Mitch Harris looking for a bicycle for his daughter is a fine thing .
Ann Phillips looking for a bicycle for her son is a fine thing .
Sheldon Brown's occasional mentions of bicycles belonging to his progeny are always nice to read .
The story of Jamie Swan's daughter Clementine asking to wear his old jersey to school put a lump in my throat , seriously .
Parents are lucky people .
Parents of offspring who want to ride bicycles with them are EXTREMELY lucky people .
A Raleigh bicycle makes a great deal of sense . You can choose between frames made in England in the olden days ( or Holland too ) , or in Asia ( plenty to choose from there , first ones were "Rampar" ) , or in the U.S.A. ( look for "Technium" from the State of Washington ) .
There was a brief transition period when the same old vintage frames were still made in England , but with SunTour drop-outs , and all the components were Asian aluminum alloy with the Raleigh name cast into them ( SunTour derailleurs ) .
What about Specialized ?
What about Trek ?
I still remember when we were SO impressed with a courageous start-up company , trying to do things right , in a high-quality way , but with modern methods , right here in the good-old-U.S.A .
So , what about Trek ?
And what about Schwinns made in Nippon ( "Japan" ) ? Traveler ( the imported one was a lugged-frame , the Chicago one was quite different ) - Le Tour - Super Le Tour - and the Volare was a really NICE bicycle !
And there are certainly MANY nice old middle-to-lower-end Peugeots out there , just begging for homes .
Raoul Delmare
Marysville Kansas
> How many of you who have cycling offspring help set them up on a
> classic-style bike? Don't mean a real classic that you'd worry about a
kid
> taking care of, but something in lugged steel that helps develop a taste
for
> the classics? How about components? For example, how many offspring of CR
> listers are set up with down tube friction?
>
> I've been planning a nicer road bike for my cycling-mad 11-year-old
daughter
> who spends much of the summer with me. And being the kind of dad who
doesn't
> like to push his opinions too broadly on his kids, and wanting her to love
> cycling itself and not get the impression from me that cycling is the act
of
> riding museum pieces.......and knowing that I often just don't get what my
> kids love (eg. BBMac), I have been looking around at inexpensive beer can
> bikes with intro STI. Bright paint on a current tour racer style bike
seemed
> to me to be what would make her feel that I'd gotten her "the best stuff."
>
> But reading e-Ritchey's stuff on craftmanship and thinking about these
other
> industries where real people manufacture really fine things that are worth
> having for a long time, I realized that part of my job as a dad was to
teach
> her some of that value, especially at her age, and cycling was a natural
way
> for me to do it (as well as letting her play my guitars while she's with
> me).
>
> Since the little Singer frame mentioned above isn't ideal for a kid bike
for
> obvious reasons, and a new lugged steel framed bike for her is beyond my
> budget--even a Romulus, which otherwise would be perfect--- here's what
> I've settled on (thrift shop find): an '81 or '82 Raleigh frame in high
> tensile steel that has really nice blue paint, pretty lugs and a head
badge
> that make it look like a real bike just like mine. Even the gas pipe
tubing
> has very serious Raleigh brand ID decals. I figure that even though it's
> going to be a heavy frame, it'll have some nice ride qualities, and will
> help her learn to value things like steel, lugs, headbadges, etc., so that
> when she can buy her own bikes, she'll be looking at a quality lugged
bike,
> not plastic. I'll add a really light wheelset, and friction SunTour
Cyclone
> ders I have to put on it, and it will be a very reasonable road bike for
> canyon riding.
>
> For now, she mostly rides with me on a vintage tandem, and her only
personal
> bike is another thrift shop find of mine: a red lugged steel Bridgestone
> MB-3 that I told her all about when I gave it to her, assuming I was
boring
> her to death when I explained lugs, and steel, and component quality.
Later,
> though, I heard to say to a friend proudly, "This is a lugged steel MB-3."
>
> Mitch Harris
> Utah Co., UT