ColaJacket

If he's not going fast enough to worry about an aero position, then he's probably not going fast enough for aero holes in a helmet to help much. But any holes will probably help the heat escape.

GH

Shuffleman

I am curious about this. My 8 yr old just got a giant mtb for his bday. He loves riding but has no clue how and when to change gears. On trails he does not change when going up a hill causing him to have to walk it up. It will come with time and experience but it makes me wonder if the kids in these races are adept at shifting.
My son wants a road bike but I am going to keep him off of them until he is more aware of cars.

69chevy

I'll try to answer as many questions as I can in one reply.

Aero bars aren't ideal on this bike for a couple of reasons. With the seat as high as I would ever put it, (considering his knees), the stem won't allow the bars to go low enough.

I could buy a "threadless" adapter and stem, but the seat is still not forward enough. Add a fast forward post and compatible saddle, I would have spent double what I paid for these bikes.

Yes he uses clipless pedals, but only for long rides. This is his kid bike too. We didn't have to buy shoes. He wears his Mom's.

His helmet went 36 miles on Saturday with 90 degree temps and he barely broke a sweat.

I already had aero bars (I used to TT)

He is very good at selecting gears and keeping a cadence. My 9 year old is terrible at it. It is up to the kid I'm sure.

Thanks for all of the ideas and comments.

Tunnelrat81

I think I would simply show up at a few of these events and look at the setups that the other similar sized kids are riding. If they're on TT bikes, then you'll see what they are using and how well they work. If, however, you find that they're all on road bikes, then I think that's your answer. No need to unfairly tip the scales at great expense to put him on a TT rig. He's your son, so it's your judgement call of course, but I would think teaching hard work and fair play would trump 'crush the opponent' at this stage of his racing career. I understand that if it's 9-14 year range, that's a pretty broad spectrum, and some of the kids he's racing against may be significantly taller and more developed than he is. They may be on TT bikes, but I would suspect that if they are THAT much bigger, an equivalent bike won't be adequate to even the field.

If you start him down the path of buying performance this early, you'd better hope he's on track to a well paying career that can fund it. We all (sort of) get there eventually, but hopefully not until our maturity keeps us from cashing in our retirement money for a chance to win the local amateur TT series.

-Jeremy

69chevy

The bikes I'm considering aren't a "great expense". They are old, used tt bikes that cost less than an x-box.

How can you assume on one hand I'm teaching him how to buy performance and skip hard work, then accuse me of trying to "crush the competition" with an unfair edge?

A tt bike at a tt is unfair? Maybe he should be on a green machine for 14 miles?

Save your judgements for people you know. My retirement fund is safe, I assure you.

Edonis13

I would guess that he would see the most aero benefit from a cycling kit instead of baggy clothes. Good luck convincing your kid of that though.

Sidney Porter

My son was 7 when he got a geared mtb. We spent quite a bit of time explaining why he has different gears. So he somewhat understood the concept. When riding I would ride behind him and tell him when to shift. It was a 3x7, I blocked out the large and small ring so he only had to think about the rear. I would call out easier or harder and he would shift. Eventually he understood and would shift on his own.

Sidney Porter

Depends kids are pretty conforming to peer pressure and the get "when in Rome, do as the Romans do". My son swims on both Club and Rec leagues it seems that every season you have a kid that will join the rec team and not want to wear jammers and will wear board shorts. Until the first meet and they realize that they are the oddity. So I bet if they go to the TT and everyone else is dressed in cycling clothes and they are wearing basketball shorts they are going to feel out of place.

Sidney Porter

I have never been to a youth TT. Do most kids have road bikes at age 10? My son has entered several triathlons in those events you see very few road bikes mostly BMX and mtb. But for a youth triathlon the barrier to entry is not the bike it is the swim, a lot of kids can't do the swim so thy don't enter. Most of the kids that enter seem to swim on teams. The bike is also a lot shorter thanthe TT (S=200m, B = 7k, R = 2k).

My son (11) is the only kid in his circle of friends that has a road bike, 1/2 of them are still on BMX.

Tunnelrat81

I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. I was speaking in general terms of racing, not on the assumption that it was your approach to this. Racing for some people I know can be reduced to the love of the fight (crushing opponents) and the love of buying gear. Of course I'm not assuming that these are the lesson's your teaching you're son, just that you should only worry about setting him up with equipment at a similar level to those that he's actually competing against in these races. If the others in his competitive field are on TT bikes, then by all means set him in a similar way

I was simply putting into words what that picture on page 1 represented. If everyone else is on training wheels there's no use putting him in a dimpled skinsuit.

Also, in my tongue in cheek comment about retirement funds, it wasn't of yours I was speaking.

I may have poorly stated this, and I apologize for that. No judgement intended, but I understand that it's your right to be if you'd like.

I have a 2.5 y.o. son who loves riding his Hotrock 12 on the bike paths with me, and I expect to find myself asking these same gear questions a few years from now. I've been on ~50 mile group rides with ~11-12 year olds and love seeing the younger generation learning to love the sport that you and I enjoy so much. I applaud the time you've no doubt spent with your sons, giving them the chance to learn the myriad lessons that cycling can teach us about ourselves and life.

-Jeremy

Sidney Porter

I do not know anything about organized youth cycling so I was thinking of recommending him joining a team. Mainly so he is exposed to other kids that share his interest. But then I searched for teams. I am in Ohio: 1 Jr team and 3 High School, you mentioned AL so I searched there, there are 0 Jr and 0 High School. I wasn't expecting huge numbers but I was thinking that every major city would have one. I also looked up CA 12 JR programs but for the weather, size and population of the state that doesn't seem like very many.

Compare this to youth: baseball, football, basketball, soccer etc. Even the individual sports like swimming and gymnastics are going to blow those numbers away. I looked up fencing there are 10 youth programs in Ohio compared to 1 cycling.

big chainring 

Go old school. Fixed gear. At ten years old maybe use a 72" gear.

When I was 14 at Junior Track State championship a kid used an 80" gear and spun high revs while I was in an 88" gear. Event was 3000 meter pursuit. He took second place behind a Junior national team member. I was way down in the standings.

"Chewnyas to the line, Seenyas on deck."
The call to the starting line by Theo Kron.

69chevy

Haha. He does have a "kit" as in lycra sliding shorts from baseball and an Under Armour sleeveless undershirt left over from football.

He won't wear it in the neighborhood, but he does wear it in "Rome"..

69chevy

I haven't attended on either. There is one per year in our state. The top three spots were aroung one hour for the 14mile course with the winner holding a 15mph average.

I doubt they are on mountain bikes. Maybe if they are 14 year olds, but a 10 year old huffing for that long seems unlikely.

69chevy

I only know the posted times from last year. There is one TT per year in my state that I know of.

Looking at the posted times, (15mph for 14 miles) he's not racing tricycles. He's likely racing 13-14 year olds who have already approached puberty.

I want him to put down his best effort, on the best bike that doesn't cost us a lot.

If he can get his core strength up enough to ride an hour in the tucked position, it will benefit him in cycling, and in football (the sport he really loves)

Last year he broke a shoulderblade (by crashing his BMX bike) and gained 10lbs while not playing the second half of football season. He was out of shape for basketball and spent a lot of time on the pine.

If anything, during our Summer of cycling, he will be stronger and faster for the team sports he loves with all of his heart.

69chevy

I only know the posted times. At 15mph for a 14 mile course, I can only guess that they are older than 10, and not on BMX bikes.

Sidney Porter

I would agree that the winners are on road or even TT bikes. I was thinking more about the average middle of the pack kid. I notice that none of my kids friends have road bikes. His bike is seen as an oddity in his peer group (not in a bad way). But then again his peer group doesn't enter bike races (other than tri's).

69chevy

I'm not aware of any other little cyclists in our area. Just finding a suitable road bike for a chils was tough. Trek released one for $1K, but with two boys who will likely be 5" taller next year, I wanted something more "disposable".

Football? His school team has around 40 kids per year show up for camp. lol

69chevy

His friends in our neighborhood all ride MTBs from Target or WM.

Unlucky for him, we live in a neighborhood of mostly retired folks, so he only has a couple of friends that we don't have to drive to see.

Sidney Porter

Yeah the cost of youth road bikes are excessive. I compare it to my youth in the late 70's and early 80's everyone had a road bike. A lot of them were cheap department store (open road, free spirits, etc) but they were relatively usable for the purpose.

My son's current road bike is actually a converted rigid mtb, from the early 90's. I think I have $125 into it.

His next bike is a 49cm frame. It is a part box build. I will have less than $50 into it when we are all said and done.

69chevy

Love it. I'm slowly collecting old parts for when the bikes the boys are on become too small.

Sidney Porter

I have also thought about buying a Bikes Direct bike in their smallest size. When he out grows it pick up a Nashbar frame and swap the parts. Could probably do this a couple times. 50cm, 53cm and 56cm should cover Jr high and high school for an average sized kid. Obviously if they are putting a lot of miles on the bike the parts will wear out, but for that kid it is easier to justify the expense of a new bike.

69chevy

I thought about this too. I bought the 8 speed Sora shifters for these little bikes thinking I can find cheap steel frames and use the shifters and quill stem parts to add to older road bikes I find cheap.

When they are done... back to CL.

caloso

We are lucky: our LBS sponsors a juniors program as part of its race team. It's driven by parents who are also racers, and we get some nice support from the shop and a local coach who's affiliated with the team. But it's intentionally low-key: we do a team ride once a week, usually on Sunday afternoons. We focus on skills mostly: pacelining, cornering, being comfortable on the bike. Sometimes we'll do a TT on the local canal path. Kids are encouraged to race if they like, but no pressure. And it's understood that they likely have other interests. For my son, it's soccer.

In addition to looking on the internet, you could ask at the local shop that caters to racers. Or show up at crack of dawn at a local criterium. Juniors usually race first, if there's a juniors race at all.

caloso

Performance has a very basic, but good quality Al road frame in 48cm. I built Lucas' bike from this frame and spare parts.