I Have had the call, a 5ft tall 12 year old needs a mountain bike, his list of wants are;

Disc brakes
trigger shifters
decent forks preferably rock shox

and the budget set at £200..preferably new….

quick search results in the usual stuff, mostly sr forks and v brakes, and i know all about how a rigid v braked bike would be better for him, but it simpoy won't wash with this 12 year old…..

Any idea or has anyone seen any bargains, could probably go v brakes if it was disc ready and old uncle SR will come through with some discs for him…..

decent forks preferably rock shox
and the budget set at £200..preferably new….

The base 'decent' but heavy model is the Tora and cost £100+, and you want the rest of a bike for £100? I think your setting the bar a bit high expecting this from a new bike, go 2nd hand….

Use this place as a guide to judge other 'bargains' by:
http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s2p0&tbv=_BIKES_Mountain_Bikes_-_Front_Suspension
The cheapest model with an RS Tora fork is the £440 Giant XTC
Go for something with a RS Dart maybe, and if you want to help him, get him some 2nd hand MX comp's cheap later.

yeah, that's exactly what i have been thinking, just trying to convince parents that a 2nd hand bike would be better is hard, need to find that nice shiny hardly used bargain to show them it can be done…

Just been through this dilemma with my son actually. My wife doesn't feel there's any point spending lots on a 'kids bike' but I wanted him to have soemthign he'd enjoy riding.

Rummage around int he 'spares' area of the garage, trawl of the classifieds and he's ended up with this for approx £200;

If I hadn't had forks. brakes cranks etc etc though it would have been a lot more.

I think you're going to have to ask them to compromise.

Find soemthign that you think offers what they're askign for (the pauls one for example) and then explain what will have to 'give' to get them down to their budget. If they have the information they can make an informed choice.

I've got the same dilemma. My kids have ridden at Llandegla a couple of times and love it. My son (11) is technically quite good and will soon be riding the Red route however to tackle this I would like him to have a reasonable shock and decent brakes.
For the type of bike I would like him to have it will cost up to £400 -£500 so I have decided to build it myself. It will still cost a fair bit but I can reduce that quite a lot with bits I already have or can buy here or on E:bay.

I'd be carefull with this, last year my lad was racing a 15" spesh and it was a perfect fit, that was when he was 12. He is now 13 and 5'9" and rides a 19" frame

You're not going to do it for £200. Decathlon rockrider and some cheap Juicy 3s would see you do it for about £250.

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/EN/rockrider-5-2-black-34963795/

I wouldn't sneer at bikes specced with SR Suntour forks for kids. They are decent enough forks these days. My mate has a Commencal with XCRs and they are excellent. You can always upgrade them later anyway.

Yes I have a set of Suntours which will be going on the new build. They are equally as good as the cheaper Rockshox. the advantage of going this route is a new frame is relatively cheap to upgrade the good bits too as they grow.

yep at the price you need to look at Decathlon and Halfords Carrera bikes..

I've got a similar dilemma with my eight year old. We hired an Isla at Glentress for him last month and it had juicy brake / rockshox etc and now he wants one. Trouble is £600 on website.

do those decathlon bikes have disc hubs?

do those decathlon bikes have disc hubs?

Its not clear, but probably not as they refer to others as being disc ready 🙁

I'd be careful if you look at anythign with non hydraulic disks – a lot of them are fitted with combined shifter/brake units that only work with cable disks or v's so you need new shifters if you switch to hydraulic disks.

this is a bloomin nightmare !!! 🙂

you could always desticker the suntour forks and put on rockshox stickers.

Get this.

LINKY THING

Use this http://www.barclaycardbreathe.co.uk/offers/1

And that will come in at £225.

De-sticker the frame and forks. Change the saddle. Job done.

http404 is bang on… but the stickers aint stickers, no matter, it still looks great and its this years cool MTB colour.. wigle have them nice DX or something saddles for £12 and in white too..

Saddle.
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Concept_EX_Saddle/5360045761/

looks good value

The compromise I reached with my son was a hardtail with v brakes and then I'd sort out the forks

We bought a Mongoose Rockadile for about £200. The forks was awful. very very heavy and to be honest moved less under my weight than a rigid steel fork

step forward ebay and £18 for a pair of Manitou sx ti. So old they have no disc tabs.

They are half the weight of the forks we took off move under his weight and he thinks they look cool. He loves telling people they would have been £400 new

ebay has plenty of older forks I'll do a set for my daughter soon

this the cheapest I've seen to meet your spec

http://s233299868.e-shop.info/shop/article_1501.001/GT-Avalanche-3.0-Disc-2009.html

Hope this helps

John

but the stickers aint stickers

flash them over with some white spray paint … get some inbred stickers. 🙂

Nah it would be way too light to pass as an Inbred…. 🙂

I could add some rust coloured streaks too 😉

looks good, think i need to go and see how they look in the flesh, doesn't look like its pink or anything, bet it says "womens specific design" on there somewhere though…

For sure its a WSD – a slightly shorter top tube to give a more upright riding position and make your bum look smaller. 🙂

Just add a slightly longer stem or put a tad more layback on the seat.

http://www.landroverbikes.com/g4youth.html has 1 disc brake! and the potential for upgrades

steelisreal, I think you might be in luck and no mention of it…

really must say thanks for all the replies, i definately have few more options now, think the carrera looks the best 'fit', if my sore throat and headache had not been diagnosed as swine flu, i'd be on my way to halfords right now….

You can still check the stock and do a reserve-and-collect.
Stock in my area was low (well it is Xmas).
At least you'll turn up at the store and it will have your name on it.