thegeneralist
Dude chill. I’m not accusing you of being a bike snob at all. All I remember is reading huge updates on all the mechanical changes that you made to your son’s bike. I always used to marvel at how differently people approached the same sport.
I finally got round to bleeding the brake.
Um so he had hydraulic brakes... but the point really being his frame had disk mounts and his hubs had rotor mounts.
By far the most important thing for me is he's always had a bike we can ride together.
There is a lot of "kids don't need hydraulic brakes", "kids don't need suspension", "crank length doesn't matter" and an equal amount of "kids can't ride XXX".
I set out to enable him to ride what he wanted using my meagre knowledge and my hybrid at the time.
6 years later I have accumulated a lot of knowledge and from him and his friends I'm even more convinced "kids can't" is total rubbish if they have the right bike.
I'll leave you with "why kids don't need suspension", I'll let you decide if that couints as HUGE AIR ... though far more precious to me are the photo's from when he was 5-6 and we were having a picnic by a trail.
I agree with the op.get something decent.its bound to needs bits replacing and bso bikes are hard to work on and can be dangerously designed.dont underestimate how fast little kids can go on bikes.
I agree with the op.get something decent.its bound to needs bits replacing and bso bikes are hard to work on and can be dangerously designed.dont underestimate how fast little kids can go on bikes.
and as soon as he starts replacing bits he can't return it via inlaws.... and in all probability it will either be unused or a money pit and said inlaws will keep buying unusable stuff.
Quite honestly I don't even see how you could hide this with a 5yr old... short of telling them to lie to the inlaws. (let's not even go there)
Also that the bike was secondhand.
Yes, I'm not sure putting my kids on a second hand bike is snobbery, but hey. It's even third hand as they had two kids!
Also gave him his clearly not new present at a party in front of his friends and folks, so go figure.
Image obsessed me.
OP I don’t think the bike is the problem. It’s the fact you wanted to take him to a bike shop and experience buying a new bike with him.
Imo its a shit move from the inlaws if you expressed that with them. I’d give it back to them and tell them why. If they don’t understand then **** em. But I’m an arsehole.
