My eldest is about to get his first ‘proper’ mountain bike for his birthday next month. I have narrowed it down to 2 bikes. The Giant is £50 more expensive but I cant help feeling the Specialized looks more fun. Any experiences of either of these bikes?

we’ve got the 24″ version of the Spec at work and they are proper little bikes, we used to have the 24″ Giants and they were really poor in comparison.

Not the size you are looking at I know, but the Giant MTX’s were really shoddy – have a close look at the specs of the two, and if you can get your hands on them check out the non-name components, considering Giant the biggest bike manufactures in the world I was really unimpressed with the quality.

Kona Shred 2-0 may be worth a look?

Very tough little bike.

Yes – I love my boy’s current bike a Hotrock 16 hence my first choice being a the 20. And yes most Giant kids bikes do look pretty poor. However until yesterday I was unaware that Giant were offering XtC JNR which apparently IS a real little MTB.

Wow the Kona Shred 2-0 looks great… bit over my budget though. (250 tops)

Spesh 20 here. Nice light bike. Still too big for junior, currently on a ridgeback mx 16, but should get onto it late summer.

I bought my daughter a 20″ Hotrock last week and she loves it. She’s still learning to ride it, having problems with starting and stopping but in between she’s fine. It’s got a cane creek h/set, sugino cranks, shimano gears, proper v-brakes – better spec than my first mtb. So far I’d recommend it, but it’s only been a week….

Our kids have had the Hotrocks, and they have been great. The 20″ one lasted 2 years and is now outgrown. During that time he was never off it. The forks actually worked – have seen some others which were way too rigid for kids.

Great. I make that 3-0 to the Hotrock.

the giant xtc is a much better quality bike than the standard giant kids bike, so it is a close run thing between the specilized and it, but i think i’d still recommend the specialized. it has a few nicer touches like the rollers to hold the chain on (i think multiple rings and a front derailleur is a bit gimmicky for a 20″ bike), soft rubber grips that a very comfy, and low-profile knobs on the tyres, which makes them nice and fast rolling, which means less effort for the rider and they can ride for longer without getting tired.

As mentioned above the XTC is in a completely different league to the MTX/Taffy range. Id probably still plum for the Hotrock between those two, its very nicely put together, is very cleverly specced, fits well and looks fantastic in real life.

They are in relatively short supply at the moment, next batch is due in on Wednesday so there should be some free stock in shops by the w/e.

Other thing that might be worth a quick look is a 2008 Kona Makena, lovely little bikes and can be had for £150

Forgot the most important bit of advice – change the standard cassette for a shimamo mega range one – that gives a really low first gear that will let them cycle up most hills. The rear mech does cope ok with it.
Otherwise 1st gear isn’t low enough.

Have you looked at the Islabike range? My eldest has the Hotrock 20 (and 16 and 12) and I nearly got the Beinn Large for him, but being able to sit him on one won over.

Great bike, those Spesh’s.