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I call upon the STW massive to cast their opinion in my general direction to help with an important decision.
My brother wants to buy his son a 'proper' MTB. He's keen as mustard to take it up properly, (I'm the cool Uncle who he want's to ride with!!)
We've looked at sizes and recon a 20" is they way to go.
The choice is from 3 so far.
Ridgeback MX20
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Giant MTX125
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Or the Carerra Blast
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Ideal price would be £150 and topping out a £200 MAX.
What would be your choice ?
Is there anything I have missed and should consider ?
Hi, I'm 14 and back in the day I had a Ridgeback MX24 (24") and I have to say it served me fantastically well. I was racing round glen tress red routes and the Grizedale north face trail like there was no tomorrow. Definitely would recommend Ridgebacks.
Shwinn mini mesa. My daughter has abused it for about 18 months now and it's faultless. Cracking bike.
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With you on this one! I'm the cool uncle taking my nephew out riding. He's 6 and we chose s 20" wheel to get him a bike that will last a while. He struggles to reach thr brake levers, although Tracey kindly sent me some child size levers so I will have to fit them before this weekend
anyway we went for a Dawes Rocket as our budget was more limited than yours: I struggled to get them to go above £100, so the £120 for the dawes was only just acceptable: "but we can get a bike with suspension at both ends for less than that from Halfords"
"yes, but it'll be made of pig iron and weigh a ton, you'd struggle to ride it properly never mind a 6 year old"
but I digress
If you don;t mind secondhand, look for an Islabike, they have a superb rep and having seen them in the flesh, wish I could have got one for my nephew. They were twice the price of my max budget though
I'd say think very hard about suspension. it adds weight for no benefit at all - kids bikes are very heavy for their size, so the more weight you can lose, the better
islabikes Bennin, just above your price range, but I reckon these are brilliant. 2 sizes in 20 inch, this image is the small one for 5yrs+
No suspension though, I suppose it the next point, but IME, the springs are far too stiff for kids to make them work and if they did the rebound would be horrendus with a light rider, so in effect they are just a ground anchor.
[img] http://www.islabikes.co.uk/bike_pages/beinn20sml/beinn20sml-enlarge.html [/img]
there's a coincidence! Sorry my image didn't work, heres the link to the whole page.
[url= http://www.islabikes.co.uk/bike_pages/beinn20.html ]Islabikes bennin 20[/url]
I teach kids to ride, and see all sorts of machines. The Islabikes are by far the best.
A
How desperate are you? Know someone about to trade her sons Specialised for a new bike soon(maybe xmas tho)
Bit of a Ridgeback fan here. Possible weakness is rear cassete/freewheel but probably same for all bikes at that price point.
Avoid full sus like swine flu!!
The Giant weighs a ton, bought it for my nephew and regretted it. My older son has the Islabike mentioned, I would give it a 7 or 8 out of 10. Standard of finishing kit on my younger boys BMX makes some of the things on the Islabike seem a bit cheap. For example the front V brake is made from really soft metal and the cable guide pulled through the first time the handlebars turned more than 90 deg.
I know it sounds insane, but Ikea in Gateshead had some sweet looking 20" bikes, you could even adjust the bb height, I nearlly got one to put in the loft for my mates 6m old son...
Gary Fisher PreCal 20".
Perfect for you what you want. Designed to be a kids XC race bike.
Super light, A'head, proper kids forks, 2x8 speed, bontrager finishing kit.
£220 but will worth the £20 over your budget.
J
I'd also recommend wholeheartedly recommend Islabikes [b]and don't forget[/b] that even though they're over your budget, in a couple of years, when he's outgrown it, it'll still be worth a fair bit of money, unlike most of the pther stuff out there.