Lbxpdx

I have been trying to get my kid to ride with me more. He is 14 and had been using a ladies Giant LIV step through for a few years. I picked this up cheap on CL and he loves it. Lugged PG Tange #5 with 27’s, nothing special at all, though it is rather comfy.

I picked up an older Trek 520 in his size too, thinking it would be a great bike for him to use on potentially longer rides with me, but he doesn’t seem to like the Trek. I’ll hold onto that for a bit to see if he changes his mind, but in the meantime a cheap old Japanese made Novara seems to work for the kid.

Dylansbob 

I've always dug Novaras. They always seemed to source their frames from quality sources and there were some pretty cool models over the years (faux-fillet brazed Ponderosas, Tange Ultimate Teams, Ibis designed mtbs, etc)

Lbxpdx

Are you sure the ponderosa is a faux fillet? I have one and the catalog for that year states fillet. I’ve offered wondered if it is a fillet over Tig.

Dylansbob 

There's a Bicycling review somewhere on the site that has a paragraph from the Taiwanese factory about how they did it. I had the teal/purple-fade XR cross bike that had the same construction.