MTB choice for a 6 year old - smallest 24 inch bike?

Check out the Hup range of bikes at @hupcc.com . They may have something that suits.  Specialize in kids bikes. Very well regarded. 

shameless plug incoming!! my daughter has just moved up to her brothers old bike and i need to make space in the shed so have a cannondale cuju 24 that i need to sell its been through two kids so has a few scuffs but all works and has big volume tyres which really help with grip and comfort offroad 

if you are thinking of secondhand that is

https://singletrackworld.com/2017/08/cannondale-2018-the-kids-bikes/

its the green one in the link above

Our eldest is 6 and on a Vitus 20 (not the Plus, she mostly rides to school and back). She's 125 cm or thereabouts. 

I can't imagine putting her on anything bigger - she has the seat dropped almost as far as it'll go. She's not the most confident though, she struggles a little bit getting on and off. I'll be putting some chunkier tyres on that for offroad fun in the summer, I think. 

we bought a used merida matts 24 (while it was availible as you dont see many real mtbs for sale round here)  for our 5.5 year old as she has outgrown her isla beinn 20 both height and ability at 120cm - but the isla does seem a particularly small 20" bike. 

unfortunately although it fits height wise  its simply still too long for her to handle offroad due to a function of the angles , length of fork and height of bars/width of bars 

its confined to the old railway tracks for now till she grows a little dont want her confidence getting dragged down by too big a bike offroad. Shes enjoing our trailer bike on the back of my bike on the trails as it lets us do more stuff than the isla does. 

nice bike though. 

That seems like an awful big step up at that height to me. My lad is similar size and I made the change on his Frog 20" from the stock skinny tyres (probably the same as the islabike came with)  to some big chunky 2" Schwalbe off road tyres which run at about 10-15 psi, the biggest I could fit in the frame, and that made a huge difference in his ability to hang on off road. 

I think (annoying as it is) you'd be better off with a more off road capable 20" wheel bike for the time being. The Islabikes are great but they do always seem to be of the more tarmac based/skinny tire type. 

If you buty something smart and used it shouldnt actually cost much long term,

Having had a look  - that Vitus +20 looks really good, and the ideal bridge between the skinny 20"wheel bike and the signifcantly bigger 'proper' 24" wheel MTBS.

I'll be looking out for one of them myself potentially!

Thanks everyone some useful info.  Perhaps the Isla is just small, he has a fair bit of seat post showing now.  I'm just confused as to why smaller 24 inch bikes don't seem to exist.  If a 29er can be designed to fit a short adult then would have assumed it would scale fine for a 24 inch to fit a 120cm kid (pardon the unit mixing!) - but it seems not!

That Vitus 20+ is on sale right now so seems good for he price.  My main reservation is the very small gear range with an 11-28 cassette.. this is supposed to be a MTB right?!  More expensive bikes seem to have 8 or 9 speed and more range. I'm hoping it could be swapped for an 11-34t at least but don't know my 7 speed tech very well if anyone can enlighten me?  His Isla uses 11-32 x 32t and he most definitely needs the largest sprocket even on road.

Edit its actually a 14-28 on the Vitus - even worse!

REAR DERAILLEURShimano Altus 7 Speed

SL-M310-S, 7/8 Speed

REAR SHIFTERShimano Altus Rapidfire 7 Speed

SL-M315-7R, 7 Speed

CASSETTEShimano 14-28T

MF-TZ500, 7 Speed

My 6 ½ is on a Vitus 20+. It's a good bike but weighty.  I don't think I'd stick him on the 24 yet. 

I have a used early riser seeker 24 in the garage for him when he's big enough. The seeker 24 is lighter than Vitus 20+. It's also in bits so he can help build it earn his turns. 

Remember the wheel size is the effective final drive - the rolling radius of the 20 inch plus tyres will be dramatically different to the radius of the skinny Islabike tyres. You need to factor that into the comparisons. 

My very tall 6 year old is on this

https://www.leisurelakesbikes.com/kids-bikes/hardtail-mountain-bikes/orbea-mx-20-team-disc-kids-bike-2024-moondust-bluered__407775?currency=GBP&chosenAttribute=R00420KJ&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqIm_BhDnARIsAKBYcmuDy0GDeV-QWmYQW0jsbd1sXhiNGGPx7atD0ctHU6BWEop2NcDXS3UaAs_YEALw_wcB

Our just turned 8 year old is 128cm according to the marks on the kitchen wall.

Currently on a Scott 20+ and on the verge of looking like a clown bike.

Have a 24 Orbea Laufey lined up, saddle set to same height but a lot more reach. Tried for size in the yard but prefers to stick with 20" for now. Think late Spring will see the move and I know the bigger wheels will help having seen previous confidence gains going up wheel sizes.

The new Treks if you can find one are right small, ours demoed one last summer quite confidently.

GT Stomper looks to have good stand over too.

My daughter did exactly the same as yours last year (aged 7 at the time, now 8)

She was on an Isla 20 and I got her a vitus 20+ off eBay

It's an awesome thing and it was great to see how instantly she improved and became more confident off road. We have had many great proper MTB rides together since.

Height wise I'd say it still fits her well, but at her MTB club there's always some kid on an even bigger bike!

You're right that the gearing is annoyingly limited. It also uses a cheap screw on cassette which makes an upgrade difficult and adds weight. Pretty sure the more premium brands are specced better.

I'm planning to upgrade her to 9spd when I get round to it, which may involve rebuilding the back wheel so I can put an HG cassette on it.

I briefly looked at bigger tyres on the Isla but glad I didn't bother, I think the max was 1.75". I sold the Isla for more than the vitus though. 😎 

Some of my kids' bike career path of bikes are here:

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/bike-forum/another-kids-24-bike-trying-to-be-a-bit-different-work-in-progress/

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/bike-forum/another-girls-bike-project-7-year-old-content/

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/bike-forum/nbd-for-8-5-year-old-girl-content/

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/bike-forum/another-year-passes-another-kids-bike-ready-to-go-nbd-for-9-year-old/

Not all, mind! There was also a Trek Roscoe 24. Which was big and I didn't like it.

Somewhere above, a Cannondale Cujo is recommended. We had the 20" version and it was pretty much grown out of by 6. So I'd be tempted to say the 24" would be a good idea. 

Mine all went through a Islabike Beinn 20 as well before this lot. And all are now on adults xs/s/m

Hope that some of this may be useful!

If it’s the same as my kid’s Vitus, you can’t increase the cassette above 34T, it doesn’t use a standard free hub so you’re limited to the Tourney 14-34T cassette.

The Islabike Beinn 20S is a very small bike. Islabike have a Beinn 20L to bridge the gap, that then became the Beinn 22.

We had an Orbea Laufey 20", which was good up to nearly 130cm. After that a Vitus 24" and that was an enormous step up in size and weight.

HTH 

We’re amazingly similar here. My daughter (6 1/2 and about 125cm) was using a Islabike 20” wheel bike, which had slightly wider Schwalbe tyres on it, but obviously max size limited by the v-brakes. 

This time last year she managed quite a lot of trail centres (Glentress Blue, Glenlivet Green/blue) and various other off-road tracks, but it was noticeable that rocks/roots were really tricky on the smaller wheels and narrower tyres. 

A couple of months ago we got her a Trek Roscoe 20” which has disc brakes (upgraded to hydraulic by previous owner) and much wider tyres. It’s made a big difference to her riding off-road. She now uses the Islabike (back to the original tyres) for cycling to/from school. 

The saddle on the Trek is still pretty low, so she’s got plenty of room to grow into, and its amazing the difference in look the big tyres make - the Trek looks enormous compared to the Islabike. 

Loads of useful info here thanks everyone!  It seems that sticking with 20 inch is the way forward for at least the next year.  The Vitus is a good deal but I am somewhat put off by the gearing.  However it seems that the next step up in terms of quality come in closer to the £500 mark e.g. the Nukeproof Cub Scout 20 @ £480.  This is a big step up in price with the main (only?) benefit seeming to be proper freehub and 8 or 9 speed gears. Some bikes at this price point have hydraulic brakes too - if that makes any difference in a kids bike?

Another alternative is to splash out on something really good but second hand e.g the Nukeproof Cub scout Race and similar bikes, air forks, proper gears etc.  These seem to go for about £600 second hand which is obviously a lot but I guess I'd get a good chunk of that back after selling it in a few years.

Re: Hydraulic brakes - my eldest complains a lot less about getting sore arms after moving her to some Deores. With the correct levers, (i.e kid specific) cable brakes can be okay, but the difference in strength required to pull vs deores is noticeable for smaller hands.

I’d say go used - you’ll probably re-coup most of the cost providing it stays in reasonable condition. Only thing I’d say is look carefully at forks, I got some Manitou J Unit’s which have a kid specific damper so that it actually works for featherweights! The low end forks barely move with kids using them so it’s just lugging additional weight for not much benefit.

If you use Facebook join the “Little Rippers Re-Cycled” group, usually a steady stream of nicer bikes on there plus parts when you inevitably decide to upgrade whatever you get!

at glentress today I saw a Hup xc24. It looked very smart. They are pricey though. But looking very good. There was also the usual mix of prevelo early rider (hope academy as well) orbea Scott etc.

Like has been mentioned. I got a seeker 24 on market place, £300 I think it was. A complete bearing and cable overhaul and new tires and grips and it's good to go. 

They seem to hold their value used so I imagine once both of mine are done with it in 6 years time ill probably be able to shift it on. 

BMC two-stroke AL 24 may be of interest.

Daughter has one - very good, well made, tough, quite light.

Bigger cassette and goatlink copy sees the gears easy.

https://www.spokesonline.com/bikes/mountain-bikes/bmc-twostroke-al-v1-24-greyblackred__19044?currency=GBP&chosenAttribute=BM30002685

The Isla Beinn 20 does come in 2 sizes, small and large. Maybe you have a small?