My oldest son is 10 soon and is on the way off his 24" Wheeler to the dizzy heights of a 26er....
I'll be building the bike, but was interested in:
What light, extra small 12/13", well cable managed frame to use - it will be a 1 x 10 and may have rigid carbon forks to lower weight until he's strong enough for front sus.
What have you used / what would you recommend?
Ideally not a 4x bike or DJ, as I'd thought of a Nukeproof Snap, however the reach on those bikes is still very long.
Cheers,
John
I've got a Commencal Normal frame for £10. Seat tube is 14" centre to top. My GF had it, and it was a little small for her at 5'2"
Pic here (obviously built up):
Pre owned Specialized hard rock, light with low standover, running with 1*10,some old rockshox I had and a collection of the best of my old stuff. Even got him on the spanners to help me. If you wanted new, did see some cube 14" frames on bike discount ( Germany ) not sure on the geometry but might be worth a look.
bike discount.de often have some good deals on cubes.
But Alanl's Commy looks nice
+1 on Bike Discount, friend got a lovely wee Cube HT recently
Where are you op?
I’ve 2 in the shed. In Sheffield
One is a handsome dog Ali job from the mid 90s. 13 inch and ideal with a short carbon fork. 11/8 headset disk or can’t brakes.
Other is an unidentifiable jump frame.
Free to a good home both of them.
Cubes on bike discount appear to be 27.5
My son and I built up an XS Spesh Hard rock frame last year . Paid £20 for the frame but luckily had nearly everything else in my spares box (a further £35 on seat post/chain/cables) the bike is about 23lb but due to some really nice bits on it he has to use a cheap BMX for school.
Keeping an eye on this thread as am also looking for an xs frame that I can build up for my 5’1 wife which will also be of use for my growing 8 year old son
cheers
My lad's BikeDiscount cube frame is 27.5, but works fine with 26" wheels and an old Reba in 26" flavour. Cost about €80 if I remember rightly..
here's old thread with pics: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/another-kids-bike-build/
Interested in the commencal
My son is on a Nukeproof snap that I built him when he was nine. Doesn’t seem too long. I started with a 50mm stem and now he’s on a 70mm aged 11. He is quite tall though.
Superb responses - Many thanks!!
Love the cube frame on: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/another-kids-bike-build
Any chance of a link directly to the frame?
docrobster
Incidentally, I live in Doncaster - would you email me a photo or 2 of the frames? johnski15 at g mail dot com
Thanks mate,
John
Some bargains to be had at sizes 13.5" and 14"
https://www.bike-discount.de/en/cube-frame/frame_size-14%22.13%2C5%22
My (now) 11year daughter is on an XS Commencal Normal frame - had a thread and pic on here last year about it but not sure how to link to it with new forum/my phone. Think I called it "the bike stw built" - a lot of folks on here were very generous with old 26" parts they had knocking about.
Just bought a 14" blue pig for my lad, he should fit it by the time we've built it. Decided i better get prepared after i caught him riding my 16" 456.
Will likely be a hefty jump weight-wise from his 24" wheeled hoy bonaly.
I’ve kept my old bikes for my boys, the Trance 2009 x4 is great, it came with Reba’s, is very light and has a super low stand over height.
I don't understand why you are looking specifically for a 26er frame ???
Do you already have the wheels and forks? Or are you planning on using 24" wheels?
A XS 650B frame will be smaller and lighter than a XS 26er frame. (A 650B frame with 26" wheels will be smaller than a 26" frame with 26" wheels).
Slight thread resurrection
just seen a 14” Cotic BFe on eBay
https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cotic-Bfe-Frame-rare-14/323084091987?hash=item4b39500253:g:lLoAAOSwttVaic4x
Good Spot!!
I've ended up buying a cube frame (the cheapest girls one) from bike-discount for my daughters bike, along with some other matching cube bits. Bike-discount charge a fair wack for postage on bulky items so a 70 euro frame ends up being over 100 so I ended up getting about half the bike from there.
Building it with 27.5 wheels as it's a tiny frame and she's 11 and 5'4" ish. Carbon ridgid 15mn bolt through fork and a 1x10 deore drive train and Clarkes brakes.
Full build is working out at 400 - 450ish Inc postage at a guess - with the only 2nd hand parts being chainset (from stw), shifter and cassette from my spares.
Went ridgid as I don't see the point in 50quid 3kg Suntour forks with heavy springs for a kids bike.