So, my son is rapidly growing out of his Creig 24 (which has been, I must say, a quite excellent bike) and needed something new. I promised myself that, as the next bike was probably going to be a 26″ wheeler, this meant that I would be no longer limited to kids bikes, and could look for something a little more interesting.

And this is what we ended up with:

Frame: Haibike Heet SL 27.5″ Carbon
Fork: Fox Factory 32 27.5″ 120mm (travel reduced to 80mm)
Shock: Fox Factory Float
Groupset: M8000 XT (1×11 front: 30t – rear: 11-42)
Headset: Hope ZS (lower), Cane Creek 40 (upper)
Wheels: Custom builds on El Guapo hub and Superstar XC Carbon rims
Tyres: Schwalbe Nobby Nics Evo
Weight: Just under 25lbs all in

The frame is a little gem – well made (in Germany!) and reasonably light with a very simple, but robust linkage. Even though the frame is 27.5″, We decided to pair it with 26″ wheels as they are simply more controllable for my son. That said, the forks are also 27.5″ and even though We’ve travel-limited them to 80mm, they can soon be unlocked and a new set of wheels put on as he gets older.

We also ditched the OEM Angleset, which while useful is actually factory installed at zero-degrees and being an external headset, raised the front of the bike by another 10mm – this has been swapped with a Hope ZS. This makes the fork angle a little steeper, but bringing the front wheel back in seems to make the bike better proportioned for a smaller rider, so it was a win-win.

Gear ratios are designed for flexibility, so low-pulling gears are the order of the day here, rather than outright speed.

The only thing I’m left to do with it is to artificially reduce the travel on the shock – effectively maintain the existing low-point, but drop the high point by an inch or so, thus exchanging travel for stand-over height (much more important when he’s a little small!). I might start another thread for this discussion…

He informs me that it rides wonderfully, even though in reality, it’s a
little big for him at the moment. He seems most chuffed about the fact that his bike is uniquely built for him and that noone else will have a bike just like it 🙂

Cranks look a little long for the lowered BB height.
Lucky kid though having a custom specked bike. 8)

Cranks look a little long for the lowered BB height.

Yeah, cranks were a bit of a compromise (frankly, short kids cranks are mostly a bit naff, apart from Hope’s which are just completely unavailable!), but they still leave the pedals sitting higher off the ground than his current bike, even under shock compression.

Trail craft or spawn 152/155mm cranks both with SRAM interface. Offset bushes to up the standover clearance and slacken that ha off again. Or shorter i2i shock?

Christ! Why not just have one hand-carved from unubtanium?
WTF are you going to get him when he’s full sized?

APF

Don’t SRAM NX cranks come in 155mm flavour?

Flower beds need weeding and steps could do with a power wash . Standards people!

Hi all, thanks for the comments and various bits of advice. We’ve now had the first ride out and he absolutely loves the bike.

For the next step, although he can manage fine on the XT cranks, I’m probably going to swap them for the SRAM NX 155mm which should be appearing in the next few weeks (nowhere has them in stock at the moment). To reduce the standover I’m going to try a pair of offset bushings first and see how this goes.

To answer a few specifics:

Don’t SRAM NX cranks come in 155mm flavour?

Yes, but nowhere has them in stock – apparently stock coming in over the next couple of weeks. I didn’t know these were coming out or I would have held fire, but I got a bargain on the XT cranks so will add them to the workshop stock 🙂

Christ! Why not just have one hand-carved from unubtanium?
WTF are you going to get him when he’s full sized?

Heh. Total cost will be very comparable with buying the next Islabike up (Creig 26). So far, it’s sat at around £900 all in, which is (nearly) the same as the basic Creig (and half the price of the “Pro”!)

Lucky kid though having a custom specked bike.

No question. It must be said that to describe him as a keen cyclist doesn’t come close to the reality and, frankly, I’d rather spend the money on bikes than on game consoles 🙂

Flower beds need weeding and steps could do with a power wash . Standards people!

If only I hadn’t been locked in the garage building bikes… 😉

Total cost will be very comparable with buying the next Islabike up (Creig 26). So far, it’s sat at around £900 all in

I’m building up a Scale 24 right now.. frame and most parts was free but I reckon with the amount of time I’ve spend sourcing unobtanium parts, I should’ve just bought a full bike 😉
Oh well, as is yours, it’ll be awesome

I wonder how much of an effect shortening the cranks will have on the gearing; will it be enough to need to change some bits to keep it rideable?

I’m building up a Scale 24 right now.. frame and most parts was free but I reckon with the amount of time I’ve spend sourcing unobtanium parts, I should’ve just bought a full bike
Oh well, as is yours, it’ll be awesome

Honestly, though, how many of us do this with any sort of rationality and how many do it because it’s a passion and,frankly, just good fun? 🙂

I looked at Scott frames and my ideal would have been a super light Spark carbon in small or XS, but they don’t turn up often as they are so desirable. This Haibike caught my eye because it was different, light and cheap 🙂

Good luck with your build. My biggest achievement was building the wheels myself, which I found excellent fun and very satisfying. I think I’ve bought my last pair of shop built hoops… 😉

I wonder how much of an effect shortening the cranks will have on the gearing; will it be enough to need to change some bits to keep it rideable?

Yes, a short crank has less leverage and thus needs a lower gear to achieve the same ease of push. That said, however, the current 30t + 11-42 is really too low for a 26″ wheel and he could ride over a building today with gears to spare! I think that the 155mm + 32t will be a real sweet spot.

Oh and it’s virtually identical to what Islabikes use on the Creig 26 Pro (they actually use a 152mm crank – close enough for me!) 🙂

Where did you get the frame from?

Where did you get the frame from?

Yorkshire Cycle Sales on Facebook. Was the remains of an upgrade, with the rest of the componentry transferred to their new bike. Suited me down to the ground as would have been no good for a kid’s bike.

What on earth has he got in that back pack?!?! It’s nearly as big as he is. Get the lad a bottle cage and a saddle bag!
Nice bike BTW, very nice.

What on earth has he got in that back pack?!?! It’s nearly as big as he is. Get the lad a bottle cage and a saddle bag!

Heh, it was actually his coat and water and nothing else 🙂

He does normally ride with a bottlecage, but frankly, this bike was hammered together at 1am on the night before we went for this ride, so the bottlecage never made it onto the bike!

Nice bike BTW, very nice.

Thank you, he absolutely adores it 🙂

Thanks for everyone’s suggestions – they are very much appreciated.

Cranks now swapped for SRAM NX 155mm (I think about the last pair in Europe!), offset bushings fitted to the shock and I reckon this looks better:

I think that’ll do for now 🙂