By Jack Lynch + Will (11 years old)
RRP: $4,199
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Do you remember your first road bike? Mine was a Norco Flyte. It was a yellow aluminium frame, with Shimano Sora and 32-spoke alloy wheels. It had a threaded headset, Panaracer wire-beaded tyres, it had a triple chainring and its top sprocket on the eight-speed cassette had 23 teeth. I was 13 and visited that bike twice a week for a month before my parents bought it for me. That bike changed my life.
Will’s first road bike is a Seek 1 from Giant. It is very different to the Norco Flyte. Giant has re-imagined its flatbar utility Seek series, replacing the sturdy model with an epic line of kids road/gravel bikes with components and colour schemes to make everyone jealous.
A keen mountain biker, 11-year-old Will spent all his spare time for a couple of months on road and gravel, checking out the Seek 1 to give us the lowdown.
Hiya Will – how have you enjoyed riding the bike?
It’s very fun, it’s very fast and it’s pretty easy to ride.
What did you first think before you rode it?
After riding mountain bikes so much, I thought it was going to be tricky because of the skinny tyres, but when I got on it, it was really fun.
What do you like most about the bike?
I like that it’s light and the electric gears are really cool. They’re pretty much like normal click gears, but you press a button and it changes really fast.
What about the brakes?
The brakes were good. They slow you down a lot but I can suggest not to pull them too hard.
Where have you been riding?
I’ve been riding down near the Barwon river, which has concrete and is off the road. It’s pretty flat but it means I can practice going as fast as I can.
Do you cruise along too? Or is it just about going fast?
You can do a bit of both because it’s so light. Cruising is way too easy and going as fast as you can is easier than it’s supposed to be. Normally I average about 15kmh but when I was riding my usual pace was 20kmh over like 5kms.
Did you find it comfortable to sit in the road position compared with your mountain bike?
My bum was fine but you’ve got to get used to the curved handlebars and leaning down, rather than sitting up.
Could you and your friends ride bikes like this together?
Yeah I could definitely see us riding these bikes together. I’d just have to persuade them that it’s better than a mountain bike because it doesn’t have suspension – and that’s what they like, a lot.
So if somebody wanted to get a new bike, would you suggest one like this?
Probably. Yeah. It depends what kind of a bike person they are. If they’re off-road and trails, then I’d say a mountain bike but if they want to ride on the road and path then this is the way to go. It can also go on fire roads and gravel tracks which is super fun. It’s a very good bike.
