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Our lad is a big 11 and ready to move onto a small adult mountain bike, and I'm looking for some inspiration - What's good and available secondhand around the 500 quid mark? What did you get your kids for their first adult-sized bike?
Wouldn't mind getting him a FS - Thinking something like a calibre bossnut or something very mainstream like a giant trance must come up a lot secondhand, or maybe something good but older with 26 wheels?
Bossnut is a decent call as to be honest anything else full suss for £500 is likely to be a bit rubbish.
Got a specialized Pitch for sale in small if your interested 😉
I managed to bag a Trance off here for about 350 quid I think. Perfect for him if you can find a small one.
Only issue with the one I got is the bent seat tube and tiny frame so I can't fit a dropper in it!!
My 10yr old has been on a XS adult for over a year. I paid £250 for the frame and shock (incl headset) and about £20 for some cranks could be cut down to size.
Other than that everything I needed was in the spares... though when he was 9 I bought some rims (cost me £30 for 2x 26" spank race and about the same for spokes - I had spare hubs) but these were "optional" and he's using some of my 27.7 wheels for pedal days.
He's riding a Bird Aeris MK1.5 which has the flipchip style travel adjust from 140/150 and he cost me one of my sets of forks that I had to replace but he's using the same bike for long rides and DH.
Riding some DH on 150mm and 26" wheels
Riding some "XC" type on 140mm and 27.5 wheels
Stevious' Spesh?
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/how-best-to-move-on-an-obsolete-bike-on/ ?
Wasn't expecting the Insta to work but hey ho....
What I forgot to say above is buying a frame more or less everything else will swap over when he grows (if its not worn out) and handily this should do him until he's on a medium when he can use one of my frames. The 26" wheels I might make a loss or not but didn't pay much and the 27.5" cost me £75 for the pair
-ve's is its not boost or metric shock
It's also compatible with my bikes though so I can somehow whip up a shock, shifter or brakes etc. from spares or off another bike if needs be.
When do you need it?
We'll be selling our Trek Ex Junior, but probably not till after the summer.
Older version of this.
https://www.trekbikes.com/international/en_IN_TL/bikes/mountain-bikes/kids-mountain-bikes/fuel-ex-jr/p/17095/
Mine was on a small Giant Trance 26, bought the frame and shock and built the rest up from spares and what he had on his hardtail.