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My Racing Bike
Wiggins ruen 700c road racing bike
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The Sir Bradley Wiggins kids bike range was launched in July 2016 exclusively at Halfords. In this post we take a look at what Sir Bradley, as Britain's first Tour de France winner, is most famous for - road cycling. The Wiggins Rouen Kids Road Bike range is cleverly branded "To the Podium" - following on from the smaller bikes which take your child "From the porch" and "To the park".
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All bikes in the Bradley Wiggins kids bike range are named after stages in the 2012 Tour de France - Pau, Macon, Chartres and Rouen. Rouen is the name given to all the road bikes in the range.
The Wiggins Rouen road bikes are a sleek and modern design, with most having distinctive 'reverse curve' front forks. Also seen on the Pinarello Dogma F8 used by Sir Bradley and the Team Wiggins professional riders, this design touch cleverly brings a new generation of cyclists that little bit closer to the dream of one day riding such a bike. Presumably due to cost, this feature doesn't appear on the 700c bikes with carbon forks.
Another nice touch on the Bradley Wiggins Kids Road Bike range is that the seat stays (the tubes that rise from the rear axle to the seat tube) are positioned lower than usual on the seat tube, giving a compact rear triangle. This is a design feature intended to give additional comfort to the rider, by reducing the shock from the bumps of the road, something not usually seen on kids bikes.
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Wiggins Rouen 700c Junior Road Bike
It's at the largest wheel size, that Wiggins expertise in road cycling and desire to appeal to the growing number of youth road cyclists really comes into its own. Sir Bradley has opted to create two 700c models. The first comes with the reverse curve aluminium forks as seen previously, whilst the top of the range model sports full carbon forks.
Both 700c models are available to purchase in 43cm or 48cm frame sizes. The 43cm frame is sized for riders of height 145cm - 150cm (4' 8" - 4' 11") and aged approximately 11 years and over. The 48cm frame 700c is designed for taller riders, 165 - 170cm (5' 5" - 5' 7"), and will be a last junior bike before progressing onto adult road bikes.
Firstly we'll take a look at the standard Wiggins Rouen 700c road bike with aluminium forks.
As we progress through the Wiggins Rouen range, there is an improvement in the quality of some components. On the 700c aluminium fork road bike we see the introduction of a Shimano Claris combined brake lever / gear shifter, an improvement on the Microshift used on the 650c.
All other componentry is the same on both the 650c and 700c Wiggins Rouen road bikes with aluminium forks.
The Wiggins Rouen 700c junior road bike stated weight is 9.9kg for the small 43cm and both sizes retail at £355. This compares with the Islabikes Luath 700c, which also comes in a small and large frame size (9.9kg small / 10.42kg - £599)
Wiggins Rouen 700c Carbon fork junior road bike
The bike on the top step of the podium and the ultimate in the range is the Wiggins Rouen Carbon fork 700c. As the name suggests, this comes kitted out with a full carbon fork, shaving precious grammes off the weight and adding a bit of comfort to the characteristics of the bike.
Wiggins has also upped the ante in the componentry stakes, with the introduction of 'next tier up in the food chain' Shimano Sora kit for front and rear derailleurs and STI levers that handle all braking and gear change duties. This move to Sora provides an additional 2 gears, taking the total up to 18 speeds. A point of note is that Wiggins has chosen to retain the Lasco branded chainset as seen on the other Rouen models.
The introduction of these parts should see benefits in terms of crisper gear shifting, an increase in longevity of said components, plus as you go higher up the range things start to get lighter. For example, this bike also comes with Kendra folding road tyres (700 x 23c) compared to the hard beaded tyres on the other models. The combined effect of the changes has put the Rouen 700c on a strict diet programme, hitting the scales at a svelte 9.2kg, some 700 grammes (or shall we say approximately three-quarters of a bag of sugar) less than the standard Rouen 700c.
Sir Bradley Wiggins' top of the range Rouen 700c with carbon forks retails at £425, a competitively priced machine for the specification.
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