Kid’s new bike day

So I picked up one of the Vitus 20+ bikes in the sale, just before they went out of stock. Been watching them for ages as I didn’t want to pay over £300 for a new bike for my daughter – saw them dip in price and jumped in.

It arrived today and I’m really impressed with it – the paint is lovely and it seems nicely put together. Tyres are enormous – also looks like it’s been properly pdi’d with a checklist all ticked off. I’ll still give it the once once and tweak how the brakes are setup I think.

It might possibly be a bit too big for now – we’re jumping from a Cnoc 14 that’s definitely too small – but I didn’t want to buy the in between step with a bike that also didn’t have gears. We’ll try it and see – if too big we’ll keep plugging away with her Cnoc until she’s grown a bit more.

I’m particularly keen on the big fat tyres for the comfort off road as hoping to get my daughter doing some bits of off road round Ashton Court in Bristol.

We went straight from 14″ to 20″ for child no.1 and it was definitely the right choice. No.2 has outgrown the 14″ almost immediately but just started pedalling and not ready for the size of a 20″, so grudgingly we’ve gone for a 16″ for him

I’m hopeful we’ll go from one to the other ok. The wife will be (even more) angry if I have to buy an in between bike to tide us over. If I have to do that it’ll be whatever comes cheap ish on Facebook marketplace!

Excellent.

joebristol
Full Member
I’m hopeful we’ll go from one to the other ok

We found the top tube was a little long at first, but that the stability more than made up for it. He was comfortable almost instantly, so hopefully yours goes just as well

I like the look of that.

looks like you’ve got some stem spacers to swap to get the front down, and surely that saddle can come down a bit more?

You could even switch to some non-plus tyres for a bit. Painful I know but it’ll make the bike just a teeny bit lower.

The Vitus bikes are great! Agree about the paint – proper lush red colour they use across many of their bikes. We had one Nucleus 24 before both kids moved to their current Nucleus 26s (all red). Proper thought out mini-MTBs with decent geometry – just needed crank swaps for something appropriate length.

My wife is chomping at me to save it for a Christmas present…..sigh.  I want to start getting my daughter off road but the cnoc 14 is so bumpy with the tiny tyres / small wheels and it’s getting a little twitchy where it’s so low at the front vs the saddle height

The front end has one spacer to come down which looks like it’d save about 10mm – the seatpost in the picture with the Isla in front of it is about as low as it goes. But the Isla seat is too low for my daughter really anyway ….

Can you fit some smaller tyres on it?  That would probably drop the saddle height a bit.

lovely bike.

Hmmmn, the whole point is for the extra padding – not sure if I want to try buying smaller tyres for it or not really…..maybe just wait for a few more months growing. She’s only 5cm shy of the minimum height having measured her today. She seems to be on a growth spurt at the moment as all her clothes are suddenly starting to look a bit short so just had to buy a load of new ones.

Edit – although decathlon have some 20×1.95 tyres for either £9.99 or £14.99 that might do a job. Depends if they’d stretch ok over the rims on the Vitus – not sure what their inner width is…..

Nice one, new bike day for kids is even better than for adults!

Top top dad points.

My wife is chomping at me to save it for a Christmas present

We chose never to do bikes as Christmas presents. We felt that it a) set an ever increasing cost precedent b) didn’t fit in with thier growth patterns and c) somehow put bikes into the ‘once a year’ category, rather than the ‘need a bike’ category.

My kid went from a 16 to a 20+ and it was a big jump.. 20+ is pretty close to 24 normal in terms of diameter so everything’s a chunk bigger. Perfect size for him now (age 7) though

The weather will be shit round Christmas, never save anything when it can be used and enjoyed is the rule in our house. Might be dead tomorrow then someone has a bike to sort out!!

The weather at Christmas is definitely a factor in seeing if it fits now – would love to get a ride in October half term

I can attest to the wide tyres : https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/20-inch-kids-mtb/page/2/#post-12983137

Made such a difference compared to his isla bikes Beinn. Can also add a fork at a later date

I bought the 20+ for my 6 year old and she also found it way too big. Ended up with a Vitus 20 off facebook marketplace until she’s big enough. She can get on the 20+ but is way more comfortable on the Vitus 20 and it’s easier for her to ride at the bmx/pump track and stuff.

I did wonder about the Vitus 20 but wanted the big tyres….

May have to pick something cheap up off fb marketplace to tide us over if the 20+ is way too big but we’ll see. Weekend weather is looking ok so might try her for size on the new bike then.

Plan is to sell the Cnoc 14 once she’s up to speed in a new bike and add that back into my kids bike vault (love Revolut Vaukts for this sort of thing) for the next bike. If she takes to mtb (big if) I do like that yellow Nukeproof Cub Scout 24” with the Manitou suspension forks.

I think big tyres will be the way forward. I was just thinking about ways to get her on it earlier. Same with a lower profile seatpost/saddle, maybe bung one of these on for a few months as well https://www.islabikes.co.uk/products/saddle-seatpost-160mm-rothan

5cm is quite a jump in height (I think my kids only grew about 8cm between 4 and 5 (on the positive side bikes seem to last ages and they can have nicer shoes) but I think they get their shortness from my wife’s side of the family!

Big tyres are awesome, we’ve had 2.35s in 14″, 16″ and 20″. Run them at (for an adult) sstttooooopppidly low pressures for a nice comfy ride and loads of grip

I also had my eye on the vitus plus. but a a bargain commencal ramones came on on FB marketplace.

Now have my eye on the vitus nucleus 26 for my eldest who is nearly 9. Really good value for money in comparison to isla bikes

A move to bigger wheels and gears will open up so much more biking for your little one.

You may want to remove that rear reflector and see if you can drop the seat post a little more, where it is it would not be seen for the rear tyre anyway.

If the bike is a little big for you kid id also look to slam the stem and bars and move all the spacers above the stem.

While the fatter tyres do add cushioning they also add mass and rotational mass to the bike, this will make it a little more effort to get going, any damp grass over an inch or so will suck speed out of the bike. If you are practicing on it try and pick a path or carpark or gravel trail over a grassy park if the grass is long.

Thanks all – I’ve already removed the rear reflector to get the seatpost as low as possible. Got the bike in the stand at the moment to apply some protection tape on the bits most likely to hit the floor if she drops it (as kids do).

I screwed the pedals in just for the photos but need to pop them out and put some copper grease on the threads so they don’t get jammed in.

Brake levers need a little fiddle with I think – they’re not quite as easy to pull as the v brakes on the Cnoc so we’ll see how those go. Could always pick up some Clarks M2s for an easier lever pull if necessary.

The tyres have come quite pumped up – will need to drop some pressure out of them – guessing about 10 psi or something might be the right ballpark for someone so light?

Going to switch the spacer to above the stem as suggested for a slightly lower bar height. There is  another come style spacer below that – I’m not sure if that is the actual bearing cover or just a spacer on top of it. If the latter I could whip that out and add a few additional spacers above the stem to get it even lower still.

Any initial riding will be on tarmac to get used to the bike – riding on grass is never much fun. Ashton Court in Bristol is ideal for first off road as no really meaningful hills and all quite smooth. I’ll probably pick up a towee or similar if she likes it so we can dispatch the couple of harder work hilly bits easier.

Welcome to the club. It’s a proper little mountain bike, Youngest has had his for about a year and has ridden Cannock, Thetford, Sherwood Pines, The New Forest and the Netherlands. The plus tyres make an enormous difference to his confidence. I have added a Mega-range freewheel and some cheap Clarks hydraulics as sharp climbs made him really angry, demanding immediate Haribo’s before he would attempt them.

The tyres have come quite pumped up – will need to drop some pressure out of them – guessing about 10 psi or something might be the right ballpark for someone so light?

8PSi for my 6 year old at the moment. Cant remember what he weighs, but he’s pretty skinny. Round the local blue trails at the weekend had no trouble bottoming out at that pressure

I had clocked you could get an easier gear in the back with a new freewheel. Something else to add to the list.

What tools do you need to get the original one off?

What tools do you need to get the original one off?

Not the bloody one I had in my toolbox 😉

They have slightly wider (I think) splines than the HG tool, I had to do some googling but there are plenty on Ebay.

Got one of these rather than a towee, does the job!

Haha, uploading image works now, but posting an Amazon link didn’t!!

Nope, still doesn’t, just go on Amazon and search bike bungee tow rope

Brill! Image upload works a treat 🤓

Another happy member of the Vitus 20+ club.

Would love to be able to justify moving her to the FS mythique when the time comes, but will have to see just how much riding we get to do at the time, bit extravagant!

That 24” wheel Mythique looks ace for kids but ££££

I suspect if Eva gets into it the most I’ll stretch to is the Cub Scout – and even then the wife will think I’m mad

Cub scouts were half price not long ago on wiggle / crc.

i think they will be again given their financial turmoil!

Must not look at the next bike on yet…..that’s too far away! She might not even warm to mtb so don’t want to jump the gun.

When towing which tow ropes work the best – some of them seem ludicrously expensive for what they are? Seems like most are some sort of bungee thing that wraps around the front saddle and around the kids bike stem.

Do they play nicely with dropper posts or put too much leverage on them? Feels like it would be better if it wrapped around the lower part of the post / frame but the angle then across the back wheel towards the front of the towed bike isn’t going to work.

The bike I’d be towing it with is this one:

My eldest is on a 26 inch scout , it’s a lovely bike and will be good for his younger brother so whilst it’s a lot of money it should be worth it in the long run .

My youngest is on cnoc 16 at the moment which is definitely too small for him but I’m not sure he’s big enough to ride the 20 plus yet .

We use a towee and it’s great at what it does , I’m sure you can fashion something up from something for less money but the towee does work well .

I suggested up there, just go on Amazon and search bike bungee tow rope. There’s one for £15 the same as a towee, branded tetupga. The loop on your end goes around the saddle and you sit on it. Doesn’t seem to have had any noticeable effect on my dropper.

Welcome to the club!
got Ralph his 24+ for his 7th birthday and it’s been a revelation for him following on from his Frog, sitting in rather than perching on the bike has helped no end – head angle, big tyres and good brakes all help the stability and confidence.

We run his tyres at 12psi but he’s massive so sub 10 should probably be fine for your daughter.

This is on Yer Tiz, he had a blast.

@pimpingimp – didn’t know you’d bought one too! Looks good with the 24” wheels