Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Freewheeling => Topic started by: DrMekon on 13 October, 2013, 12:31:46 am
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I've started to look at some if the bikes kids in the group above mini mekon are riding. Sure, teens on carbon is to be expected (was still shocked to see a schoolkid with DI2). But pre-teens on factory wheels? After I pointed out a kid barely in double digits on Fox forks, another dad pointed out a kid on a bontrager rxl wheel set - something I couldn't stretch to on my best bike! Another kid has ksyriums. Suspicions is that it's dad's using children as dumping ground for spares as they upgrade. Are other clubs kids coaching sessions seeing similar kit? Mini mekon is likely to stick with Islabike, but kids turning up on bikes like the Felt F24 Jr race bike definitely turns heads.
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I can only ever think of this image when reading something like that:
(http://velochimp.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/NDDCn.jpg)
Pretty crazy all in all. Most of my youth riding revolved seeing how big the ramps we could build and jump off - not sure a pair of carbon wheels is going to handle that sort of abuse.
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In principle it would be nice to have a level playing field. In practice it doesn't happen as those with the cash will always have access to better kit. Not sure how much the kit makes a difference between e.g. an entry level fuji track bike (the staple of the local club) and a carbon framed thingy until you get up to the early/mid teens.
Youth B and up could see good kit making a bit of a difference (though not as much as raw talent and the randomness of teen development). I can think of a few evenly matched youngsters where it *might* make a difference but most of the time it doesn't. In many cases it can be counterproductive in the long term.
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I'd have thought that bike weight would make more of a difference than for adults, given the greater proportion of bodyweight it represents. I'd also expect that developmental differences between the children would dwarf most other effects.
Good kit is, presumably, an indicator of parental enthusiasm and therefore training opportunities...