Buying children a mountain bike
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Buying children a mountain bike is something that makes me very angry, not at my child mind. But the quality and prices at which I buy them!. I know that I have no images with this post, but I thought that as my wife decided to write about buying children mountain bikes and used photo's of the bikes I'm writing about. You would get the idea!

Kids mountain bikes these days are a complete waste of money unless you spend ridiculous amounts of money for them. The reason I say this is because if you look at them you will see that the cranks are extremely weak, disk and v brakes do not work properly, ie: they rub or sieze up all together, and the levers are to damn difficult for any children to squeeze!

Manufactures make, and shops sell these bikes to the parents from £99 - £400 with the tag that it's a "Mountain Bike". It is not a mountain bike, mountain bikes do not fall apart at the sight of dirt! These so called mountain bikes for children are being sold to parents and the parents are being miss-led. Why? Because when parents take these bikes in for a service because something has gone wrong. The local bike store will ask, "has this bike been off-road"? When the parent replies "yes I think so!". The local bike store would say, "It's a road bike, not a mountain bike"!.

Manufactures should spend more time improving the quality of budget bikes as low as £99 for them to deserve the tag "mountain bike". And parents should be aware that full suspension bikes for £200-£300 are not going to make you or your child happy, when the bloody things fall apart quicker than ridged bikes would!
Why? because cheap ridged bikes have better components than one with a suspension, front or both!

What the manufacturers need to tag these bikes as is...'Novelty mountain bike'..at least this way you know exactly what you are buying!!!! Something cheap that is going to fall apart very quick just like the 'novelty' pocket money toys the kids can buy!
22:10 | Posted in Category:

Comments

8 responses to "Buying children a mountain bike"

  1. LazyKing On 11 July 2009 07:59

    great post!
    I wouldnt buy my kid a mountain bike. Not in a billion years.

     
  2. skipratt mountain bike blog On 11 July 2009 15:55

    You would'nt?,, that's a real shame! ;-)

     
  3. casualsounds On 11 July 2009 19:59

    My dad had a bike and I used to ride it often. It was a cool road bike. But soon as I left home my dad sold it.

    And yeah, I think someday if I have a kid I'm absolutely going to buy my kid a bike. Must be a good one. I don't mind if it's a little bit expensive as long as it good.

     
  4. paul c walton On 12 July 2009 10:55

    Yea but children grow out of bikes so quality should be affordable!

     
  5. Sean Reynolds On 15 July 2009 18:44

    The other thing about these mountain bikes is that they are dam heavy. Buy the kid a bog standard lighter bike for around £100 and they will have much more fun with it.

     
  6. paul c walton On 16 July 2009 18:46

    Yes they are heavy, thanks for that Sean!

     
  7. Sashindoubutsu On 18 July 2009 00:40

    I had my first bike when I was around 4 years old, I think. It was the one with two small balancer wheels on the rear. A four-wheeler all-in-all. I enjoyed it a lot until I learned how to balance with a two-wheeler and was bought a bigger bike. But definitely not a mountain bike..^^

     
  8. paul c walton On 18 July 2009 11:32

    You can not beat a mountain bike as long as you find the right one for you! Mountain bikes can allow you to have a lot of fun in the dirt, so go get one! ;-)

     

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