Big Brother was such a great sport when Little Brother got his "new" Islabike. He politely asked if he could try out the handbrakes so he could practice, too. It was pretty funny seeing them riding the same size bikes around. Thanks to some very generous and amazing grandparents, Big Brother was able to get the Beinn 20 large from Islabikes.
I ordered the bike Tuesday and it arrived today, Thursday. It took me about 5 minutes to put the front wheel on and thread in the pedals but then I had to walk the bike over to our friend's house to tighten them down with a pedal wrench.
I packed both bikes onto the Bullitt for school pickup and surprised the big guy. He knew right away that it was a bike for him, despite not having been told it had been ordered. When I asked how he knew, he simply said "I knew you wouldn't bring Little Brother's bike and not mine!"
After a few minutes of testing it out, we headed out to pick up the Little. The Beinn is a bit on the large side for BB. To be totally honest, the size chart has him barely at the Beinn Small size. I decided to make the extra leap because BIg Brother had tried both the Small and Large from friends and was able to try both sizes and he could ride them fairly equally.
BB's a little shaky with the starts and stops but great as he's riding along. He's getting used to leaning over to the side a bit more than before and using both handbrakes instead of a coaster. I haven't taught him how to get into power pedal position wth just one leg, yet, but he's only ridden the bike two miles so far, we have time for that. He was able to shift up to higher gears but not able to pull the grip shift back toward him for lower gears. We'll need to get some parking lot drills in soon.
Sadly, Islabikes was out of their racks for the next few months, which was one of the main reasons for upgrading him in the first place. I was hoping to take him camping soon and letting him carry some of the gear. For now, he'll just be getting used to the bike with his own weight.
The bike is outfitted with the kickstand but I plan on adding fenders, the rack, panniers, and a side-loading bottle cage. It'll be a real touring bike in no time.
Little Brother didn't quite have the same heartfelt response to his brother's new bike and had a meltdown over not having a kickstand on his bike. Once he calmed down, we had a lovely ride back home with two happy boys on great bikes.
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