Except, I want to skip 24
Our son is rapidly growing out of his 20" Fisher, and I'm loathe to buy him a 24" as it will probably last him a fairly short amount of time - that and all the components will be different.
Thinking of getting a small (14" frame), cheap 26" HT, and building it up from the parts bin.
Anyone else done this?
Good idea / bad idea?
My Lad is too fekkin small even at 14 and I've had to push him down the BMX route to keep his 2 wheel interest alive
One day, he will grow into a strapping lad and discover his father's maths was so poor he could not count beyond 26!
Say it: 29.
Say it again: 29.
There, today's therapy session over. 😉
I knew some niche monkey would come up with 29..... He isn't going t be that big for 8-10 years!!
Failing finding a small 26" frame to fit, can anyone recommend a "proper" mtb in the 24" wheel bracket.
Most of the ones we have seen have been heavy hoop iron rubbish - more likely to discourage a kid from getting into mtb'ing than to reward progress...
Get a 26" disc frame and put 24" wheels on it?
Wouldn't have thought there was enoughdifference between 24 and 26 to make it worth looking at 24s in the first place.
Hows about something like my 9" 26" bike:
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My lad, whose nearly 8, rides a 24" wheeled Hardrock. Loves it. Just spent 5 days at Delamere Forest and was loving riding round the forest trails. He's now more confident at low speed handling and using his gears, plus he was loving the downhill bits we found. Weight wise it's pretty good.
I'm going through the same thought process so *pulls up chair*, my 8 yo daughter is 1.35m with quite long legs
[i] can anyone recommend a "proper" mtb in the 24" wheel bracket.[/i]
One we want to get our son is a Felt Q24 but seem to be out of stock everywhere 🙁
My son is nearly 8 years old...his current bike is getting silly small for him (Spesh Hotrock with 16" wheels). Was debating whether to get a 20" wheel bike but, after sitting on a few in Halfords to gauge best size we've decided to go for 24" wheels.
I skipped 24" because I detoured off to BMX around that age.
Tbh he'll cope with whatever you get him. When I was 12 I was plopped onto an 18" framed Diamond back and happily blasted around the Qs on it. Ok, perhaps I needed to find a bank on the side of the trail to get on or off the thing but I did all right once I got pedalling!
What about an Isla Bike? http://www.islabikes.co.uk/bike_pages/creig26.html
If you dont want to drop a lot of dosh, then you cant go wrong here, I wanted my lad to have one but the colour was rejected, we bought a Felt for a little more money but it was V braked and a lot heavier than the Carrera.. Well worth popping into a local Halfords for a look.
PS of course you can skip 24" but it just wont work as well for him as almost anything that actually fits.
Get a 26" disc frame and put 24" wheels on it?Wouldn't have thought there was enoughdifference between 24 and 26 to make it worth looking at 24s in the first place.
My thoughts exactly - he can ride my wifes medium Canondale hardtail ok on fire road, but would be risking ending the family name on any singletrack. I was thinking about a small on-one, or similar.
We've also seen the Felts on t'interweb. Look very nice, as do the Cube kids bikes.
14" inbred with the saddle right down (you may need to chop down a seatpost) is going to be pretty much Da Bom, especially with decent air forks on so you can tune them for the lighter weight
Get him a 24" wheeled bike and when he outgrows it sell it. Simples.
PS my son has outgrown his 24" Spesh Hotrock. Can do you some pics if interested.
It is a lovely bike, you should be able to sell it with ease again.
Da Bom
??
[url= http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=da+bomb ]Da Bomb[/url]
I like this one
DA BOMBUsed as an interjection to convey emotion of excitement of the speaker, which usually has no
grammatical connection to the rest of the sentence and simply demonstrate the explosive feeling
of a particular experience.
Here are some pics of the 24" and the 20" my boy had before that. Don't loathe the thought of buying the next size just because it will only be useable for a year or two. We love bikes and so does your son, he will remember the good experiences of a bike that was just right. My son is growing so fast as well, he outgrows his school shoes before he wears them out ( well done Clark's). You won't buy your son a pair of shoes that is far too big just to avoid the next size up , will you? So why do it with a bike 😉
The 24" Hotrock is a 13.5" frame.
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sputnik - How old/tall is your son?
Nuke, my son is 9 ( will be 10 end of July). Don't know how tall he is , but can measure him when he gets home. He is very tall for his age though .
He has now moved on to a small Giant XTC, but he loved that Spesh of his. He won the Southern XC series for U/10's on it last year, so a very capable little bike.
Sputnik - Thanks, very useful seeing the 20 and 24 side by side. The Spesh does look a lovely bike.
Trigger shifters too? Most kids bikes seem to have grip shift, but both of ours struggle with wrist strength to get the bigger cogs.
ETA - What age did your son go to the 24 and then to the small xtc? My lad is 10 in July as well
Cheers sputnik
[i]He won the Southern XC series for U/10's on it last year, so a very capable little bike. [/i]
Nice one...good lad 😀
He was 8 when he moved onto the 24". Only started riding the XTC a month or so ago. And when I say tall for his age I mean it. He looks more like a 12 year old . Wears a size 40 ( 6.5) Spesh cycling shoe.
The trigger shifters was an upgrade, Shimano STX. It also has been upgraded with LX v-brakes and levers.
My nephew turned 7 last week, he's on a 20" wheel Dawes rocket and he's only just really big enough for it - your lad must be *REALLY* tall!
I did a lot of riding on a 24" wheel road bike aged maybe 12-14.... Was a good stepping stone for me.
Just done the measuring. Height - 1.47 meter and inside leg 58cm
6'5" myself so he must be taking after me 🙂
Just do what my dad did and give him your old bike, as Gary Lake said he will manage. I know I ruined myself lots of times on the top tube of my dads old bike but as me and the mrs have just had a nipper there was obviously no long term damage 🙂
But to be serious nbt sounds right, get a 14" inbred and raid your parts bin.
My lad must have long legs - 137 and 58...
...I'd better check those measurements!
I blame it on my wife! She took the measurement, promise 🙄
Just checked them myself and the inside leg should be 64 cm.
Buy a decent bike of the right size, and resell/reuse when outgrown - you know it makes sense. The resale of kids bikes from Isla/Specialized/Felt etc. is pretty good now on here or EBay even.
My eldest has grown up on Specialized (spoilt git) but then he has two behind him gagging for the handme downs - makes economic sense buying something nice, and easier to spanner yourself too.
Dont buy the Flet 24" its OK but not worth the extra on the Carrera, if you want new get the carrera, if not buy the spesh off sputnik, it does look a well sorted bike.
I'm in the process of building up a Summer Season 14" for my little brother (11YO) 26" wheels, seat pushed forward in the post, reverse layback, 50mm stem, it's spot on for him and should last him a fair while, and when it does it's not a big pain to sell the frame and buy one in 16/18". I was looking at 24" and adult frame etc. but this seemed the best option in the long run.