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  • <£500 FS bike for my 10 year old… ?
  • weeksy
    Full Member

    Looking into what’s possible for my lad… .

    With the best intentions in the world, the Whyte T-403 is GREAT at XC stuff, but at places like BPW it’s out of it’ depth really and quite rough on him.

    So I’m thinking a small 26″ wheeled FS bike…

    Giant Reign, FSR Stumpy, Meta55 but what else is there in the budget ? Pitch Pro possibly….

    I’m trying to keep the budget sensible as the odds are i’ll re-sell it in 12-18 months when he eventually moves up to my Medium T130…. Once that happens i go S-150…

    But other thoughts on bikes i’ve missed at this stage would be appreciated.

    Posted 5 years ago
    eemy
    Free Member

    Morning Weeksy. My now 12-yr old has had a Trek Fuel Ex for the last 2 or 3 years. It is a 26-inch wheel and 15.5-inch virtual frame size. It’s a 2010 ‘woman specific design’, but it looks the same to me and there are no ‘girly’ bits on it.

    I bought it 2nd hand as a complete bike and then replaced some of the components. It’s a nice bike, but it is not the lightest bike in the world. I’m thinking of getting him a 27.5-inch wheel so can send you a few snaps if you are interested.

    Posted 5 years ago
    weeksy
    Full Member

    Yeah i don’t mind the WSD stuff in that context. There’s a Liv up on Ebay currrently that would suit him and i think the FoD hire bike is a WSD Cube Sting…. but they’re all quite rare and tricky to find of course.

    I rekon he’d get away with a 15″ with a short stem and flatish bars…..

    If you mean you’re likely to be selling it, then sure, throw me over the info please… 🙂

    Posted 5 years ago
    igm
    Full Member

    12 year old is on a Orange Five XS. (Technically a refurbed Diva that used to be his mum’s)

    7 year old on a Kona Stinky 24 (24” wheels)

    Neither for sale but if you look round

    Posted 5 years ago
    weeksy
    Full Member

    Stinky, i’d considered by thought it was a bit too ‘jumpy’ and a bit more likely to be completely destroyed before by previous owners.

    Orange 5, i’d expect to be out of budget ?

    Posted 5 years ago
    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    Just sold this for £400. Deore, Juicy 7’s (only ones I have had that have been no faff!), Crossmax XL’s, Reba and Fox. It has been a great wee thing, he has really enjoyed it.

    [url=https://flic.kr/p/21AKPCn]Comrie Croft ride (again!)[/url] by Matt Robinson, on Flickr

    [url=https://flic.kr/p/WDST1A]Les Gets, Geneva and Paris 2017[/url] by Matt Robinson, on Flickr

    [url=https://flic.kr/p/SF9Ab7]IMG_20170312_121414911[/url] by Matt Robinson, on Flickr

    There are a few 26″ FS bikes going – I would buy more on condition and price than a specific model. There are a *lot* of people who think their 15 year old FS 26″ is still an expensive bike, they are not…

    Now 13, he is rocking this new ride…. Cost us £600, we already had some better wheels so I have swapped them out and plan to sell the cheaper wheels and get a suspension service.

    [url=https://flic.kr/p/2atjCPD]Norco[/url] by Matt Robinson, on Flickr

    Posted 5 years ago
    weeksy
    Full Member

    This is currently topping my Ebay watch list… I had a chat with the seller who’ll flog it for £400 if he gets no bids by auction end. Giant Reign

    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Giant-Reign-X2-Mountain-Bike-With-Upgrades/283131623487?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

    Seems like a cracking, if a little excessive choice… But for BPW and the Enduro races will be ideal.

    This Liv is arguably a more appropriate choice as he could potentially ride it uphill too… Which is a bit more likely than on the Reign

    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Liv-Embolden-Womens-Mountain-Bike-2017-27-5-Full-Suspension-Small/273442021504?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

    Other than that, i’m struggling a bit on choices at the moment. Bikes are often cash on collection, which is fine, as long as collection isnt 2000 miles away. Which many seem to be.

    Posted 5 years ago
    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    Agreed the travelling is an issue.

    I ended up giving up on Pinkbike and here – we bough through the mountainbikes for sale Scotland group, as it was then only 20 miles away when one(s) did come up to view. We saw one that was ‘excellent condition’ – and clearly pics had been taken a year ago when he bought it, now trashed! Glad we didn’t travel far…

    Posted 5 years ago
    daern
    Free Member

    One other option – we built a bike around an XS 650b frame and fork, with 26″ wheels and with a few geometry hacks (angle headset, travel reduction spacers on the fork, offset bushing on the shock) to get the bike setup properly. My son was riding this at 8.5yo and, by rolling back the geometry changes and (eventually) swapping the wheels back to 650b. He’s still riding it comfortably now at 9.5 and I’ll probably start rolling back some of the geometry hacks this winter.

    This future proofing allowed me to obtain spouse sign-off on a larger budget and buy decent parts that will transfer to a new bike in the future anyway, so should be able to avoid a future big-bang approach to bike purchases. Also, a good scour of eBay for parts (e.g. some mint Fox Factory 650b forks for < £200)

    Might not work for everyone, but it worked well for us and the bike has turned out to be absolutely amazing and my son adores it! In the long term, I’m sure it’ll work out cheaper too.

    Posted 5 years ago
    igm
    Full Member

    You might have to wait for a Five and it might not be the newest (ours is 11 years old but in good nick), but…

    https://m.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=five&_sacat=177831&Frame%2520Size=!&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&_sop=15&Brand=Orange

    Posted 5 years ago
    weeksy
    Full Member

    I’ve been messaging the Liv owner and i’m in for a potential purchase at £425.

    We’ll see in the next few hours if it all works out and i’ll be buying it for cash tomorrow. I can then make the decision as to whether he runs it alongside the T403 or we do it as a £0 swap type scenario and sell his T403 on here for £450 and just ride the Liv.  I guess it will depend a lot on whether he focuses on XC racing or Enduro over winter…

    Posted 5 years ago
    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    whether he focuses on XC racing or Enduro over winter…

    A 10 year old.

    Choice between XC on skinny bike, HR and turbo

    vs

    gnar, googles, FS and all the heroes doing Enduro and DH

    Can I place a bet?!

    Posted 5 years ago
    weeksy
    Full Member

    Can I place a bet?!

    Indeed, he does seem to prefer Enduro type stuff over XC racing, which of course i’m 100% fine and dandy with, if it comes down to a choice between a day playing at BPW or doing a field based race, i’ll take the BPW all day… But it’s not always practical to get out to these sort of things and certainly over summer we’ve done plenty of XC/Ridgeway stuff. However, that said, i’m sure the Liv would be perfectly great at it once i throw a 1x crank and a tubeless setup at it 🙂

    Posted 5 years ago
    ads678
    Full Member

    This is my lad on his Giant Trance x, that i got off here a few weeks ago for £350. I changed a few parts over,  chopped the seat post down, got rid of the 3×9 set up for a 1×10 and put new brakes (deore for about £40 fro CRC) and shorter cranks, and a 35mm stem. 120mm travel gnarpoon, he loves it!!

    [url=https://postimages.org/]post image[/url]

    Posted 5 years ago
    stevextc
    Free Member

    If you can stretch there is a Bird XS on sale right now at £1095 .. I’d expect would sell for the same in a year or so…  (quite possibly to me).  Dave McFarlane  is selling…. and I randomly bumped into him on Saturday @ Tidworth but had seen the bike posted.

    It’s also pretty local ….

    A much older orange Alpine XS 26 went for not that much less not long ago.

    I cross posted into the SFMB group… if your interested or contact Dave…

    Posted 5 years ago
    weeksy
    Full Member

    I can stretch the £500 to £1000… but i’m not going to !

    There’s limits to how good a daddy i am…. i’m not THAT good.

    Posted 5 years ago
    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    TBF, you should (with patience) get something £5-700 half decent. I go in knowing I will need to faff a bit, but we have spares and I can service myself.

    Spending £1k should get you better, but I did find last year that although you get shinier headline kit (XT vs Deore, Hope vs Deore etc), many £1-1.5k bikes are un-serviced, knackered suspension etc. We had to be real fussy to get a good one, which we did…

    Posted 5 years ago
    stevextc
    Free Member

    I can stretch the £500 to £1000… but i’m not going to !

    There’s limits to how good a daddy i am…. i’m not THAT good.

    You only need to talk him down £95 😀

    I don’t know the bloke but I think this bike has been meticulously maintained by Bird.

    (It might have had the shock and forks serviced as well)  … but either way something you’d want to check before buying anyway… £500 + shock service + for service… is soon £700

    Posted 5 years ago
    weeksy
    Full Member

    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Liv-Embolden-Womens-Mountain-Bike-2017-27-5-Full-Suspension-Small/273442021504?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

    Well that’s that discussion finished… Collect tomorrow morning

    Posted 5 years ago
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