Girls' bike recommendation

Yorky

Could anyone recommend a bike for a 12 year old girl (5' 1" tall) who has outgrown a 24" wheel bike?

It must be lightweight with 700c wheels, mudguards and a carrier. I considered the Trek 7.1FX with the above-mentioned accessories but apparently there is a shortage of Trek stock.

Also, can it be purchased via mail order?

Thanks in advance.

Lumen

Islabikes Luath 700, small probably.

I don't own one, but this would be my first choice.

Yorky

Thanks but it's a hybrid type that I'm looking for ie with carrier, mudguards etc.

Lumen

Yorky wrote: »

Thanks but it's a hybrid type that I'm looking for ie with carrier, mudguards etc.

Ah, OK. FWIW their drop bar bikes can be configured with racks, mudguards, knobbly tyres etc..

papac

Could anyone recommend a bike for a 12 year old girl (5' 1" tall) who has outgrown a 24" wheel bike?

It must be lightweight with 700c wheels.

My missus is about this size and there is very poor availability of any type of bike in this size area.

You probably will have to take some big brand 700c offering with heavily compromised geometry. Bikes this size should not use 700 wheels imo- especially since MTB 26" is so popular now.Cervelo agree and they know a thing or two. http://www.cervelo.com/bikes.aspx?bike=RS2010 Geometry-bottom of page.

Islabikes are good (my daughter has Luath 26). We have flat bars on it now for off road and we will put the drops back on for the summer.I couldn't fault the bike for the money. I would question her use of 700c for next size up however.

Good info here on bikes for people under 5'4'

http://www.myra-simon.com/bike/petitest.html.

I have bodged various thing for my 5' tall missus over the years but atm there is very little available off the peg and she is getting a frame made next year.

ps (I believe the main reason that big brands use 700c on small bikes is to keep production costs down.Their marketing depts will try to say otherwise of course. The public wants what the public gets.

papac

Its me again.:)

If my wife did not want something fancier this is the bike I would buy her.

http://www.islabikes.co.uk/bike_pages/beinn26lrg.html.

Would meet all your requirements (bar wheel size and I believe this is wrong.)

Good bit of growing room and good for the money.Delivery to Ireland is expensive (80 sterling afair) but this is the only sensible bike available in this size imo. The resale value for Islabikes is very good however and they get snapped up off ebay really fast.

themysteriouson

Eurocycles seem to have some special offers on at the moment on girls bikes its worth a look.

ROK ON

Would you consider a small mens road bike or MTB. One notable boardsie is approximately the size of your daughter and rides a road bike.

If so, while stock in shops may be limited, you will be more than likely be able to get a deal in that small sizes are not as popular.

papac

Would you consider a small mens road bike or MTB

If you can direct me to a specific "small" mens road bike or mtb that is correctly proportioned for a woman 5'1" tall I will buy one of each. I don't think you can but will be absolutely delighted if you prove me wrong.;)

Caroline_ie

hey, I am 5'0 and ride a road bike. A giant size 42, a trek size 43 and a Specialized size 44. Both Giant and trek are men's bikes.

The trek 1.2 men or women ones have rack braze ons as well and are really good bikes so does 1.1.

The Lady specific Spesh are quite nice and a young girl would probably like the look of the Vita, the ladies of the sirrus spesh hybrid would be good alternative to the trek FX and you can get that from Cycleways or froogle.co.uk it.

my 2c

papac

hey, I am 5'0 and ride a road bike.

Hi Caroline- I wouldn't suggest that a woman of similar stature to your good self couldn't get by on the small road bikes that are available. I am fairly sure however that you could get a better fit bike if the manufacturers put a bit more thought into their design of smaller bikes. I have looked at all those bikes and found them all too compromised for my hard earned cash..

I am hijacking this thread a bit now(I'll stop after this-sorry to op). I am actually doing some research into smaller bikes at the moment and would like to pick your(Caroline.ie) brains on the matter by pm if thats ok with you. .I have a small group of small women involved in the project but one more would be welcome.Think of it as a service to short cyclists.:)

Is it ok to pm you.Caroline.ie.?

Caroline_ie

papac wrote: »

Is it ok to pm you.Caroline.ie.?

No problem at all.

Yorky

Thanks for all of the replies. Most of the links are for bikes with drop handlebars - the bike would mainly be used for short commutes of less than three miles on undulating roads and occasionally on a forest trail-would straight bars rather than drop bars be more suitable or what would you recommend?

At present she has a Dawes Discovery 201 with 24" wheels which she has outgrown. She is 154cm tall with an inside leg measurement of 74.5cm.

Although her present bike is twenty-one speed, she often complains that it is difficult to get up hills which seems to be caused by the differential between first and second gear on the freewheel: first gear too low and second gear too high. With this in mind, would the gearing on the Isla bikes alleviate this somewhat?

With regard to size, would the Luath 700 large be too big?

Caroline_ie

I did mention the Vita that has room for mudgards, rack and a triple chainring ... that's all you are looking for.

papac

would the Luath 700 large be too big?

According to the Islabikes chart yes.

I spoke to Isla Rowntree on the phone a few times and she is pretty adamant that her size chart is spot on.
My daughter was just over the min size for her bike and if she was slightly smaller the bike would have been too big imo.

With a change of stem there is a lot of growing room in the Luath 700 small.

Drop bars are good and the Luaths are really little cyclocross bikes so rough stuff is ok on them.If your girl really couldn't live with them you could change to flats. (I spent about 25 euro on bits to do this for winter mtb work.). The drop v flats thing has been debated all over the internet.Drops are better imo.

gearing on the Isla

Gearing is a matter of choice and taste. You could change a cog or two to find ideal gearing for a given situation/rider if you found original gearing did not suit precisely.

Just a note on Islabikes service-I ordered at 4pm on Monday and bike arrived Cork on Wed Morning.Isla Rowntree rang me on my mobile the following Monday to make sure everything was okay.All enquiries by phone and email were answered politely, promptly and thoroughly. Brilliant to deal with.

silvo

papac wrote: »

. I am actually doing some research into smaller bikes at the moment and would like to pick your(Caroline.ie) brains on the matter by pm if thats ok with you. .I have a small group of small women involved in the project but one more would be welcome.Think of it as a service to short cyclists.:)

Is it ok to pm you.Caroline.ie.?

Hey - I am 4' 11" and ride small hardtail and fullsus mtbs, and Caroline_ie's old fixie if you need another small lady involved in the project. PM me if you would like another one in the group.

cdaly_

I would think drop bars would be awkward on a rough forest trail but otherwise the drops are probably better

Yorky wrote:

Although her present bike is twenty-one speed, she often complains that it is difficult to get up hills which seems to be caused by the differential between first and second gear on the freewheel: first gear too low and second gear too high.

This is more than likely specific to the 7-speed freewheel on the current bike. It's essentially a 6-speed 13-26 with a 34t added on. The 26-34 jump is huge. The range you'll get on any of the 8,9,10-speed cassettes will more than likely have smaller jumps between gears so that won't be a problem. Mind you, the 11-34t Suntour 8-speed cassette supplied with the Luath700 has pretty big jumps (11/13/15/18/21/24/28/34T) means 6 teeth between first and second gears. That combined with a 34t small chainring is a seriously low first gear.

I'm very fond of a wide range myself but I would suggest that a 11-30t cassette would still give you wide enough range with smaller jumps between gears. Looking further, the 11-30t Suntour still has a 6-tooth jump between first and second. My Shimano 11-30 has 4 teeth on that jump and less on the rest.

Lumen

cdaly_ wrote: »

I would think drop bars would be awkward on a rough forest trail but otherwise the drops are probably better

Drops are fine until it gets to really technical singletrack or downhill, but it's more about the rider than the bike. The lack of front suspension is probably more of an issue that the type of handlebars once the bumps become boulder-sized (and then there's always the monstercross option).

On light forest trails or grassy stuff a mountain bike is overkill (though a perfectly reasonable alternative).

IMO.

Yorky

I like the Islabikes range but they are a tad expensive. As a second-hand option, www.rothar.ie sell second hand frames with new components for €100-€130. Has anyone got any knowledge/experience of them?

Yorky

Placed order for the Beinn 26 large today and hope that it arrives in time for Christmas.

I ordered it with all of the accessories i.e. pannier rack,propstand, Schwalbe Marathon tyres, bottle and cage, personalised name transfer and mudguards.

I want to fit mudflaps to the mudguards but have had difficulty sourcing these in the past. I've fashioned my own from milk cartons before but would prefer to use proper ones on a new bike. Does anyone know where to get them from? The mudguards are SKS.

Lumen

Yorky wrote: »

I want to fit mudflaps to the mudguards but have had difficulty sourcing these in the past. I've fashioned my own from milk cartons before but would prefer to use proper ones on a new bike. Does anyone know where to get them from? The mudguards are SKS.

Shouldn't need to do this as SKS mudguards come with a flap.

Yorky

Apparently the mudguards are not available to the general public as I checked the SKS website also and queried this with Islabikes. If you look at the customised photograph at http://www.islabikes.co.uk/bike_pages/beinn26lrg/beinn26lrg-customise.html you can see they're quite short.

Any ideas where to get mudflaps from?

blorg

Lumen wrote: »

Drops are fine until it gets to really technical singletrack or downhill, but it's more about the rider than the bike. The lack of front suspension is probably more of an issue that the type of handlebars once the bumps become boulder-sized (and then there's always the monstercross option).

On light forest trails or grassy stuff a mountain bike is overkill (though a perfectly reasonable alternative).

IMO.

I'll take that as enough excuse to repost these photos (look at the blood!)



Seriously though drops are fine for non-technical off-roading.

papac

Any ideas where to get mudflaps from?

If you were quick maybe you could cancel the mudguards from Islabikes and buy a set yourself with mudflaps. Just a thought.

Beinn 26 was a great choice and I think it'll work out cheaper in the long run cause of quality and resale value if it ever came to it.Our Luath26 broke the bank but was well worth it.
Hope she has many happy miles on it.

Yorky

If you were quick maybe you could cancel the mudguards from Islabikes and buy a set yourself with mudflaps. Just a thought.

Considered doing this but the mudguards they supply are the correct width for the bike . I asked for dimensions of the mudguards but they could only tell me the width - 42mm - so I could end up buying some the same length as the Islabikes supplied ones and then having to fit them myself afterall.

papac

Theres nothing wrong with a bit of milk carton. Colour it in with a marker and nobody will know..:):)

cdaly_

Yorky wrote:

I've fashioned my own from milk cartons before

I prefer to use clear soft drink bottles for this. Stiffer plastic and clear rather than cloudy. Mind you they get mucky pretty fast anyway...

I did a front derailleur guard and rear brake guard to keep the muck off them...

Yorky

cdaly_ wrote: »

I prefer to use clear soft drink bottles for this. Stiffer plastic and clear rather than cloudy. Mind you they get mucky pretty fast anyway...

I did a front derailleur guard and rear brake guard to keep the muck off them...

I like the idea of this. Could you possibly upload some photos?

blorg

Cut section off bottle and screw on I believe, like this or this.

Alternately Brooks do nice leather ones or alternately this one is cheaper.

cdaly_

So, I had to move my rear mudguard when I broke it trying to adjust it. It is now mounted on the underside of my carrier and, while it keeps my back dry, brake, saddle tube and stem and front derailleur are unprotected. I found both brake and derailleur were regularly getting clogged with dirt so I make mini guards out of clear plastic soft-drink bottles.

I cut suitably curved pieces mounting one onto the underside of the carrier and through its stays. That keeps the rear brake and backs of thighs dry:







The other is a fairly simple curve clamped by the derailleur's mounting bolts:





They get pretty filthy but I guess that's evidence of the protection they're offering...

Lumen

cdaly_

papac

Yorky

Got the bike but had some problems:

Gears: these appear to have not been correctly adjusted as first to third gears were unusable. I have attempted to adjust the gears but it remains to been seen whether they are working properly or not.

Mudguard safety release attachments: two of these are broken.

Scratches: The handlebars and brake components are scratched and chipped.

Tyres: These arrived semi-inflated.

I'm pleased with the overall size and geometry of the bike but disappointed with their quality control and attention to detail.

Beasty

Yorky wrote: »

Got the bike but had some problems:

Gears: these appear to have not been correctly adjusted as first to third gears were unusable. I have attempted to adjust the gears but it remains to been seen whether they are working properly or not.

Mudguard safety release attachments: two of these are broken.

Scratches: The handlebars and brake components are scratched and chipped.

Tyres: These arrived semi-inflated.

I'm pleased with the overall size and geometry of the bike but disappointed with their quality control and attention to detail.

I presume you got the bike mail order.
Your LBS can check out the gears if you are not sure.
The supplier should replace any broken parts.
Tyres are easy to sort out - you need a pump anyway.
You could return it if you think the scratches/chips are too much. Alternatively take some pictures and ask for some of your money back

papac

Got the bike but had some problems

Shame about that. My experience with Islabikes service has been excellent. Would be interested to hear how they deal with it. Have you contacted them?

Yorky

Beasty wrote: »

I presume you got the bike mail order.
Your LBS can check out the gears if you are not sure.
The supplier should replace any broken parts.
Tyres are easy to sort out - you need a pump anyway.
You could return it if you think the scratches/chips are too much. Alternatively take some pictures and ask for some of your money back

That's part of the problem: finding a good bike shop to sort out the gears. Can you recommend one in the North East, border area , Northern Ireland (Armagh or Newry)?

I asked for a partial refund and they offered £15 for the scratches but I think it;s worth more than that considering the inconvenience - I spent hours trying to adjust the gears. Any thoughts on how much they should refund?

papac wrote: »

Shame about that. My experience with Islabikes service has been excellent. Would be interested to hear how they deal with it. Have you contacted them?

I've contacted them and they have apologised , offered to reimburse the cost of adjusting the gears and sending replacements for the broken parts.

As mentioned above, they have offered £15 for the scratches which I think is insufficient.