Considering the love for kids bikes on here at the mo, i thought you lot would appreciate this…

I did a previous project for my daughter when she got my lads old bike. She wanted a Frozen themed bike:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/isla-bike-cnoc-16-make-over-for-the-girls-3rd-birthday-frozen-edition

He got really into that project and kept saying he wanted to do something similar. As he has out grown his current bike, there was an opportunity to make something happen. He has a vivid imagination and came up with a few concepts including a ‘lava bike’ and a ‘monster truck bike’.

However, he loves space as a theme and especially the big late 80’s and 90’s rockets. Particularly the Saturn V. rocket (got a load of books on it) i.e.

He settled on that as a theme, did a sketch and we sent it off to a local firm that stickers up our vans at work. This is how it turned out.

2nd hand blast and various parts off here, powder coat, superstar wheels in the deal (where the bulk of the cash went), forks of AliExpress and the rest of the bay….. Gave it to him in a box and we built it up.

Comes in at a touch over 9kg and £300 to build. Last few bits to sort are the cables and pedals, but the parts are in transit.

Best bit is he loves it!

Cheers

Officially awesome, that.

*likes*

That’s jolly cool 😀

Excellent, I like that you built it up together as well.
Also, I need to get a 5.4.3.2.1…Blast off decal for my top tube 🙂

Thats ace! 😀

Is the 24″ Carrera Blast the most effectively pimped bike on the forum? We’ve had a few beauties!

I like that you built it up together as well.

TBF, that was probably the best bit. He got well into it, but had to turn down the enthusiasm when clamping up the bars tho!

Sign of the times that these threads are my favourite thing on single track.

Forks and wheels are on out winter project list!

Full marks to that man!

Lovely 🙂

Oh yes, that’s glorious. 8)

Like it. 😀

I need to get round to getting my lads blast resprayed, he wants it sparkly purple like Orange used to do. I was wondering whether to put his name on it or not but kids can get away with stuff we can’t!!

That looks awesome – well done.

Truly awesome ….

Please don’t post more pics or my kid might see them… 🙄
What stem is that?
I’m going to switch stems on the kids bikes… he’s currently got my Hope AM one. (Which to be fair cost me nothing as part of a bundle with some brakes on ebay – £100 for M785’s and a set of almost new rotors and Hope AM stem… so I calculate it cost me a fiver tops)

However I’m going to put the Hope Stem on his FS bike… so that currently leaves me a spare £5 chinese stem.. or a spare Husslefelt stem that weighs almost as much as the bike….but is currently on my trail bike.
In a fair world I’d put the hope on my bike….purely for bling 😀

Just out of curiosity did you weight the frame alone?

I’d love to know the difference to Isla/Frog 24’s etc. my guess is between nothing and very little…. you stuck a 1670g (from memory) fork and still came in the same weight as a Beinn….and you should shed 200g on the pedals when they arrive…

Also curious if you reused the headset….it was the only part of the Cannondale I rebuilt I kept … but it died after a year… (despite frequent maintenance and regreasing – it was just crap)

I recently found if you use yellow puncture marking wax crayon on tyres it stays on for ages (marked some punctures for tubeless repair then got sick of mounting directional tyres the wrong way). It might be cool to highlight the “Rocket” in white?

9kg is impressive, those Superstar/Crest wheels certainly do help bring the weight down. Pimping bike, I certainly would have loved that when I was 9!

You are a great father!

Awesome bike.

That is epic. You must have had a good parts bin to be able to build that for £300.

Cracking looking bike. You must have got some great deals to get that around the £300 mark!

I’m currently building a hotrock 24. What cranks did you use and what length are they? I am struggling to find anything in the right price range.

Incidentally for stevextc, the bare frame I have here weighed 1885grms according to my cheap luggage scales.

Envious.

Bare blast 24 frame weighs 1.78kg’s.
The original sprung forks were just under 2kg’s.
Guessing biggest weight saving is on the forks, wheels and cranks.

Blimey, that is a nice looking bike.

Not a nice looking kids bike…. I mean it’s a nice looking bike! Full stop!

Nice one mate, go make some great memories together out on the trails now. 😀

Incidentally for stevextc, the bare frame I have here weighed 1885grms according to my cheap luggage scales.

I’m quite surprised with the 200g difference between the Blast and hotrock…

I’m still curious … was that hotrock fully stripped ? (As in headset, random bolts like water bottle cages)…. dirkpitt would have removed everything for the respray…

I know we are all also using cheap luggage scales but I suspect the weight of the Blast will be very little different to Isla or Frog etc.

I’d love to know the weight of the frame for the manufacturers who claim they have “superlight kids frames”.

I have to strip the Cannondale soon…

It looks like pickling up a used Blast with some careful buying and a parts bin will end up with a better and lighter bike than any of the stock offerings….and that’s without the super-cool custom paint…

It’s a shame Superstar were out of stock of the Crest 24’s at new year…. I’d have picked up a set of the Crests at half price…

When I did my strip and rebuild I actually weighed everything that went back on it (yes, I’m sad like that). When I’m back home I’ll dig out the notes and write them up.

Yeah, pity about the Stan’s rims. Would love a set for my lad, but can’t justify £300 on wheels for his bike.

There must be something lighter than the stock wheels that doesn’t cost a fortune.

Steve – here is a couple more, one of the sketch and one of him riding up hill – this is a rare sight! We came down this, and he said ‘I’ve got to go back up and have another go at that!.

The other is of the original sketch.

In terms of the £300 build. I got lucky with a blast off here that came with the cranks and another set of wheels (Halo jobs IIRC). Sold those along with all the other crap on it and ended up in profit. That certainly helped out. The only bit out the parts bin that hasnt really been factored in was the saddle (Ti rail spoon). Everything else was got in for the build. Bar of the bay, carbon bonti seat post off here. Stem is a cheep’ ebay job (£5 therabouts). Tyres came in the original bundle. Headset – thats the orignal. Yes its crap, but serviceable for now.

The main weight saving to be had is the wheels and forks. The originals where unbelievably heavy. They must have tried hard to make them that heavy! The forks – why did they even bother. These RST F1rst forks are really good. Even a bit of controllable damping. Simple bushing lowers. Had them open before putting them on the bike and made sure everything was ok, simple to service. Chopped off the canti mounts.

Cheers

Out of curiosity do you know the rough weight of the original wheels?
S’Star quote their Stans build as around 1600g – be interesting to know how much weight difference there is.

Looking around at alternative rims (Spank & Dartmoor) I think you could build a set of 24″ at around 1850g.

dirk – Original wheels were around a kilo heavier. K’n heavy.

Looking around at alternative rims (Spank & Dartmoor) I think you could build a set of 24″ at around 1850g.

Mostly it’s just about how quickly (or not) you need them

If you are building yourself you can go lighter than Superstar using the Crest Rims (not hugely but around 200-300g from memory).using lighter spokes and hubs..

They are reduced at the moment anyway to 289 which isn’t bad but being superstar the trick is to wait for a sale….

Equally,
On-one is currently selling most of the required spoke lengths in CX-Ray for under RRP…. (exactly how much depends but down to 99p a spoke as I was playing the other night) So £64 or so in spokes… I ended up buying about 9 elsewhere for £2 each)

I paid £50 each for the Stans Rims but can’t currently get any cheaper then £80 bit this is just availability post Mk III release.

Novatec D771/772’s (I think I paid about £60)

So all in this is less than the current Superstar Price but then sooner or later Superstar will be doing 50% off…

Ultimately its down to £££/grams … and also rotating weight vs not really rotating weight (i.e. Rim weight is 2Pi more inertia than hub weight)

Although the Stans rims are expensive you would spend a lot more to get the same inertia reduction on hubs/spokes… BUT you would also gain more just by swapping tyres!

In the end I went for the rims … and very roughly spent 1/3 on hubs, 1/3 on spokes and 1/3 on rims… but with the bias towards rims…

It didn’t make sense at least to me to spend less on rims than hubs or spokes… (YMMV etc.)

I actually have 3 sets of 24″ rims spare… some Alex 20, some Alex Z1000’s and some noname…

I unlaced the Z1000 and it came to 420g (110g per wheel rotational weight over the Stans) – I’m sure the Spank and Dartmoor are stronger … but why would you need stronger for a 25kg kid?

I weighed the stock wheels on my Blast. The tyre and tubes were a round kilo each end, and the front wheel 0.9kg, rear wheel 1.1kg.

Did you manage to get those forks on aliexpress? I can’t find them. Could be interested in a set for my son’s bike if they’re cheap…

Could be interested in a set for my son’s bike if they’re cheap…

Depends what you call cheap?

http://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/f1rst-air-24-mtb-suspension-fork-black-51499

€170, 1690g …. air shock

XC 30 TK Coil Forks are £100ish (though not really a “fork”) and weigh about 4 tonnes.. so being fair only about 3T if they actually made a 24″ one.

and cheap rockshox say 30 Gold Solo Air £270+ or £400-£500 for say mid range Forks like a Reba. (Then pay say £100 for tuning for kids weight?)

The F1rst are actually really good…. work with a 20kg kid (not optimally but better than £600 forks e.g. I’ve got some SID’s that won’t even return under the pressure he will need to compress them.

£150 or thereabouts seems a bit of a bargain in comparison 😀

Thanks Steve – have looked at Alex rims too but not finding any at the moment.
Not in any rush, so can wait until they go on sale.

I’m still curious … was that hotrock fully stripped ? (As in headset, random bolts like water bottle cages)…. dirkpitt would have removed everything for the respray…

Everything removed except the headset cups.

Incidentally stock rims weigh 330grms. Both wheels as built weighed a total of 3915 (inc I think stock tyres @ ~695grms)!

Incidentally stock rims weigh 330grms

That’s pretty good … way better than the Z1000’s

Everything removed except the headset cups.

Wow I’m actually quite surprised. Not that 200g is a lot (like an crap inner tube)… I’m just surprised there is that much extra metal.

The Trailcraft Titanium with F1rst fork & Stans Crest is listed at 21.5 lbs or just under 9.7kg vs 10.13kg for the same spec Aluminium… so making a boat load of assumptions that makes the Ti frame 430g lighter… than what looks like an otherwise identical frame?

As I said … I’m just curious… 200g is a crap inner tube…

Thanks Steve – have looked at Alex rims too but not finding any at the moment.
Not in any rush, so can wait until they go on sale.

Yep be ready to pounce 😀

If you see the rims at £50 then Hubs are always available. Worth having them in a watch list on ebay….

If you decided on building then the CX-Ray spokes are available right now @ on-one…

However life’s a sod so chance is you’d buy the spokes then Superstar do a 50% off the next week…