Mike's Bike Blog

For the past year I've been on the lookout for a road bike for the boys. The options for an entry level road bike for the 9-11 year old group is slim pickings. Redline, Felt and Fuji are the only current manufacturers that produce a 24" road bike. Trek discontinued their offering in 2008. Fuji a larger bike with 650 wheels as well. The other option was to purchase an extra small road bike, but the geometry is just a bit off for a kid, it really stretches him out when in the drops. I really didn't want to buy new so I'd been scouring craiglist and other boards.

Last week a used Felt F24 showed up for sale on Txbra.org classified at a great price. I quickly jumped on it and the next day the steed was in our stable of bikes! Jack was quite excited about the purchase as he's been hounding me for a road bike the past year. Jack was extra excited to learn the pedals were clipless platform pedals. He's been wanting to go clipless for the last year as well.

When we were in Southwest Cycle Sport getting extra tubes for his bike he found a pair of road shoes on the clearance table that fit. I really wasn't too keen on him going clipless at age 9 and was surprised to find that they actually fit him. He was willing to put down all the money he had on them along with me being a softy when it comes to sports equipment for the boys, he walked out of the shop with new road shoes. I took the SPD cleats off of an old pair of my shoes and installed them on his.

Earlier in the morning I set up the bike on the trainer so he could do a dry run of clipping in and out in a controlled environment. In the afternoon we headed over to Georgetown to ride the flat country roads departing Berry Springs Park. I had mapped out a 13 mile route for us. In the parking lot he was practicing getting a foot clipped in while I was airing up my tires. He had a couple crashes in the few minutes waiting for me. But he was undeterred from riding clipless and did not want to ride with his regular shoes.

Once we got out on the road he was fine, he did have trouble getting clipped in. The pedals are not double sided, so he has to flip it over and that did prove to be a bit difficult for the maiden voyage. We practiced stopping and starting along the desolate back roads. There were only a few stop signs on the route, but I'd give him ample warning about them so he could unclip well before them.

When we were about 4 miles away from the finish we could see 2 riders a mile or two ahead of us on the small rollers. I said we should go catch them. He thought they were too far ahead, I said "nonsense, if we catch them I'll get you a milkshake". With the reward of a milkshake as an incentive we picked up the pace and started attacking the hills. For the next 1.61 miles he averaged 13.5 mph over the next 4 rollers. We were cutting their lead, but he still didn't think we would catch them. I said if we kept pushing this pace we would catch them on the final hill, I pointed up to it and pointed to a couple big telephone poles near the top. I said that's where we'd catch them. On the final hill the 2 were starting to separate, the rider in the back was struggling up the hill. We caught him 1/2 way up the hill shortly after he dismounted and started pushing his bike up the hill. The other rider we caught at the exact point I pointed to.

At the base of the hill I let Jack get in the lead and I told him as we approach them to say "On your left" as we pass, it's the right thing to do. The look on their faces to see a 9 year old kid on a road bike go effortlessly up the hill was funny. We crested the hill, the big grin on my face was obviously causing a severe drag effect. Jack was so happy with himself as well. He's definitely hooked!

After his brother's were in bed I made him a small milkshake for his reward.