I’m looking to buy a 24″ MTB bike for my son and I’ve been looking at the Specialized Hotrock A1, Cube Team 240 or Trek MT220 but there is no competition as all the cycles shops have got them at the same price.

Is there something going on in the pricing or are the manufacturers stopping any discounting.

Andy.

I suspect there’s not many ‘posh’ kids bikes imported and shops can sell them at full retail so don’t need to discount?

just as much engineering goes into them

and alot of real kids bikes have bespoke parts that differ from adults bikes so that they fit propperly …

brake levers , cranks , pedals , gearing , saddles ……

What he said, and they probably make orders of magnitude less posh kids bike than they do even the £4k superbikes. Small market and small production runs coupled with “I’m not paying THAT for a kids bike” means the margins are probably smaller than adults bikes as well.

Lol none of those parts are “bespoke” 🙄

It’s simply down to units produced/sold and dictatd by demand.

I’ve just moved the (not-so) little one up to 24″. The Best value for money for a 24″ bike, by a mile is a Carrera Blast

A Better spec than Specialized etc and cheaper. The frame is nice and light, and probably made in the same factory as the Specialized. Just bought one and I’m now spending a few quid upgrading a few things and putting it on a diet

how many are found on any bike other than a kids bike then GW ?

bespoke to kids bikes.

i mean im talking propper kids bikes rather than parents who have just wound in adult sized brake levers that their kids struggle to pull …

Not sure about others but the Trek is well made and up to the job – and if you are considering s/h, I’ve an MT220 going ‘spare’ 🙂

EIP

So many reasons to buy second hand.

and more so – have you ever tried to find replacement parts for a kids bike OTHER than the OE kit from the manufacturer ?

treks twin drilled cranks for example

giants adjustable seat towers and ultra short adjustable stems to allow the bike to grow with your kid

Got my youngest daughter a 24″ bike a couple of months ago, price wasn’t bad but god it’s heavy – heavier than my (admittedly reasonable quality) full size MTB…

Are all kids bikes made from girders?

nowhere does ‘strong, light, cheap’ come more to the fore than on kids bikes…

Look up the meaning of the word “bespoke”

What other bike would you expect find kids parts on ? 😕

And yes, I have sourced replacement parts for hundreds of kids bikes.

Are you seriously trying to say that when a part on a kids bike breaks i cannot be replaced therefore rendering said bike useless?

“word meaning an item made to a buyer’s specification (personalized or tailored)”

buyer being the builder of the kids bike , specification being smaller than and needing less strength to operate.

I’ve just moved the (not-so) little one up to 24″. The Best value for money for a 24″ bike, by a mile is a Carrera Blast

Thanks Binners for the info, I’ll pop into Halfords and have a look at that one.

Read what I added to my last post ^^

Are you seriously trying to say that when a part on a kids bike breaks i cannot be replaced therefore rendering said bike useless?

no your selective reading goggles are on again

“and more so – have you ever tried to find replacement parts for a kids bike OTHER than the OE kit from the manufacturer ? ”

direct copy from my post above

you can get the parts from the manufacturer no sweat but some of the better kids bikes have bits you just cant get from any where else bar the original manufacturer of the bike

AT – She had the 20″ one before it. Its been brilliant! Loads of use, including Lee Quarry – and its been bomb-proof. So the next size up was a no brainer.

Would you believe the suntour suspension fork is pretty good – not like a pogo stick – but doesn’t add much weight to the bike. The Clarks cable discs are ok. I’ve just had a set of Avid BB5s delivered that are going on it tomorrow 🙂

Just upgraded my kids to a Carrera Blast 24 and a Carrera Luna 24, bought for £80 and £75 from Gumtree, they are great bikes for the money.

So if I understand you correctly, your point seems to be that you can only get hold of specific compontents from the actual manufacturer of said components? and OE components are often only available from the bicycle company/dealer? exactly the same as specific adult components then, aye?

Suitable alternative replacement kids components are readily available from many other suppliers in exactly the same way as with adult bikes.

I recently bought my daughter the 24″ Carrerea Luna too, quite simply for the same or similar (in most cases more)money there wasn’t a bike that could touch it for quality and kit

Seems like a thumbs up for the Carrera Blast, just need to convince my son that green is a cool colour.

IME You’ve got this the wrong way round Terry, Cheap nasty kids bikes often use parts that absolutely cannot be replaced by anything other than a direct replacement from the manufacturer as they are pretty much considered disposable and only built to last the fife of the weakest component. better quality lids bikes use the exact same fixture standards as adult bikes (BBs shells, headtube diameters, axle spacings, bar/stem diameters etc.)

woudlnt know about nasty kids bikes – tended to point them back in the direction of whence they came – halfords …

my experiances lie mostly with giants and treks

best for having readily availible bits from normal suppliers imo were merida and specialized

Whilst the initial outlay of an Islabike is quite pricey your pretty much guaranteed a good resale value years later.

What about a modded BMX?

Personally I don’t think £300 for a Hotrock is overly expensive. Take a look at what £300 buys you in an adult bike

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/specialized/hardrock-se-2012-mountain-bike-ec030763

As for pricing, I bet these pretty much sell themselves and why would anyone discount a good selling item?

Yup I would agree carrera blast is best value 24 wheeled mtb. Paid £190 for my sons. However cable discs on it are pants so may need upgrading. I replaced them with juicy 3s and dialled the levers in close. It also feels significantly heavier than his mates hotrock 24. Not £110 heavier though.

Where are you located? If you are after a used Hotrock, A friend has one for sale. Drop me a line, email in profile.

And right on cue

this

just popped up on the classifieds. Looks lovely

I’ve just bought my lad a carerra blast 16 and it’s great. I reckon he’ll be riding the various sizes for a while to come.

If you do get the blast order it online and enter the discount code NUSMAY10 for an extra 10% off. Think it’s a student offer that changes each month I.e. last month it was NUSAPR10. I’m not a student but they didn’t say anything to me!!

My lad had a Raleigh Awesome for 2.5 years, its a decent quality bike with a good spec, but it weighed quite a bit. I always toyed with modding it, but he got on fine with it.
I’ve just recently built him his first 26″ at 13yo, using all old components from a HT I hardly used. Much lighter.

I think you also need to consider re-sale value to evaluate the true cost.
Bikes like the Spesh A1FS, Giant XTC Jnr, Scott Scale Jnr etc seem to hold their value pretty well, maybe due to rarity. Islabikes re-sale seems to be in a league of it’s own!

Not sure what the second hand value for something like the Carerra would be.

the hustler – Member

I recently bought my daughter the 24″ Carrera Luna too, quite simply for the same or similar (in most cases more)money there wasn’t a bike that could touch it for quality and kit

Santa brought one of those for my eldest son a few years back. I had to cover the flowery decals quick fast. Decent bike for the money and my lad loves it.

My son will get his new bike this Saturday. Then his Hotrock 24 will be getting sold………. It’s the Black and Silver swoopy framed one.

He has had it from new, I bought it from a LBS and I am pretty sure it is in very good condition.

EDIT

e-mail in profile

Isn’t there a 24″ Scott for sale in the classifieds? Looks like a great and light bike!

Well I’ve gone a brought the Carrera Blast from Halfords. Very well spec’d and a bargin with the 10% NUSMAY12 discount code which worked – no questions asked.

Thanks for pointing this bike out.

Andy

Can’t believe no one has mentioned Islabikes yet

light, well designed small people’s bikes

Next level Islabikes

I’ve just bought My boy his first bike, Specialized hotwalk, got 20 quid off as it was the one on display, and was a bit dirty, still 80 quid though!

It looks great, he had a fit when it didn’t come out of the car with him, he has to wait for his 2nd birthday next monday 🙁

I waiting for an Orbea MX24 Team to arrive for one of my sons. Looked at all the options and decided light weight and resale value were a priority.

Was going to get a Scale 24 or Beinn 24 but decided to try something different and was swung by intelligent spec of the MX 24 Team for a kids bike. Rigid aluminium fork, lifetime frame warranty, wide range gears with single front and Deore 10 speed shifter/mech with SLX 11-36 cassette. At less than 10kg, it should be a flying machine.

LBS did a decent deal which made it even sweeter. Not the cheapest out there but light, good quality components and should have a good resale.