Eldest daughter is about 35kg of pure lankiness. A decent breeze will blow her away, today in windy ayrshire there is a good chance of that happening.

Having done a bit of CX racing, and a fair bit of CX training with the local cycle club, next season we’re pointing her at some MTB events, notably Scottish XC (SXC) events and West of Scotland races. We’ve bought the bike (Trek Superfly) – but now need to kit the kiddie out with a few things, so looking for the hive mind to assist.

So far – changes needed/kit needed would be

1. a set of tyres to cope with Scottish trails in winter. What fast rolling winter tyres (29er) would folk recommend, for use on a variety of surfaces, some of her sessions should be on trail centres, others on natural trails. The bike has tubeless rims, so we’re going to try to set it up tubeless. The XR1 on the bike are nice, but it’s not dry or dusty here, currently, or in the near future.

2. Kneepads – what kneepads for XC racing and training – particularly challenging where the daughter’s legs are like pipe cleaners….

3 – what else does she need ?

Parents and Guardians of STWs mini racers – what do you do…

1.) Xking, Ron, XR2 and Barzo all very similar, and all cope better than you’d expect with mixed conditions. A proper mud/soft conditions tyre is never going to cope well on trail centre hardpack. Not ideal in proper muddy conditions, but that’s the compromise you make for nice rolling speed.

2.) Not a parent myself, and maybe i’d have a different outlook if I was, but no kneepads for XC racing and the bulk of training – only if specifically targeting a session working on technical skills/features.

3.) Some clip on mudguards – make winter XC far more pleasant.
Some water repellent tights/leg warmers (watching muddy puddles bead on the surface never gets old).
Camelbak with spares and mini first aid kit for training.
Phone to call the parent taxi when you’re cold, wet and have just gone OTB for the 3rd time in 15mins.
Waterproof shell to wear whilst waiting for the parent taxi to arrive

ta – some good ideas in there – she’s been racing/training with a cycle jersey, pockets full of a jam piece and a bottle cage. Handy with Xmas coming up, some ideas such as a camelbak should be good there.

Kneepads are mostly for sessioning/confidence – she needs to learn to crash with more style….

1 – as above. But if you need a muddy tyre, then spesh storms are good and pretty fast rolling for that type of tyre.
2 – not usually.
3 – Assuming you have all the warm/waterproof etc clothing for cx, then not too much else. We put kids in high-vis vests for night sessions. Makes them easier to spot when you get a bit spread out. Get some anchovies as well as spare tubes – better for tubeless repairs. Decent lights. It’s rubbish when kids have 500 lumens and the parents have 4000. Make sure she has the same power on tap as you and/or the other kids. A camelback for either her or you is useful at this time of year when you need spare clothes or need to shed layers.
Cash. Rides at this time of year are far better if they end up at a café with a hot chocolate 🙂