Bike reviews

GMC Denali Boy's 24-Inch Road Bike

Great starter bike for 9 yr old

I have been road biking for 20 years. I wanted to get my grandson something to replace his "half ton" single speed bmx . I did not want to spend a lot. Read a lot of reviews and chose to pass on this bike until I saw one in a bike stand. After looking at the frame and components I decided to buy it from Amazon. It was delivered no charge in two days. It has been perfect for my 9 yr old grandson. We are both biking together. It did require a few adjustments that anyone with metric allen wrenches can do. One suggestion, my grandson has big hands and even with these the brake levers are difficult. He now has mastered them, but a typical 9 year old will have trouble. These levers are for a full size adult. They should be replaced with levers to fit a 9 to twelve year old. Value for the cost is excellent and when he grows out of this bike I have three more grandsons to pass it down to. I would recommend this bike over the trek and other bikes for this age group thereby saving about $500 to put towards his next bike. I think that the grip shifters are more user friendly to a 9 years old then STI's especially since there is a numerical readout that allow him to know where he is when shifting. The most important critic is my grandson and he loves it.

Great Bike

Unbelievable value for money. My 11-year-old loves the bike. He says to only give a four-star rating because the brakes could use some improvements. Still, he rides all day!

Great bike at a fantastic value

This bike is a great buy. It is very difficult to find a junior road bike with 21 speed under $200.00 My son was not into the BMX stlye bikes or the Mountain Bikes with shocks. This bike moves realy fast! I took the advice from the previous reviewer and changed the handle bars to a straight bar because my son's reach to the curved handle bars was too far. It took my local bike shop about 1 hour to do and cost less than $60.00 for parts and labor. It needed brake handles and a handle bar and grips. I saw three other bikes in the same size in the bike shop that cost $600.00 and up! After comparing them to the components and weight, I am certain this bike is just as good and a great value!

Good for shorties

This "road bike" is basically a mountain bike on road wheels with a drop down handlebar. Even so, its steel fork and aluminum frame is still lighter than my $700 diamondback mountain bike. And in reality, for the price, this is an excellent bike. I only rated it 3 stars because the one I ordered took a lot of work to get it safe enough to ride. The derailleurs are still off but I'm too lazy to fix it. The brakes needed major adjusting; it was very difficult to align the pads next to the wheel. All in all, I am satisfied with it as a commuter bike. I am 5'2", and it is a perfect height for me. I also like how the tires are skinny and more like a hybrid size. It helps when I hop down curbs or bike on dirt and grass.

Great value - especially if mechanically inclined

Bought this bike for our 7 YO girl (23-24" inseam). She loves the bike. It was absolutely necessary to convert the handlebars to mtn bike bars and get those in-line brake levers. The drop bars and brake levers are just too far away for her to reach. We were looking at a $300 fuji kids bike at the LBS and it was nice. This bike is not that far off and its only half the price. The fuji had a slightly better component spec but weight difference was not noticable. The previous reviewers were right - the wheels needed slight truing, brakes needed adjustment, but everything else worked right out the box. The red bike is really cool - it is orange with red metal flake that gives it a red-pearlesent look. This is one of the nicest paint jobs Ive ever seen for a "starter" bike. Definitely recommend the mtn bike handlebar conversion for the younger kids. Couple items for you to note: 1) The original drop handlebars are split, so removing the grip shifters is easy. 2) the stem is the latest 30.8 diameter so buy mtn bars with teh bigger dia, if you dont want to use shims. 3) Performance has some nice in-line brake levers that work well as mtn bike brakes. These in-line brakes can be used later in conjunction with the hooded brakes when you put the drops back on and they have a set screw to limit the amount of reach needed for your kids smaller hands. Other reviewers talk about new tires - these are schrader valved and seem to be fine right out of the box. They have an annoying white stripe on the sidewall that is not even so it looks like the tire is not seated properly. The only other complaint is that the front grip shifter is not trimmable so certain gear combos that my daughter rides in will cause the FD to rub. Not a big deal, but I forgot how nice a trimmable FD is... Im posting pics of the mtn bar conversion and my 7.5 YO daughter riding hers on a maiden voyage. Her inseam is 23-24" and the seat is all the way down. You can see shes got good leg extension but the bike is a little uncomfortable for her size (getting on and off). I think in a few months she will be able to get on and off and she will be totally comfortable. I almost forgot - we got the boys so that I can hand-it down to my son as also my daughter is finally tired of pink...

Keyword : road+bikes