There comes a point in every man's life when knowledge about kashima and wireless switches is useless. I'm talking about buying a kids bike.
You will quickly find out that your favourite rider-for-rider brand understands almost nothing about children's bikes. It is easy to understand this - by the presence of USA standard carriage assemblies on loose bearings with “poker” connecting rods made from a piece of reinforcement, and a bunch of technical solutions of the dinosaur era in bicycles for the little ones. On this, perhaps it is worth going to the catalogue of another manufacturer.
Like any daddy is a cyclist (and our mom is also a cyclist), I dream of riding the trails with my family as soon as the kids grow up. At the end of autumn, Olya signed up her daughter for running training at the extreme school Bike Me and Aya quickly learned cool things: like riding standing on the steps or standing with two feet on the seat.
Family viewing of a bicycle movie gave her an interest in banihops, surfing on trails and brown pow (and also the requirement to have a first-timer “to run after a bicycle”). But the most important thing is that attending training sessions taught me how to compete with peers. Immediately two-second places in their age category among the boys, since there were no more girls.
The run bike was a balance bike, but it has no pedals and can hardly be called a real bike. This became the starting point of the search. So why is Format 7412 so good? In a nutshell - fork and brakes.
Given the total rigidity of forks on children's bicycles, meeting a suspension fork means finding a treasure or winning the lottery. The 40mm Suntour XCT is not something you'd want to see on your bike, but the Fox 38 won't be of much use to a child initially. And 40 mm is not so little, considering that the height of a child is about a meter and a little. In general - "everything is fine" option that does not hit the parent's pocket and suits with spring-elastomeric work at the start.
Disk brakes. How long have you been convinced of their superiority over rims yourself? No, brakes were quite good, but only when they came to replace cantilevers. So why should they be standing on your child's bike? The standard disc mechanics Tektro M280 is a reliable piece of hardware, the power of which is more than enough for a child's bike so that you can dashingly "drift" on any surface and not bother your parent because of the eights on the wheels.
6061 aluminium frames are the heart of Format 7412. In its description, you will not find the words: butting, hydroforming, cold forging or milling. But you will find a BSA standard threaded bottom bracket, here called EBB, and a square cartridge bottom bracket. IS disc brake mount and no vibrate brake mounts, which is an aesthetic plus for me.
Head tube - good old 1 1/8 a headset. The helmsman's cups were easy to change, in his youth, with a hammer on the landing, it was necessary to enlist the moral support of knowledgeable guys. The main thing is that this frame has a replaceable rear derailleur mounting bracket. The list for an adult bike is not progressive, but for a child, it is very solid.
The Shimano FT35D rear derailleur was created by the Japanese for folding bicycles, but fits perfectly into the configuration of children - the advantage is a short foot, which increases clearance and improves derailleur survival. By the way, among the competitors everywhere there is a standard long-legged Tourney, which almost scratches the ground with the lower roller because of the small 20-inch wheels.
The list of strengths is completed by the bike hitch. Now let's see - Sun Race rear derailleur key shifter. Did I surprise any adult with the existence of keyboard shifters? I think, no. Now look at children's bicycles - there is a grip shift everywhere. It's hard for me to understand why this is happening, but we will assume that it is easier for children to play motorcyclists with him.
The 250mm micro-adjustable double-bolt seat post provides a wide range of settings for the fast-growing child's body and classic Waitwinning by cutting off the excess. And in general, it is also the strength and convenience of adjusting the position of the saddle.
Saddle with the most standard 5mm frames with the proud Kids Series wordmark. It remains to be seen what kind of object it is and how it differs from an adult, but at first glance, it is quite decent. The handlebars and stem are also adults here: 50 mm±7 ° at the stem and 31.8/540/50 mm at the handlebars.
Hallelujah - full compatibility with an adult iron!
Kenda Small Block Eight tires are 10 out of 10 - John Tomak, at one time, created an almost perfect tire that works in a wide range. Pleasantly pleased with the presence of eccentrics, not nuts, on the bushings.
Aya collected the bike from the box herself, under the supervision of Olya's camera. Thanks to the Format assemblers - much less screwing was needed than expected, and a five-year-old can handle it. But it doesn't hurt to check and adjust again, especially how the pedals are twisted.
Mastering the bike, after running the bike, went quickly. The main thing was to prove to Aya that she needed to pedal and not have to push off the ground with her feet to drive. The role of the bicycle in these first independent meters is enormous - more than once I have observed childhood suffering on cheap bicycles who were afraid to ride a real bicycle. Remember, I was talking about USA bottom brackets, in my opinion, this is the worst thing that can be done with a child's bike. This also applies to all other "budget" solutions in this frame unit. The child has to learn how to combine maintaining balance, steering and pedalling, and here this has to be done with a huge Q-factor and overcoming the not very smooth operation of bulk bearings. Format, even in the smallest bicycles, has a cartridge for a square, which immediately normalizes the Q-factor and reduces pedalling resistance.
The music did not play for a long time - a week later, the April All-Russian holidays happened and the number of trips was reduced to zero. True, Aya's love for "balconies" and pedalling on the machine suddenly became clear, though it is still not clear whether it is worth starting a child account in Zwift?
We have big plans for the year - after Aya has confidently mastered the "root sections" in the area, we will try to go to trails and the bike park. The cherished dream of skiing with the whole family will become a reality.
The Format 7412 is a great example of a well-balanced kids bike - almost all of the equipment will survive the growing up period, and the rest can be replaced without compromising the family budget. At the same time, it does not suffer from obvious errors, such as bushings on nuts, and there is no need to overpay for positive tires in the absence of a suspension fork. It has a lot of child care, expressed in subtle details: comfortable brake levers, rocker shifter, short-toed derailleur, elevator steering wheel and versatile rolling tires. The declared weight of 11.3 kg can be easily reduced by about a kilogram by unscrewing and throwing out the iron step, but Aya likes it so much, so I'll have to wait.
