I am sure that someone on ST will have an aswer, or at the very least an idea to help me with this. My 7 year old asked Santa for a road bike with areo bars and a rear disc wheel. Santa was able to obtain the perfect Fuji Ace 24 childrens road bike from the LBS and some shorty aero bars from ebay. He is having one heck of a time finding a product to cover the back wheel with. He is at the point of buying a CH aero cover for $60 and cutting it down. Not his first choice. Santa has even gone down to the plastic supply store to see what types of material would be best suited for this application, and was not able to really get any good information from the folks working there. Not that the folks working there should have knowledge about these things, not an area where they get these kind of requests.
If you search this forum you can probably find some links to making one from Mylar. Cutting down a CH cover may be easier. I wince thinking about my kids trying to ride aero-bars and a disk at age 7. Good luck.
That is super cute and Rich at Wheelbuilder.com can probably help you out - but I’d be pretty cautious about putting a 7yr old on aerobars and a disc wheel. Even if (s)he is a solid rider, those two things can drastically change how a bike will handle.
Being a jerk roadie, I’d imagine that your 7 year old has equivalent bike handling skills to your average triathlete - but kids don’t typically ride in a straight line or on clean pavement. There are a few folk on here who have experience with kids riding road/tri bikes, but in general I’d shy away from that until (s)he’s maybe 10 or so.
I do agree, it will be mostly for the WOW factor, since it is exactly what he asked Santa for. We will ease into using aero bars and the disc. He has been a solid rider for 21/2 years now, he knows proper bike trail etiquette, and can hold a line OK, but I would not allow him to ride in aeros or with the disk while around others at this point. We have some large open areas with no traffic at all the he can practice in when the time is right. I am sending Rich and email right now.
**What my son wanted and got for Xmas. ** **Edit | Delete | Quote | Reply **
This was Xmas morning and Ben with his new bike. Ben saw a kid at one of the local kid’s races that had a set of aero bars and a rear disc cover, and that is all he talked about for months. He asked Santa for a new road bike with aero bars and a rear disc wheel. My 14 year old son and I spent most of Xmas eve fabricating the rear cover, took a couple of tries, but we finally got something that worked, or at least Ben thought would work! My 14 year old son, Jake, has a little more artistic ability than I, so he did a pretty good job of putting flames on.
The sound of joy that came from my son when he walked into the living room to see the new bike all set up was unreal!!! He insisted that the family do a ride that day, so we hit the bike trail for a quick 10!! He has since taken to riding every day after school, if it is raining, we have to set up the trainer in the living room so that he can watch Cartoon Network and spin. His longest ride is now 15 miles and he rolls along at about 13 mph or so.
Just so I don’t get any undue flames, the aero bars came off, as did the disc, before he was able to ride on the street or trail. He understands that those things are for when he gets better on the bike.
And I am pretty sure that his seat is too high.
Thanks again for you help, and thanks for asking aobut the outcome, I think you can see from the picture, he kind of liked it!!!
(This post was edited by onabubble on Jan 22, 09 13:48)
- but kids don’t typically ride in a straight line or on clean pavement. There are a few folk on here who have experience with kids riding road/tri bikes, but in general I’d shy away from that until (s)he’s maybe 10 or so.
