What 20 inch bike tyres for a boys bike?

Just bought a second hand Giant XTC JNR for my six year old son, the tyres are past it, so looking for something for mixed terrain, ideally not too narrow. Any grip and pedal recomendations also welcome.

vee do some decent tyres in small sizes.

Thanks I will have a look.

Kenda are worth a look at, michelin do some white walled “street” tyres @ £10

Schwalbe Black Jack K-Guard 20×1.9″ are spot on, it’s what we have on our 20″ wheeled frog.

Grips wise I just use the cheapo rubber stick / slide on jobs off eBay and cut them to suit, pedals, the go-to used to be the Wellgo KC008, but they stopped making them unfortunately. They were perfect mini proper flats for feet under size 2.

Thanks all.

LittleGinge is running Continental Cross King 20 x 2.0 on his bike, seem to cope with most things fairly well without acting like boat anchors or constantly trying to slide out from under him.

https://conti-tyres.co.uk/mtb/cross-king

Vee Crown Gem, my daughter went through two sets on her Hellion 20 (the version that come as standard with the bike, Early Rider do sell them separately too) and we ride all year, really surprising grip as the tread blocks don’t seem that chunky. Two minute job to set them up tubeless too.

My daughter really liked the Early Rider grips.

SDG slater pedals are brill, good but not too sharp pins as standard. As my daughter started going much faster and doing more extreme stuff, I’ve swapped the pins for something sharper (superstar I think), coupled with five tens, they are perfect even in vile muddy conditions on mega bumpy trails. 🙂

My 3 year olds are running some Forward Affix Junior pedals as they were cheap with quite a small platform. They do a pro version with replaceable pins for a bit more.

Forward Affix Junior

Much cheaper than the Chromag or Hope equivalent.

If you think he’s going to ride regularly and not give it up in a year or so then buying the Chromag Radar, SDG Slater or Hope F12 ones would probably be a sound investment until he needs adult sized pedals. But again it depends how much use they would actually get.
I think SDG and Nukeproof do kids pedals, grips and bars (SDG used to sell a set of the lot).

Whatever you do don’t fit a trials tyre. Loads of kids bikes used to come with creepy crawlies on them and it’s just… insane. All the grip in the world, weighs a ton, rolls like a paving slab.

SDG Slater Kit is a good looking if extravagant buy.

The grips are a fair bit smaller diameter because the bars are also slimmer but normal controls can be used because the kit comes wit plastic shims to put under the levers/shifter. As said above it’s all really nicely thought out – the bars aren’t too wide and the pedals aren’t too big sharp or heavy/thick. The seat’s really nice too in a 2/3 scale kind of way.

Just a shame the coloured ones aren’t in stock for a couple of months.

Kenda small block 8 2.1″ and full sdg slater kit on my eldests mtb. Stock isla on the cx bike. Happy with all of it but I wish the kendas were a lot lighter.

Another vote for either crown gems or cross kings.

I’ve just got some of these grips for my youngest as his 24″ bike came with adult size grips (why???)

Nukeproof Urchin

Loads of great suggestions, unfortunately not much you can actually buy at present.

I got my nephew Schwalbe Blackjacks, they seem a good mix of grip and speed. This was a year ago and it was quite difficult to find stock seemingly due to the size more than anything

Bike inn have stock of the cross kings, black jacks and small block 8s but the postage is a little higher than you might like (to counter this the actual tyre prices are pretty low).

https://www.bikeinn.com/bike/continental-cross-king-20-tyre/137576703/p

Small block 8’s. I can’t remember the size but the 20” on the front of my sons old bike was very wide.

Good luck finding any in stock though.

VEE TIRE FLOW SNAP 20 x 2.4
VEE TIRE CROWN GEM 20 x 2.6

MINION DHR II 20X2.30

SCHWALBE BIG BETTY 20 X 2.25 SUPER GROUND ADDIX SOFT
SCHWALBE ROCKET RON 20 x 2.25 SUPER RACE

Continental Cross King 20 x 2.00

Sophie has the SDG bar, grips and saddle on her bike with Chromag radar youth pedals (bought cheaply).

When did tyres for little kids mountain bikes become gender specific?