other youth road bikes in use- shorter stem and different shifters. Shimano road shifters are sometimes difficult to maneuver with small hands, especially the old button style Sora. Microshift/Micronew is an option that has separate paddles for shifting up and down the cogs and the throw is shorter.

But you definitely have some time before any of that needs to be considered! Nice find.

Virtus

That's so cool. Great find!

Charliekeet

Indeed - I found my younger son a 24" Fuji and had to drive a couple hours to get it. Not easy to find road-bike style low-standover rides for kids who like to go fast and smooth, but aren't big or strong enough yet.

icemilkcoffee 

Just from eyeballing I would say the crank is way too long. This is common with a lot of children's bikes. Also, a kid small enough to fit on this bike would struggle with the brifter, and there is no easy answer for that issue.

sdmc530

I had this issue with my son. I had to purchase some 152mm cranks in a triple and just lose the rings and apply to his build to get a proper crank. As far as the levers that will depend on the youngster. My son can use my 105 and my Sora with no issue.

mstateglfr 

For crank arms, these are basic and good- https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/cranks/1...black/?geoc=US
Just get the chainrings you want and an inexpensive square taper bottom bracket.

I have these on 3 different kids bikes- 2 MTBs and 1 road. The MTBs are 1x and the road is 2x. I almost went 1x for the road bike too because my youngest really doesnt need more shifting options. The square taper makes it simple to get whatever chainline you want based on number of rings and MTB shell width.
They come in increments of 5mm from 150 to 185.

There are even 115mm , 125mm, and 140mm options, for whatever bike that would be good on.
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/cranks/t...40-mm/?geoc=US
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/cranks/t...ilver/?geoc=US

look566 rider

Thanks for the feedback. Have at least 3 years before he should be able to ride.

Paid 500.00

Bike does have auxiliary brake levers on drop bars. So he'll have safer stopping ability versus using brifter.

Already thinking about some type of platform addition to pedals for crank length concern.

Just hoping he keeps the bike riding fever he currently has! Then one day he'll get to choose a bike from my stable.

CliffordK

I gave 2 Fuji Ace bikes to my nephew, 24" and 650c. It is amazing how quickly he grew.

They both used some kind of paddle shifers which were hard for him to use while riding. They had pretty small independent aero style brakes levers that fit his hands well, and worked well.

One had the "auxillary" brake levers, and I took them off. I wanted him to learn to use drop bars without them.

sdmc530

First GREAT price, I will have $600 into my sons bike when we are finished for essentially the same thing.

Only thing I will say is don't change a thing until you have to. Pedals though, yeah flats are a must for kiddos. Store it until needed then swap out what you need to. Its a fine ride.

$500.....I would have ran out the store with that too!!

CliffordK

Toe clips work too.

Kids grow through shoes too fast to chase them with fancy bike shoes, unless competitive.

Also bike shoes for competitive BMX.

mstateglfr 

Toe clips for kids?...why?

Russ Roth

Check out Origin8 cranks, hard to tell from the picture but if that's a 110bcd crank than the origin8 will let you go with the stock rings and might let you get away with the stock BB, might have to replace that. I believe the Origin8 is a 108mm recommended length and works fine with 8sp. Comes in 5mm increments from 115mm up till 175, go with a 125 for a bike this size.

If you need a road bike that's smaller, do a search for a Redline Conquest 20 or Frog, the frogs are currently made and reasonably well thought out, though they can be a little heavy and undergeared.

Just platforms, toe clips are too much of a hazard for kids to wrestle with while still not having the muscle memory to react to everything around them in a calm and reasoned way. BMX racers can do jumps and below the age of 13 are restricted to just platforms, they really are good enough.

look566 rider

Thanks Russ!

Between my LBS Westerville Bike Shop and Bike Crazy where I found this bike, I should have access to any crank parts needed, if needed. Both are old school shops with owners that keep all usable parts. In fact Bike Crazy has an unreal amount of parts and accessory inventory for the shop size and location. Search Bluffton on maps, then look up their website.

I make it a point to stop there as often as I can when sales calls bring me to the area.

dedhed

https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/e...nkset/p/10059/

mstateglfr 

^ a kid's triple? Does Trek hate parents?