Kids Bike Suggestions

Ghost still has cantilever brakes doesn't it? Shred 2.0 wins

Norco has a Fluid 20" coming

http://www.norco.com/bikes/mountain/trail/fluid-20/fluid-22/

Recently picked up a couple of Rocky Mountain Edge 20s for my boys. Nice little bikes that were Summit rentals for the summer. They aren't far off like-new condition and were sub $500 for the pair.

I'm in that awkward stage with my daughter where her 24" hotrock is nearly at the limit of its seatpost, but a bigger bike is too expensive…I mean just a bit big.

She's at about 145cm tall right now (4'9"?). She loves riding on the shore and I think an XS ladies bike with 26" wheels might be in her near future. Anybody with this kind of experience?

I know most of the discussion has been around smaller kids - but what about those tweeners? (not just tweeners in age, but height).

Quinn

I'm in that awkward stage with my daughter where her 24" hotrock is nearly at the limit of its seatpost, but a bigger bike is too expensive…I mean just a bit big.

She's at about 145cm tall right now (4'9"?). She loves riding on the shore and I think an XS ladies bike with 26" wheels might be in her near future. Anybody with this kind of experience?

I know most of the discussion has been around smaller kids - but what about those tweeners? (not just tweeners in age, but height).

Quinn

I went a slightly different route. Got both my boys on a small/xs full suspension bike but built a couple of sets of light 24" disc wheels. As they got a little bigger put on the 26" wheels and the bikes are fitting them great.

SPAM alert, I have 2 sets of 24" wheels if anyone is interested. Ace 20 rims built on Circus Monkey 6-bolt disc hubs. Have tires as well. One set with Schwalble Rocket Rons and the other with Maxxis Snyper.

There was a thread kicking around where someone (I forget who) built his kids two XS frames up.

There was a thread kicking around where someone (I forget who) built his kids two XS frames up.

I think there's a few of us here that have done that. Especially those of us that were just ahead of the sudden boom in proper kids' 20" and 24" wheeled bikes.

Couple of key points in doing this, that are critical to success and non-suckage of the riding experience:

1. Pedal strikes. Remember, if you took a modern lower BB 26" bike and threw on 24" wheels, you're gonna' get tons of pedal strikes, and worse, pedals touching down on corners and tossing the kids or even bottoming out at full compression of the rear suspension. Even with 165mm cranks. So, you've got to be looking at BB height and "older" slopestyle and freeride bikes offer that. Bike like the transition Double, Banshee Wildcard, Norco 4XXX, Norco Fluid, older Giant Reign SX, etc…

2. Value. There is great value going this route. The ready-built 24" kids full suspension bikes seem really over-priced, especially by the bigger production builders. It's a niche and it's been capitalized on. With a modified 26", you can go back to the 26" wheels and get another couple of years. By the time my kids' are done they will have had 4 years out of these bikes and they'll be too trashed to get much $ for, but they were each built up with very good parts spec for under $1000 each. Worthy.

3. Toptube. Again, many "modern" 26" bikes started the trend to longer top tubes (longer/lower). Again, small bodies with short torso's. So again, looking at older generation play bikes. Then run 30mm stems and straight (not setback) posts.

4. Bars. Cut them down. So much torque on their shoulders and wrists to turn full bars. They aren't Stevie Smith yet.

5. Tires. Here in-lies a big problem. You seem to be able to get good 24" xc oriented tires that suck for DH in terms of flat tires and cushion. But, it's really hard to find a good 24" DH tire. Maxxis are out there, but hard to find non-OEM. The only readily available true DH 24" tire is the Kenda Nevegal 2.5. But it's full-on DH casing, so pretty heavy. They won't flat it, but if you want them to climb as well as descent, it's a bit of a boat anchor. Nonetheless, these became the go-to for the rear tire. The only thing that survived many days in the park and the Shore without persistent flats.

6. Forks. They don't need 6 or 7" of travel. Get a fork that can have the travel reduced when the start to keep the front-end and stand-over low. Then increase again when up to the bigger wheels. Many RS forks allow this easily with travel reducer spacers. Air forks are the only real solution to get proper travel. Again, RS tend to stay more supple in the lower spectrum of air pressure.

Good luck.

Ghost still has cantilever brakes doesn't it? Shred 2.0 wins

the new ghost( powerkid bike) has hydro brakes.
http://www.mec.ca/product/5043-747/ghost-powerkid-24-disc-bicycle-youths-kids/?Ntk=productsearch_en_q32008[HTML_REMOVED]h=10+50013[HTML_REMOVED]q=ghost

I think there's a few of us here that have done that. Especially those of us that were just ahead of the sudden boom in proper kids' 20" and 24" wheeled bikes.

Couple of key points in doing this, that are critical to success and non-suckage of the riding experience:

1. Pedal strikes. Remember, if you took a modern lower BB 26" bike and threw on 24" wheels, you're gonna' get tons of pedal strikes, and worse, pedals touching down on corners and tossing the kids or even bottoming out at full compression of the rear suspension. Even with 165mm cranks. So, you've got to be looking at BB height and "older" slopestyle and freeride bikes offer that. Bike like the transition Double, Banshee Wildcard, Norco 4XXX, Norco Fluid, older Giant Reign SX, etc…

2. Value. There is great value going this route. The ready-built 24" kids full suspension bikes seem really over-priced, especially by the bigger production builders. It's a niche and it's been capitalized on. With a modified 26", you can go back to the 26" wheels and get another couple of years. By the time my kids' are done they will have had 4 years out of these bikes and they'll be too trashed to get much $ for, but they were each built up with very good parts spec for under $1000 each. Worthy.

3. Toptube. Again, many "modern" 26" bikes started the trend to longer top tubes (longer/lower). Again, small bodies with short torso's. So again, looking at older generation play bikes. Then run 30mm stems and straight (not setback) posts.

4. Bars. Cut them down. So much torque on their shoulders and wrists to turn full bars. They aren't Stevie Smith yet.

5. Tires. Here in-lies a big problem. You seem to be able to get good 24" xc oriented tires that suck for DH in terms of flat tires and cushion. But, it's really hard to find a good 24" DH tire. Maxxis are out there, but hard to find non-OEM. The only readily available true DH 24" tire is the Kenda Nevegal 2.5. But it's full-on DH casing, so pretty heavy. They won't flat it, but if you want them to climb as well as descent, it's a bit of a boat anchor. Nonetheless, these became the go-to for the rear tire. The only thing that survived many days in the park and the Shore without persistent flats.

6. Forks. They don't need 6 or 7" of travel. Get a fork that can have the travel reduced when the start to keep the front-end and stand-over low. Then increase again when up to the bigger wheels. Many RS forks allow this easily with travel reducer spacers. Air forks are the only real solution to get proper travel. Again, RS tend to stay more supple in the lower spectrum of air pressure.

Good luck.

Good points. I still have both my kids on cranks that I got milled down to about 150 - 152mm. Not only is this good help with pedal strikes it provides a proper length crank arm for shorter legs. I guess the comparison of putting 5 foot tall kids on 175mm cranks is like a 5'10" person riding with 200mm or longer crank arms.

I remember seeing an article on proper length cranks. For my height, if I remember I should ride 170mm but typically have been using 175mm. My commuter bike has 170mm cranks because that is what came on it, but my trail bike has 175mm. I can notice the difference.

Good points. I still have both my kids on cranks that I got milled down to about 150 - 152mm. Not only is this good help with pedal strikes it provides a proper length crank arm for shorter legs.

Nice. I guess you just got a new pedal hole bored and tapped and then milled the crank down? Smart. I did manage to find a 160mm crank of decent quality. Anything shorter was way too sketchy for landing jumps and drops.

Great information! Now I'll be competing for all of those old bikes with everyone else. Supply/Demand spike!

Great information! Now I'll be competing for all of those old bikes with everyone else. Supply/Demand spike!

Depending on the age of the bike, you will also need a fork with a 1 1/8 steerer tube. Those are also hard to come by.

One other suggestion is the disc brakes. Cable disc are great for kids going from less powerful v-brakes to disc as you can easily detune a cable disc to make it less powerful.

When my son was 6 I got him an MEC Dash and felt like it was a decent bike for the money. Trashed the almost slick Kenda tires that came stock and put on a pair of the folding bead 2.25 Maxxis Snypers, way bigger volume for a little cush and better (but not fantastic) tread. I originally planned on upgrading it with disc brakes since the frame and fork are set up for it already but found the v-brakes worked fine for his low weight and he had a blast riding it with me for a couple of years. His sister gets on it next year.

Fast forward to last winter and a Kona Stinky 2-4 showed up for sale locally at a decent price. Scooped it up even though I realized immediately that the weight was ridiculous for the trail riding we have around here and started upgrading, mostly with spare parts from my bin of junk- hydraulic brakes to replace the mechanicals, built up some much lighter wheels with a pair of ACE20 rims and light Novatec hubs, put a 100mm Float on the front and an X-Fusion air shock on the rear to lighten it up even more.

Cranks are a bit of a compromise with a 165mm set of XT cranks on there now that I scored super cheap. Slightly shorter cranks would be nice but I couldn't find a decent deal on anything that didn't weight a ton. I figure the next thing will be to swap the 24" front for a 26" (46er?) to reduce pedal strikes a bit and let it roll over stuff even better once he gets a little bigger.

Plus, I was able to sell off the older parts- fork, shock, and brakes to recoup some of the original outlay.

Currently trying to source the 24x2.35 Kenda Kinetics like Transition is using on the Ripcord but maybe they're OEM only? The 24" Snypers are only available in a 2.0 width.

It's been a lot of fun and cool to be doing it together with my son. My daughter is even more stoked on riding, can't wait but I hope I'll still be able to keep up!

some thoughts on custom 24" builds:

cranks: i picked up a pair of these for my son's transition ripcord (yeah, we kept it). they're square taper and the stock rings are heavy, but they've got a modern profile, are 152mm long so a good fit with 24" wheels, are very reasonably priced (i think i paid less than $50 with shipping) and importantly have a 94 bcd so you can junk the stock rings and put on a 30t NW

tires: good luck sourcing those kenda kinetics gtrguy, they're definitely the best aggressive 24" tire option (semi) available. sub 700 grams with a nice chunky tread. they've held up great so far for us after over 30 rides, but i don't know where transition scored them as i haven't seen them anywhere

fork: 1.125" ht fox float rl/rlc ftw. i bought a used 10 year old fork in rough cosmetic condition for $75 - they're getting rare by they are still out there - pulled it apart and the internals were mint. nice and light, easy to reduce the travel and my son noticed the difference in plushness over the rs xc 30 that came on his bike

frame: i looked for a small, short and high 26" frame to convert for a while before we got the ripcord. the frames WH mentioned are all good candidates but they're mostly pretty heavy, and hard to find in s/xs sizes. i don't know about swapping 26" wheels in when the kid gets bigger - the reach and tt numbers wont change, both important for fit and handling, and the bb height will soar, taking the kid from a well-fitting (by modern standards) frame with a nice shred-able bb height to a tall and cramped bike, admittedly with bigger wheels. maybe i'm over thinking things but that would be my concern - thankfully the ripcord's chainstays are too short for a 26" wheel and i'll never have to find out :)

bars: yeah, cut 'em down. or better yet pull those 10 yr old carbon xc bars out of your parts bin and lighten things up!

wheels: rideitall you've got a pm. stock rims on the ripcord are wide but pretty heavy, wouldn't mind trying something lighter. these are tricky but there are some good options out there. better than the 24" tire game for sure

good luck to everyone to trying source or build something. the bikes can be a bit of a pain to find/build, but the tweener age is a super fun one!

climbing above the visitors information ctr in merritt

putting a few seconds into mom on the descent from frisby ridge