So having grown out of barbie dolls etc my eldest has decided the downhill MTB world is for her especially as we are heading to the alps in the summer. She is happy enough on blue trails up here in sunny Inverness but wants to try some harder stuff apart from vast amounts of bubble wrap do people have any bike recommendations would really like a light bike with front suspension and disc brakes.
Cheers
How tall is she?
Isla bikes is the usual recommendation for good quality bikes.
I think Kona do a "kids" DH bike. Not cheap mind and she might still be a bit short for that.
135 cms
I am also the owner/object of contempt of a tall 8 year old girl. About a month ago I bought her a 24" Carrera Blast. They're a great spec for the money. And dirt cheap second hand. The suntour fork isn't half bad. The wheels are disc ready, so the standard (crap) Clarks cable discs were binned for a set of Avid BB5's. I put a shorter Spank stem and decent bars on, set of Intense semi-slicks, DMR V8's and she's off sessioning the jumps in the woods behind our house 🙂
Good knowledge, they look good thanks for the upgrade tips as well. How does she find the twist shifters? Just do not get why nobody uses trigger shifters
How long till she is burning you off? I think I have two years at the most!!!
Cheers
Ive just got my 7 yr old a blast,& done the same with upgrades,ive put shimano 545 brakes on,dart 2 forx,v 8 reps,& changing the twist grip shifters to thumb shifters,so they start to learn & change gear without pickin up an habits! ,theyre a great bike,currentley on offer for £199.00 @ Halfords..
My son used his 24" Marin Bayview Trail SE in the alps and it coped well.
Same situation here - we looked at the Kona Hula 24" and the Spesh Hotrock 24". The latter is probably best for really tall kids as the reach felt slightly longer. Not downhill specific, but we went for a bike that had best overall fit with some room to grow.
We ended up with the Kona - cracking bike that is making me long for a hardtail again. Got potential to upgrade to discs if/when she wants to, but keeping the V brakes on for now as they work well enough for our local trails.
Kona Blast 24" for my 6 year old son, and Kona Luna 24" for my 8 year old daughter, also a bargaintastic £80 and £75 respectively off of Gumtree.
Spesh hotrock A1, a much nicer bike than the normal hotrock. New suntour forks quite pants though, the used RST few years back and they were better. We had a hotrock A1 FSR and that had a rear shock too, lovely bike and I have seen it being used in the alps. They dont make these anymore though, and hard to get hold of used.
I teach cycling in schools and see a lot of the carreras, they seem really nice especially for the money.
Also, if she is now 135 she will soon outgrow 24" especially if you choose a small frame. My son had outgrown his Hotrock A1 FSR (12" frame) at age 8, but he is about 140cm with an inside leg of 70cm!!
My sons now ride 13" framed 26" hardtails and we have a norco B line 24 for the downhill stuff and alps (these come up large, much bigger than a kona stinky 24).
Good luck
Simone
My then 9yr daughter used an XS GT Avalanche DFW in Morzine for 2 summers and could so pretty much everything - I put some XT brakes, an old Fox Float and some bigger tyres and it worked really well.
Now she's an even taller 12yr old and is riding an 18inch Orange Sub3!
I know what you're saying about the shifters. I've got a set of deore trigger shifters I bought for her, but she wants to stick with the grip shift for the time being as its what she's used too from her 20" bike. We'll graduate on to them before too long, I imagine
My sons' Dr Jekyll started with 24" wheels as a jump bike, then I rebuilt it in XC mode and this year he's moved onto 26" wheels. Alloy frame so light, and DJ stiff 😉
I've got a Pace RC305 frame sat in the shed waiting for her ladyship to graduate on to 26" wheels. Off to the powder coaters soon for a dose of baby pink methinks
I'm enjoying building her bikes more than my own. Mind you, you should see her session Lee Quarry 😀
I've jus bought my 8 yr old a carrera detonate fs with 24" wheels formincing around the trail centres with me. He's also got a fully rigid 24" wheel stump jumper.
The detonate and the spesh a1 fsr were the only bikes I considered - proper full suss that doesn't weigh a ton in a small form factor. He's loving it!
If she wants full on DH, how about a stinky 2-4?