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Fun bike build for 7 year old.

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Fun bike build for 7 year old.

Old 03-16-17, 08:07 PM
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MnHPVA Guy
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Fun bike build for 7 year old.

I found a used Craigslist 20” wheel Raleigh Rowdy for my Great-Grandson Elijah, a smallish 7 y/o. Despite steel bars, hubs, cranks and seatpost, this is one of the lighter bikes of it’s type to begin with. The stock wheels have alloy rims and a 6 speed freewheel.

Not a bad choice, even if you leave it stock. But if you have several decades of accumulated bike parts, it can be the basis of something pretty nice.



I had an old set of narrow folder wheels with a 130mm Formula 8/9/10 speed freehub and a 72mm OLN Formula front hub. I made up some 13mm axle spacers and replaced the front axle and QR with standard length bits. Tires are 20 x 1.4” Tioga Powerblock.

Despite steel hubs, the stock wheels aren’t any heavier. So another option would have been to re-space the axle for a 7 or 8 speed freewheel and add a little more dish. Replacing the solid axles with QR types would also be worthwhile IMHO.

I replaced the bars, cranks and seatpost with used alloy items. Cranks are Andels shortened to 100mm on a 103mm BB in an FSA Euro Adapter. The Shimano Revo-shifter and derailleur were replaced with SRAM X4 shifter and X3 derailleur, These are 1:1 units for low effort shifting. Cassette is 11-30 8 speed.

Total weight is 19 lbs. 5 oz. with inexpensive parts. Seatpost is a 27.2mm so it might be easy to drop those 5 ounces by replacing the old Laprade with a lighter seatpost. But that Laprade, with it’s yellow flutes, is special to Elijah. It’s the post he’s seen in photos of his grandpa’s, (my son’s) old racing bike from ’83. A typical Minnesotan, he's been playing ice hockey since age 4. So he's plenty fit and gets down the road quite well. In another year or two he'll be dropping me.

Elijah’s school is in a neighborhood of modest incomes. But it is in bike crazy S. Minneapolis, where the bike paths are plowed in winter before the residential streets. So in the bike rack you might see a couple of IslaBikes and one kid’s Specialized Fatboy 20. Parents or grandparents (or in our case great-grandparents) will ride to school with their younguns. Often with younger siblings in a Bakfeits or on the back of a Big Dummy.

Mark Stonich; BikeSmith Design & Fabrication
5349 Elliot Ave S. Minneapolis, MN 55417 USA
Ph. (612) 710-9593 BikeSmith Design and Fabrication
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bikesmith/ (Mostly Wildlife)
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Old 03-18-17, 08:31 PM
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Viich
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Very nice! Is that a threadless headset?

I retrofitted a 20" Miele with a Nexus 3 hub for my 6yo - I was worried about 20" wheels and the long-cage derailleurs with the low clearance - even riding across grassy areas and the chain is in contact. Has he had any issues with excessively dirty chain?

Congrats on a great build!
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Old 03-23-17, 03:44 PM
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Originally Posted by Viich
Very nice! Is that a threadless headset?

I retrofitted a 20" Miele with a Nexus 3 hub for my 6yo - I was worried about 20" wheels and the long-cage derailleurs with the low clearance - even riding across grassy areas and the chain is in contact. Has he had any issues with excessively dirty chain?

Congrats on a great build!
That is the stock threadless headset.

There are no plans to go off road except for paved trails. Although If I'd realized that the X5 would work with 8 speeds and was available in a medium cage, I'd have spent a few bucks more for one.

I have a 20" alloy wheel with a vintage Sturmey 3 speed. If the frame had been steel, with thin dropouts, I might have cold set the frame from 130mm to 116 and used that wheel.

BTW for years I shifted a 12-32 cassette with an Ultegra double road derailleur. It worked because there was only one ring, and I was able to get the chain length just right.

Last edited by MnHPVA Guy; 03-23-17 at 04:04 PM.
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