This morning started out rather horrifyingly. Our bike commute to school is almost 2.5 miles downhill, and most of that at a precarious grade. As we were entering the grounds my older son says, "Mom, my brakes barely work." And wow, just wow. I don't know at what point they failed, but squeezed all the way, the brakes barely even slowed the bike. A miracle from God Himself that we did not have a major accident. I kissed the boys goodbye, headed home and returned with the van. I decided to use this opportunity to fix the Specialized's brakes and have a little chat with a bike mechanic about the Giant.
I didn't go to the LBS where I bought the Giant because 1. it's a very long drive 2. I adore the guys in REI's bike department. I handed the bikes off to the mechanic and waited for his findings. The brakes on the Specialized are a bit of a mystery, but new cables and brake pads were mandatory, as was the tune-up it has never had. Got the bike in 2nd grade, now we're halfway through 4th grade :/ Meanwhile, I asked the mechanic, who is a thoughtful, intelligent, early-60s guy to give me his opinion. He knows the hill of which I speak - roadies consider it a challenge to be conquered on weekends. He lifted up the Giant and said, "This bike weighs a LOT. Much more than ours weigh." And indeed, the 24 inch Specialized is lighter than the 20 inch Giant! When I told him my son only ways *maybe* 50 pounds, he was incredulous. "This bike is at least 25 pounds, and probably more. Well, I'll tell you this, I know two things. 1. You have a really good kid. Most kids would have refused to ride that route. This bike is not any fun to ride for a 50 pound kid. Especially not up THAT hill. 2. You have a really good relationship with your kid, since he does ride it and doesn't complain." And this is dually true - my L is the single most self-directed kid I've ever met. And also, L KNOWS how I love to bike to school. He won't complain because he knows biking makes me happy and that it's supposed to be good for kids. The mechanic said there was nothing meaningful I could do for this bike, and if it was him, he'd sell it. The resistance is something about "the hub" and there's not much to do about it. The gearing is somewhat ridiculous, he pointed out. I could have wept. Wasted $225 on that Giant, and made my child ride the horrid beast up the most challenging hill in town. Every day. For months. I feel worse about this than I do about forking out more money for a child's bike. When he gets home I'm measuring his PBH. Maybe I can get him on an Islabike that will last for a few years. Thanks for all the help and the recommendations. I'll let you know what we get in place of the dreaded Giant. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
