Anyone built up an xs adult frame for a child? How old/tall were the kids riding it? My daughter’s a tall 9 year old (25in inside leg, 4ft 5in). I’ve been looking at the usual kid’s mountain bikes (islabikes Beinn 24/26, cube 240 etc) but I’m pretty sure she’ll outgrow them very quickly so was wondering if she’d fit an adult xs bike. Something like a 14in inbred frame. She’s probably too small but I though it might be worth a try (considering I’ve got enough spares to build it too!).

My 5ft 9 year old rides his mum’s 16″ inbred. There isn’t a great deal of stand over, but it doesn’t seem to affect his riding.

Cheers Geoff. Looks like it might work. And if it doesn’t, it will in a year or two I guess.

He only looks as stupid as I do on a 29er and he’s not really hucking the gnar just yet, so it seems to work pretty well. You could always bung a pair of 24″ wheels on to start off with too. Good luck.

+1 24″ wheels

But, this type of comment always winds me up:

I’ve been looking at the usual kid’s mountain bikes (islabikes Beinn 24/26, cube 240 etc) but I’m pretty sure she’ll outgrow them very quickly

She’ll probably get 3-4 years out of one, most folk on here don’t keep a bike that long. Better she has one that fits than you buy her one that she can ‘grow into’.

14″ Kona Blast or XS Giant Talon W has been our choice for my sons at this age/size.

We have Kona Fire Mountains at work for school groups to use. The 14 inch frame is tiny, plenty of 9 year olds get on with them fine.
Alot depends on how bike confident they are, some kids don’t understand how to balance a bike when they’re standing/pushing/picking them up so they make it look harder to control. Most tend to be fine once they get moving though.

She’ll probably get 3-4 years out of one, most folk on here don’t keep a bike that long. Better she has one that fits than you buy her one that she can ‘grow into’.

Yeah don’t worry. A bike that fits is the priority, I was mainly looking at it as an opportunity to save some cash and use up a load of spares.

Son, 11 – I’ll have to check how tall he is but pretty average, but possibly a fair bit more than 4ft 5in. He’s now on a 13.5 Spesh Rockhopper. It needed a shorter stem and flat bars – the main issue with any adult bike is the height at the front. I very nearly got him a 15in Boardman ladies MTB – we tried it for size and it would have been fine (again with a shorter stem), but most 15in bikes were way to big.

But I think you do need to try for size – too big is not good.

I have a Hotrock 24 that I need to sell, similar to this:

http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bikes/archive/2009/hotrockboys/hotrock24boys21-speed

If you are interested, email me (in profile) – Bristol area.

She’s actually 4ft 7in, I measured her wrong! Anyway I was thinking a 50mm stem, some flat carbon xc bars that I never use, rigid forks and shorter cranks if I can find some.

Yep, I built up a Merlin Malt for my daughter. Had spare groupset + wheels.

Thought I can always reuse the forks + wheels + groupset when she out grows it.

Of course I’m an idiot, as now it all needs to be thrown away, not being 650B 🙄

Our daughter was just approaching 7 years old but quite tall with it when she went on to a 14″ Kona Cindercone. It fits her better now but she managed on it then. I’m just building an XS GT Avalanche 3.0 for our son for Christmas and he’s nearly 8 but I’m confident it’ll fit him even if it is a tad big for a while. Fit can be adjusted by rolling the bars back and using a shortish stem and by sliding the seat forward on the clamp. As long as they can get their feet down they’re fine.

I have two XS Specialized Hardrocks for my 10 year old daughter and the other for my 9 year old son. I have left my daughters unchanged but have fitted narrower bars to my sons.

Initially both were nervous of a ‘big’ bike having been on 20 inch Hotrocks before but they have quickly taken to it and the seats are starting to creep up now with their extra confidence and growth.

It is so much easier all now being on the same wheel size, but are my children missing out on the “trails coming alive”?

gf is 4ft 10 and she was a right pita to get something for – thank you Spec Myka 13″ (down curve top tupe helped as well), if you’re near Wantage she can have a go

My lad was fine on a 14inch Merida at that age and height. Three years on he’s now over 5′ 10″ and starting to make his 17 inch Genesis look small.

Totally agree with Br, buying a bike that is too big is a false economy.

Thanks all. I’m swaying towards something like this now…

http://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/bikes/mountain/youth-mtb/core-24

I’m concerned the inbred will be just too long with its 546mm top tube. She has a younger sister so even if she outgrows a 24in bike quickly it won’t go to waste. Besides I already have enough bike maintenance tasks to do that I haven’t got time for without adding another build to the list.

My 5′ tall 10 year old fits my mates 14″ Inbred. Ended up buying him the xs decathlon 5.1. The 5.2 had a longer stem and wider bars so he felt too stretched out on what is the same frame

I bought a 13″ or 13.5″ cube acid (can’t remember exactly) for my son when he was 9. I flipped the 6 degree stem but then put a 40 mm stem on it, cut the bars down and shortened the seat post so it would fully drop.

He’s outgrown it this year and (more worryingly) fit’s my 18″ framed bikes :0 , he’s 12!

I looked at on one at the time but they (In-breds) had quite long top tubes.

Cubes had the best standover / shortest TT of anything I could find at the time. He’s loved it but darts are a waste of time really.

As someone said above, women’s specific bikes are a good route as well as they tend to be shorter in the TT with better standover than the equivalent mens’ bike. Names and colours may prove to be a bigger issue 🙂

My youngest has been riding a giant trance xs for some time and loves it.
I bought a 14 inbred and both my kids hated it.

I’ve got a 4’6″ 6 year old on a 24″ bike and he’s only just got enough standover on that when things don’t quite go right – I wouldn’t feel comfortable with him on anything bigger at the moment. The reach is already long enough and the xs 26″ frames I looked at added another 20-30mm to the top tube.

You should be able to sell a decent 24″ bike on here in a few years when the time comes.

Radical thought here – take her to a shop and try her on a bike?

I dunno why I get so many customers asking me this question “will my x year old fit this bike?”

Do I look psychic?

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/best-bike-for-10-year-old-girl

See my post there….!

Do I look psychic?

Psychic-al has a certain ring to it. 😀

Had a similar dilemma for my 11yo lad. Having outgrown a 12″ Hotrock FSR, he’s been on a 13.5″ Hotrock hard tail for the past year. Next step should probably be an XS/S adult frame but I struggled to find one locally which fitted the bill. Plenty of Inbreds & similar around but I was worried a steel frame might be too heavy.

Finished up buying a medium carbon hard tail for him – I reckon with the right stem & bars he might get on OK with it in a year or so.

Has the added advantages of:
– I get to play with it for now
– it will hopefully last him until he’s old enough to pay for his own bikes!