Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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48 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Finally a young girls road bike, 9-12 year old, August 19, 2006
This is the only road bike we found designed for 9-12 year old girls. With one limitation, this is a great transition from a 20" child's bike.
Our oldest daughter was outgrowing her 20" child's bike. Both of her parents are traditional road bikers as compared to cheap mountain bike riders. She wanted gears and a freewheel, and we determined 24" was the desired wheel size. Bike shops and the Trek monster only offer mountain bikes as the next size up after a 20" child's bike. The geometry options were terrible. They forced the young riders to be too stretched out in length. It may not be as bad for larger boys, but definitely incorrect for smaller girls. Additionally, these mountain bikes have value added marketing destroying any other potential. Shocks are added which add weight and bulk, making them hard to maneuver. The shocks are ridiculous since few children are heavy enough to activate them. The bulk, weight, and poor geometry hinder the ability of young children to ride the common 24" bikes. In short, most bikes for this age group are built to sell and not to ride.
Then we finally found two options. LL Bean offered a mountain bike specifically designed for 9-12 year old girls. This was a fine choice although we preferred traditional drop handlebars and road geometry and gears. This Denali 24" girls bike is perfect. The 19" bar height allows a safe stop and start. While it comes with lower end Shimano grip shifters, they work smoothly and are appropriate given the aggressive pricing of this bike. The frame is a nice 7005 aluminum and the other fine components offer a decent weight.
I wrote Terry bikes to suggest they consider this age group as potential future customers, but Terry never responded.
Our daughter is a small 9 year old weighing only 51 pounds. She is also on the shorter side of girls her age. It took only a day for her to get familiar with the handling and shifting. She is riding faster and longer distances than she ever could with the 20" child's bike and we are enjoying our times together. I fully expect this bike to last her for many years.
The only negative was the brakes. The traditional brake levers, under the drop bars, are too low and need a wider hand to reach than our daughter has. The brakes took too much strength to pull given the grip width and position. The solution was easy. We added inline break levers on the top bar. This was not ideal given the bar shifters are in the same location we wanted the new brake levers. I needed to move the shifters inwards to make room but in the end, the new brake levers works. If Danali would consider adding the shifters as standard, this bike would be perfect out of the box.
In summary, we are grateful to Denali as a bike manufacturer for considering this age transition as important for creating long term riders. This is a great bike for 9-12 year old girls and was a great price on Amazon. I wish our local bike shops would consider carrying this type of product.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Kid's first road bike - decent, September 11, 2007
I bought this bike for my 10 year old daughter. I bought this so that she could ride further and faster when going on family bike rides. With her Mountain bike (Giant MTX 225) she is always the first one tired. I looked into buying her slick tires for this bike, but the decent ones, with shipping would have cost $40-50 for the set. This bike at 3 times that price and everything included was a better deal.
In short, the market for kids road bikes is highly limited. Everyone makes nice reasonably priced mountain bikes. Trek and Felt make road models that are quite pricey for a kid who is just getting started. I'd love to get her one of those, but I just can't justify the price.
This bike was a good alternative. It uses mountain shifters/derailleurs to save money, but that is fine. She is already used to the twist shifters, and the gearing is fine for her. For the price you pay, it is a decent bike. We've been on a few 10-15 mile rides with it, and it has worked fine. (11/21/07 - She has since completed a 1/4 Century on this bike with over 1000 ft of climbing. She and the bike both performed flawlessly.)
The bike, as shipped, just has the brakes and derailleurs slapped on. They had not been adjusted at all. I work on my own road bike, so this was not a problem for me, but others may want professional help. The front derailleur was actually bolted on too low and rotated, so that the chain rubbed in almost every gear combination. There is no inline adjustment for the front derailleur. I just picked up one from Jagwire and I'll be installing that this weekend.
It would be nice if there were some braze-ons for mounting a water bottle cage. But there are solutions to that also.
I did remove the brake levers and replaced them with my ancient brake levers from my late 70's Fuji road bike. These old levers have the secondary lever that you can pull from the tops of the handlebars. I did this solely for my daughter's convenience.
My major concern is that the front wheel is too close to the pedals. The front fork is straight, and it would be better if it swept forward a bit. My daughter's foot hits the wheel when turning some times. I may consider replacing the fork at some point. But even if I have to replace the fork, this bike is still a bargain.
And she LOVES the color!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A great bike if you don't like to stop., July 31, 2008
I bought this bike for my 9 year old daughter. Overall it is a good bike for $[...], however, there are 2 major design flaws I have found already. The braking system is RIDICULOUS for a child of 9-10; perhaps ok for an 11 or 12 year old, but a 9 year old does not have the finger strenght to operate the brakes from the top of the drops, and they can just barely reach the lever when they go down in the drops. Moving from the top riding position, grabbing the brakes and stopping quickly in an emergency is next to impossible and EXTREMELY DANGEROUS if your child hands are not big enough. The other minor flaw is that the handlebar has an adapter to fit the stem, which is cheesy. The correct size stem should have been used, but the manufacture cheaps out on this feature.
I spent another $[...] to get the bike modified to a straight handlebar, correct stem, brake levers and other minor parts and labor so that it would be safe for my daughter to ride.
The bike is much more appropriate if your child has larger hands, but without in-line brake levers added, I think its still a little dangerous.
It is an attactive bike, and my daughter loved it, but unless your child is bigger, I would suggest spending $300 (cost of the bike + needed modifications) on an nice Trek kids bike.
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