Looking to buy my son a new bike. Had him sat on a few and he needs a 24″. He rides a Giant xct at the moment. What would you recommend?

Currently looking at Cube, Specialized, Scott, Trek and Giant again.

Which would you go for or would you suggest something else?

Looking at Frog bikes for mine

Our Kona 24″ was lower and ‘smaller’ geometry – easier to get on. It was a nice looking bike.

Booooooosh! by matt_outandabout, on Flickr

Comrie Croft pump jump track by matt_outandabout, on Flickr
Our Scott 24″ is a higher, ‘bigger’ frame, but lighter, better handling and faster.

Comrie Croft pump jump track by matt_outandabout, on Flickr

What light evenings are for… by matt_outandabout, on Flickr

Oh, and I think the Scott has lighter sprung forks – they are much more active and take less force to move.
Overall, I would buy the Scott again, but both were/are good bikes.
Sizing is everything though…

I’ve recently bought my lad a carerra blast 24 from the shop beginning with H!

Great value for £190 – cable disc brakes, SRAM gears.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductMobileDisplay?catalogId=10151&storeId=10001&productId=729065&categoryId=165602&langId=-1

Squin, is it fairly light? I see Carrera/Halfords do a girl’s 24″ called the Luna. Might get one for my 8yo daughter.

(My boy has a 2nd hand DMR, so he’s well sorted)

I bought my boy a carrera blast 24 about 6 months ago.
He loves it, and it feels good and sturdy and is miles better than the bike I had at his age…
When I pick it up though it feels heavier than my bike, but that is normal for kid’s bikes, unless you want to spend a few grand on a bike they will grow out of every couple of years……

I bought my boy a carrera blast 24 about 6 months ago.
He loves it, and it feels good and sturdy and is miles better than the bike I had at his age…
When I pick it up though it feels heavier than my bike, but that is normal for kid’s bikes, unless you want to spend a few grand on a bike they will grow out of every couple of years……

I have given it some upgrades to drop some weight however, also trigger shifters have helped make shifting easier over grip shift.

Thanks. I’ll take her to my local Halfords, to see if she likes the colour of the Luna 🙄 . As the price is the same as the Blast, I’d imagine they’re fairly similar.

Orbea MX24 Team here – as light as an Islabike (sub 10kg) but proper mountain bike with 1 x 10 deore set up. A bit more expensive than some but a nicely made bit of kit.

(My boy has a 2nd hand DMR, so he’s well sorted)

I don’t have a son but I had a dmr sidekick built up with 24″ wheels. It took 26″ or 24″ with disc brakes do would be ideal as he grows, you can just swap the wheels up.

commencal ramones 24

LD’s Orbea is a cracking wee thing – I could not remember the brand last night…

But it’s not got boingy forks Matt. 😉

Aye. That does not seem to slow him down mind!

I got my 9 year old the Carrera. They’re a great bike for the money. The only criticism is the Clarks brakes are a bit crap, so it’s now sporting a set of Avid BB-5’s which are far better. But as its all disc ready, you’re only paying for a decent set of brakes, and not wheels and stuff. There may have been just a few other upgrades. Par for the course, innit? 🙂

I got the Scott for my son it’s awesome forks are good great looks and does everything it should well!
I found the Carerra to be heavy which makes things hard work and less enjoyable.

Another vote for the Orbea MX team 24…..
Light / good spec. No crappy suspension fork or obscure 7×3 gear sets…
My son has the matt black version.

Our eldest is also extremely happy with his Orbea MX 24. He loves it. It is incredibly light and the 1×10 gears are superb. Much better than the grip shift on his previous Islabikes. The original brakes were (as several reviews mentioned) rubbish and lead to him having to bail out on several wet descents but I replaced them with Deore v brakes and he hasn’t looked back since. The rims are also a bit basic but are still running fine.

Tenfoot – apologies, missed your post, but looks like your off to Halfords anyway. I think it’s a great bike. Possibly a little heavier than a jnr bike which costs £400ish, but a cracking bike. 🙂

Got an Orbea MX24 Team for my son’s 8th birthday in May 2012. It’s a cracking bike and comes highly recommended by me.

A proper bike – the gears are perfect and easy for a child to use. His riding has come on loads since he got it.

It’s worth noting that the Carrera’s come with Sram X3 rear mechs – I changed my younger son’s Blast 20 to rapid fire shifting for less than £10 by getting rid of the Twistshift and fitting an X3 shifter. It means he can actually change gear now.

Just bought a Felt Q24 for my daughter from here Felt

Pretty good for less than £215 I thought.