I just won this on ebay;

Manitou Axel Plat Elite TPC 100mm
Hayes Sole XC brakes
Mixed Shiamno 3×9 gruppo
bonty finishing kit w/new tyres

The nipper is under 5ft, and it’s super important to make it as light as possible whilst keeping him able to get up the hills. Problem with boys pre-puberty is that they have no muscle in their legs, only the core, so hills are a struggle.

Things I am considering:

Carbon seatpost (as he’ll need lots of extension in the end)
50mm stem (as he’s short)
Carbon low-rise thin bars
Trading up the Sole XC’s for some Juicy’s
Cutting that steerer down

Things I will be doing:
Trying to ghetto tubeless it
Strip that chainset down to 1×9 (32tooth front, 11-34 back should be ok for someone weak right?)

Thoughts STW’ers?

If you want to save weight don’t bother with ghetto tubeless.. get lighter tyres and latex/lightweight inner tubes.

32 F and 34R for an 11yr old, are you kidding? Make it 2×9 and leave him a granny ring on unless you want to listen to him pushing it and blaming you on every hill(besides, you can only get 12-34 in 9speed !)

If you can afford a lighter wheelset then that will be appreciable weight loss. Given his weight one of the Superstar Component switch XC builds will save a gram or two. (will “Superstar” make it through the swear filter?)

I did something similar recently for my daughter. I wouldn’t worry about carbon, as it won’t save all that much weight, but some flat bars and lowering the stem would be a good start. The juicies sound like a good plan too. I bought some elixirs off here for £40 which have been great.

I thought if the front was 2 smaller than the back that’s a goable ratio. 2×9 with granny is fine. I don’t think a new set of superstar wheels is in budget for just one item – they’d come to more than the entire bike cost already. All adjustments must be singletrackworld specials.

Tyres are 650g a pair but we live in the south downs which are hawthorn heaven (hence desire to ghetto). Thinner tyres and tubes will just mean we spend our entire time fixing punctures – one gets enough with bloody DH tubes and mountain kings.

The stem and bars are to get it lower to his height (as it is too big currently). I thought carbon as every gram counts, but maybe money spent better elsewhere.

What he says about the 2×9… Lighter tyres, foam grip grips, and plenty of light sh1te: aluminium bolt for crank, msc seat clamp, bolt on Skewers, plastic pedals, lighter headset, maybe a road rear mech in 9 speed if you find one 2nd hand

Looks great.

I’d probably go 1×9 – my kids definitely find it easier.

The rest won’t make much difference IMO so I’d just let him ride it.

You would have to change forks and wheels to make it appreciably lighter.

My lad has just moved to a light alu frame with sids, lightweight wheels and he still gets off to push up some steep (Shropshire) hills.

32 – 11/34 works well. He climbed up Whinlatter pass several times while we were on our hols in the Lakes no problem. Much prefers going down though.

DJflexure how old is your kid?

Rest: if you had £100, how would you slap it on (buying secondhand)?

I forgot to mention, I bought a used set of SRAM grip shifters which made life a lot easier for little hands too.

Ditch the headset spacers, dial the levers in closet to the bars, sort the fork out and let the kid ride it!

At 11 you should be skidding, wheelying, jumping and not GAF about what middle aged fannies on a website ‘think’ you should be riding.

GW it’s more about overcoming his “NOT MORE HILLS”. His last bike was some heavy steel thing with no suspension that weighed about 36lbs. Once we get to the single track he’s a happy guy.

Sort the fork out?

Continuity – If you are after a good but cheap set of brakes, I will be upgrading my old xt (M765) brakes in a week or so. Bled and ready to go for £50?

He was 11 yesterday so not old. My daughter is 8. They both manage 1×9 no problem for rides of 15 – 20 miles. If you look at the Isla stuff they don’t particularly recommend gears up front for kids. Reckon it just confuses them, and I tend to agree.

The 100 – I’d spend it on hot chocolate at the end of rides tbh 🙂
I did get a Pauls chainkeeper for him off the classified’s a while back and he likes that. Perhaps get a bit of clothing in the CRC sale. I got some reinforced pants so if he comes off its not a disaster and a small polaris gilet so that he stays warm.

Paid off when we went to Hopton Woods – I stupidly missed a sign for the red and took him onto the downhill course at full speed. He landed the first, but not the second jump. Just got up laughing, so no harm done.

The bike looks great. Happy times.

got a charge spoon you can have for £12 posted to save some weight

Does he really need the suspension ?
Built my wife an old Spesh Hardrock, 1×9, old XT kit, Exotic Carbons, SmallBlock8’s etc. Incredibly light. Probably another pound or so to come off if threw some cash at it.
Anyhow, Nephews love riding it because its so light, & they’ve never moaned about the lack of suspension.
Ditch the forks.

If you look at the Isla stuff they don’t particularly recommend gears up front for kids. Reckon it just confuses them, and I tend to agree

Maybe, if its the kids first bike…

Leave the granny on, but get rid of the big ring he’ll never use it. And yes, save any weight you can.

Leave the gears alone! He needs to be spinning up the hills not mashing the pedals and ****ing up his knees.

Whats the fascination on here with 1x whatever?

I actually think a 1x with a good ratio makes sense. He’s been riding bikes since he was about 4 but gears still don’t come naturally. Dropping to 1x will shave a pound off the weight of the bike which is priority no1.

Cruz if it were a little cheaper I might have it off you (or if its the ti version it’s mad cheap).

I need to take a look at the rim profile to see if I can tubeless it to avoid hawthorn punctures and allow me to not run heavy tubes.

A carbon fork might work; will see how good the fork that comes on it is (if it’s duff or not) I might sell and switch.

Lighter brakes would be a winner.

I built my 12yo lad this, using an Ebay frame of surprisingly good quality and all the parts from my old HT.
Single 32 ring up front, works well and he’s happy with it. He manages up to the Buzzards Nest at Glentress on it no probs. 😀
Its not exactly top spec I know, but even with a RS Dart its a hell of a lot lighter than most off-the-shelf jobbies.

an old pair of air sids?

And yes, those weeds are mine. 😀

Manitou Axles are heavy.I`d see if you could pick up an air recon or reba off the classifieds.

They’re good frames, The GF got one as her first bike years ago, The standard wheels are pretty light.

It’s been through many guises over the last 6 years, single speed commuter, jump bike, 4x bike, 140mm FR bike (for a light weight).

At the moment it’s got an old pair of Marz AM3s (130mm) and a single speed kit and is a wicked pump track/general thrashing bike.

They are really light frames and can take a serious amount of abuse from a fatty like me. The hayes Soles are still going strong, in fact they’re probably the most reliable set of brakes I’ve ever owned.

Tom KP

Sort the tyres
2×9

Trigger gears with a clear indicator windows, not gripshift IMHO

then let him ride it – his legs aren’t gonna get stronger if you molycoddle him any more!

maybe get him his own bike computer so he can see speed, distance etc. – Should give him a psychological boost on the climbs.

Anywya forget about GW comment, he’s sooooo gnar that he doesn’t ride so the pro don’t get put to shame.
You know if you kid doesn’t ride hills maybe you should shuttle him up 😉

the brakes will be fine for him, im guessing he is light weight. i would do the forks and 2×9 it.

then when he mashes up the wheels upgrade them to a nice set of superstars or classified £100 specials.

After having to grab the wheel of my 12 yo lad for a rest (first 4 hour ride for ages and i was hanging) 😳 my advice would be to strap a breeze block to it….

Why not take him on trails with the bike as it is if its al working fine and get his options on what it like to ride. Get your son invovled in the changes so he becomes an proper MTBer.

The only thing I would do is change the fork to something air and decent (and remove the spacer stack at the same time).

If he struggles on hills don’t force him, get off and walk. Taking the fun out of riding will just put him off.

Tyres for something nicer, possibly forks for air.

Problem with boys pre-puberty is that they have no muscle in their legs

I’m afraid I don’t agree. Two weeks ago my chicken-legged 11yo (also sub 5ft) climbed the hill at Afan with a granny ring on a Kona with RS Dart. In the rain and hail. It’s gears matched to power output that matters.

EDIT: having seen his last bike weighed 36lbs, I probably wouldn’t change anything! 10lb weight difference is going to be noticed immediately! But the new bike will get you to better places faster, so new tyres still would be my first upgrade.

Tyres are a problem because we have thorns everywhere here in the south downs, so I can’t run ULTRA lightweights.

The axel is an air fork, just a f.heavy one.

DJaustin, you may have had good luck but I think what I said remains true. They use their core strength to get up the hills (which is why they stand up on the pedals so much).

What exactly don’t you like about my comment Juan?

Hopefully the wee dude is out havng fun playing on it right now rather than it awaiting it’s next “moumtainbiking” trip.

“NOT MORE HILLS” Says more about the adult than the kid or the bike to me.

I’d say the only definite for me at this point would be tyres, and given the thorns, tubeless seems the logical way to go.

Then I’d led him ride it a few times and let/help HIM suss out what should be better, forks, gear ratios, saddle or whatever. Could be grips, you won’t know till he tries it.

EDIT: Awesome bike there.

GW, did you seriously just turn a fun thread about a bike for a kid into an implication that either I am a shitty uncle or his parents are shitty parents because he happens to find it hard on the uphills?

You really don’t sound very nice as a person.

Thanks for your advice though.

What frame is the Gary fisher? It looks cool! My opinion would be get the bike set up for him as it is – bring the reach of the breaks in sort out handlebar and saddle hight then get out on it. If you really want to make it 1×9 then do it but then when he wants stuff changed you can do the bike mechanics together which would be cool too.

I think GW has a point – and a special way of making it 😀

Do you take him out just to piss about as well – and both learn some more skills while you’re there? It’d be a shame if an 11yr old thought of mountain bikes only as a way of getting over a mountain/ climbing “more hills”

If it’s already way lighter than his current bike, leave it be for now and only change what you need to fit him (drop the stem down, turn the seatpost the wrong way initially if need be)

My daughter’s bike, age 10 or so – changed the crankset for a cheapo short-crank thing from SJS and she needed the saddle higher than that once she realised it wasn’t too big for her

LRB by scaredypants, on Flickr

It’s a Tassajara.

If the brakes work and the levers can be adjusted closer to the bars I’d be inclined to leave them on, it’s not like the bikes got a heavy rider at the minute that needs proper boat anchors and their ebay value won’t be huge…

I’d agree with those suggesting leaving the granny on too and letting him run 2×9, the likelihood is that 95% of the time he’ll be in the 32t but if he’s getting more adventurous and you’re maybe taking him further afield that bail out ring may become useful…

What might possibly be of more benefit is looking at the crank arm length, are they 175mm? he might benefit from slightly stumpier cranks if you can find them (160 – 165mm perhaps?) to match his current 11 year old build, and keep the 175mm pair in the spares box for when he tops 5’9″ish in a couple of years…

As for forks; are those Manitous air sprung or air preloaded? if they are then they can be adjusted to suit his weight better than a coil sprung fork, if not then trawl ebay/classifieds for something like a 2000 – 2006ish Marzocchi MX comp (or pro version if you can find it in budget), robust sensible weight forks available in 85, 100/105 or 120mm travel versions I think (probably best stick to 85mm or 105mm for your nipper), I’d say that would make a useful fork for a growing lad, not too heavy or expensive, air sprung (so infinately adjustable to his weight as he grows) and pretty robust and durable – Don’t pay over £50…

If the wheels are OK now then let him thrash them for a while, and save up for some posher ones as and when he needs them, tires wise, ghetto tubeless is a good idea and might improve the ride a tad for lighter body, maybe consider an easier rolling set of tires? might need a bit of feedback from the rider about what he wants grip/traction/rolling wise, let him ride the stock tires for a bit see what he thinks they lack before changing maybe?

Don’t trim the steerer just yet, let him try some rides with it spaced a bit lower and see how his back deals with them…

As for fitting carbon bits, no harm in doing it, but is it a worthwhile investment? will it make much difference for you lad when riding…

Problem with boys pre-puberty is that they have no muscle in their legs

Tell that to my 10 and a half year old. He’s been singlespeeding (at his insistance) on 32:20 since his 9th birthday and has managed lower midfield results in the 10-12 age group at Gorrick race meets on that bike.

We even had a letter home from school to say that he’s overweight because they’d measured his height and weight but not taken into account the size of his legs.

“Fun”? You quite sure about that?

Zedsdead’s thread with pics of kids actually having fun on bikes rather than worrying about whether they are currently in fashion has a whole 5 replies, kinda sums this place up.

I think you struggle differentiating form and function; or maybe even just divining intention because of your prejudices. Either way, keep yourself to yourself for next time if you can manage that, nobody wants to listen to you.