Decent mt bike for kids?

So who makes a decent mt bike for kids? My son is just over 4' and 60 lbs. I would love to get him onto a bike with 24" wheels, hard tail, decent brakes and an OK shock. Any suggestions?

Thanks, Rich

Might be selling my sons kona shred 24 sooner than expected. I think we are going to have to stop feeding him!
I put a RS Tora air fork on it and have some 20" disc wheels for it too. Probably wont be selling it till fall though.

If you are looking for new I hear MEC has some good kids bikes.

Hi,
I have a Rocky Mountain Grind 24" bike with all high end parts that I'm selling. Its got hydraulic disk brakes, a very nice fork, and would be a great ride for your son.
Not to sure how this message board works but send me a reply if you are interested can send you pics if you would like
Pietro

If he's at or around 4 feet, you'd be looking at a 20". Check out these:

Kranked HT - a wicked spec'd hardtail
Commencal Supreme 20 - a more park specific bike, also comes in 24"
SCOTT Spark JR 20 - A FS bike that a lot of people modify into a pretty impressive bike.
Lil' Shredder - Pretty much the gold standard in kid's mountain bikes. Convertible from 16" to 20" wheels You also need a fair bit of gold to get your hands on one of these.

The market is filled with mediocre to terrible kid's bikes, but those are a few options on the high performance side.

+1 for the Kona, the Stuff has a better forks and brakes stock than the Shred. I think they stopped making the Stuff 24 in 2010 or 2011. My boy is riding a 2009 Stuff 24 with an older Z1 and Shimano Hydraulic brakes. He had a specialized Hotrock but it wasn't worth upgrading. Most kids bikes also don't come with rear disk tabs so watch for this if disks are important for you.

Garth

Thank you for all the great info.

Atomic - could you send photos and description to [email protected]?

I was also looking at the Kona Shred and it looked solid.

My son has a 20" bike right now and has more or less out grown it.

Thanks, Rich

Rich, check out MEC's Ghost 24". Only bike in the $400-500 price range with full hydros. Good components, i had to swap out a shorter stem but great little bike. Always seems to be sold out though…

Giant's releasing a sweet little 24" wheeled bike for '14. Just laid eyes on it at their summit in Whistler over the past coupla days. Not a bad bike at all for little tiny adults either;

just a heads up, Whistler sells off some pretty decent kids bikes at the Turkey Sale. We picked up my nephew a 24" Stinky(I know full suspension) for $350. Little bit of elbow grease and the thing looked brand new and worked perfectly. I think they are renting some not bad Giants at the moment, so wait a month or 2 and check it out. just a thought.

I visited the MEC in Langley and the Ghost 24 frame fits James and the brakes are hydros which is awesome. What is not awesome is that the levers are so far from the bar and not adjustable! Anyway to fix that?