Gearing on kid's bike?

[roger06]

Hi

My son has a cheap Apollo 'mountain' bike from Halfords and we've just started doing some fairly easy off road tracks.

He's nine and although small for his age he's fit and sporty. However he can't peddle up even the slightest incline, he stands on the peddles and has to stop after a few metres.

I'm assuming it just doesn't have a low enough first gear? (it's a 5 speed) so I was thinking about a smaller chain ring at the front.

Is this a good idea? Is it simple to do? I appreciate the compromise will be at the top end of the gearing but that doesn't matter.

Thanks

 

[S-Express]

Yes a smaller chainring, or a larger range of gears at the back. Without knowing more about the specific kit on the bike at the moment, it's difficult to recommend anything specific.

'Pedal' by the way - not 'peddle'.

 

[roger06]

Oops - 'pedal' of course! Muppet.

 

[roger06]

Thanks @odav. So is that easier / more effective than changing the front chainring? And I assume it's the 34 tooth cog that gives a very low gear?

 

[roger06]

Thanks. I've ordered one and have borrowed a removal tool from a friend. I'm far from the best bike mechanic though so hope I can do it...

 

[Andy_R]

When you say "cheap Apollo" and "9 year old son" in the same sentence, therin lies your problem. The bike is probably going to weigh about a third to a half of what your son does. (based on typical 9yr old weighing 30kg and typical apollo type mb weighing 10-15kg)

 

[Milkfloat]

Is he actually trying to use the easier gear to get up the hill, or is he like most kids - nail it as hard as he can and run out of breath? It took a while to gets my kids to pace themselves and spin up hills.

 

[roger06]

@Andy_R you are exactly right... I've just bought a Dawes adult bike for me which I think is lighter! His bike really does weigh about as much as a Chieftain Tank... I think my boy is more like 25kg as he's small for his age.

We're going to the Alps in a couple of week so will mainly be getting lifts up and rolling down so weight doesn't matter quite so much. A 34 tooth freewheel seems (hopefully) a cheap way of at least getting up some inclines until I can get him something better.

@Milkfloat - yes you're right too. He's often in way to high a gear and standing up as he thinks it's faster! However, trying to go up hills last weekend he was in first and still struggling.

 

[keithmac]

I managed to bag a Diamondback Outlook MTB for my 10 year old for £55 on ebay, nice light aluminium frame and shimano gears.

He was over the moon with it, think the bottom bracket isn't far off needing replacing but other than that it was a steal..

 

[roger06]

I managed to bag a Diamondback Outlook MTB for my 10 year old for £55 on ebay, nice light aluminium frame and shimano gears.

He was over the moon with it, think the bottom bracket isn't far off needing replacing but other than that it was a steal..

View attachment 364331

Nice! I keep looking out on eBay / Gumtree but there's nothing round my way at the moment...

 

[keithmac]

45 mile round trip but worth it ;-).

 

[MichaelW2]

One problem with most kid's bikes is the use of adult-sized cranks. Even if they have low enough gears, the vertical range of motion is way outside the range of little legs. I have a collection of small bikes for visiting friends and they all love the small cranks that I look for.

 

[roger06]

I got a 34-14 cassette from Amazon for £10 and borrowed the removal tool. All was fairly straightforward although getting the correct tension on the axle was tricky.

To my amazement the new one works, though the derailleur is now only a few mm from the large sprocket but seems to run OK. The bike is much easier to pedal although back pedalling while on the 34 tooth sprocket causes the chain to slip off on to second gear. So advice to son is "don't back pedal!".