Light weight kids pedals

A fairly cheap and easy way to loose some weight and fit a more suited component to a kits bike is to change the pedals.  Some kids bikes do come with light plastic pedals but these can often have little grip which is particularly evident in moist conditions.  The original pedals that came on Lewis’s bike weighted in at 480g and had very little grip in the wet/mud.

I fitted a set of superstar nano thru pin pedals which had a weight penalty of 20g but improved grip.  Downside to these pedals is the size compared to Lewis’s feet and the sharpness of the pins that resulted in a few scrapes.  The nano tru pin’s are relatively cheap @ £37 and get good reviews but are not really suited to a small persons foot.

In order to loose a bit of weight and get smaller less aggressive pedals I looked about the usual online shops but lightweight pedals are generally not cheap and finding smaller pedals wasn’t being fruitful.  I changed tact and searched on ebay.  There are many far eastern sellers that can provide various different flat pedals but without reviews it can be a bit of a gamble on the quality.  VP make a very light small pedal, VP ONE carbon,  which come in at 180g a pair but they don’t look like they have much grip for standard Scottish conditions.

I finally decided to try a set of pedals from the ebay dealer gamepall.  The pedals come in four colours, red, black, silver and gold and weigh in at according to my scales 290g.  The are branded as DH sport 113 and Lewis wanted the gold ones.  Ordered on the 12th and arrived 17th June.

Quality of the pedal isn’t bad although I’m not sure how much abuse the anodising will take.  The bearing seals are not as good as the superstar’s so will have to keep an eye on them but you can remove the axle and repack with new grease/bearings.  The pedals spin nicely with no play so atleast they are put together well.  the studs are not as sharp as the nano thru’s but hopefully they will still be effective.

Size wise they are not as wide as the superstar nano’s and slightly shorter.

For £17 we saved 210g and better sized pedals for his feet – will report back after a ride.

Kids Cranks

Crank length should be considered when buying a child’s bike as this can have a major effect on cycling. The Carrera blast came spec’d with 165mm cranks which for Lewis was far too long (I use 165mm XT’s). This was noticeable as he would bob when spinning under light load. Long cranks also affect saddle height which in turn affects body position over the bars. There are a number of pages on the internet to provide the information about leg and crank length to what is suitable. I recommend reading this page on bike dynamics and this one on highpath.net

The Carrera comes with a 22/32/42 triple crank with a 12-28 7sp cassette and is fitted with a no-name cone and cup bottom bracket – 68 X 122.5 square tapper. I fitted a SRAM 12-32 cassette at the same time as the new crank to give Lewis lower gearing.

Kids bikes

I thought I would start this blog with some info on my son’s bike. As an avid mountain biker I was thrilled when my eldest son showed an interest in taking up the sport. Lewis is an average sized 9 year old so when choosing a bike 24 inch wheels seemed the logical choice. Sadly kids bikes are not well catered for with the market made up of high end bikes like the Islabike Beinn 24 & Creig 24 and the lower end of the market. The Isla bikes and other high end marques like frog are quite expensive while not actually looking that fancy ( important for a kid).

Looking at various bike we eventually choose a Carrera blast 24 from Halfords in lime green. This cost a smige under £200 and came with disc brakes, a basic suspension fork and looked quite smart. So while £450 cheaper than a Islabike Creig it did have some disadvantages.