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So, LittleMissMC has finally grown the inch she needed to move from a 20" wheel to a 24", and given that she has loved her stock 20" Luna, I've now got an ebay search set up for another bargain in 24" flavour.
From some other kids bike threads I know a couple of you have blinged up these bikes before - just curious to know what you've done and where you got the bits from, as she seems to have caught the bug and if I can ditch some of the excess gears and make it a little lighter and/or better rolling for not many pounds I reckon she will get my money's worth out of it.
Not intended to be a debate about the merits of Carrera vs Frog vs whatever, we've done that to death already.
Cheers
First thing to do is ditch the crap Clarks cable discs brakes. They're rubbish! I shoved a set of Avid BB5's on binnerette no 1's Blast. But some cheap Shimano hydraulics would do the trick. Then I put it on a diet with lighter bars, shorter stem, seatpost etc
There were a couple of seriously blinged up, and very very nice exmples on a previous thread on the subject
Cheers binners. I was thinking the bars, stem and seatpost would be weighty and fairly quick easy wins.
Some one did wheels and forks as well - was that you?
That wasn't me. I stopped myself before I got too carried away
[url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/24-kids-recommendations ]heres the original thread[/url]
Cheap, light 80mm travel air forks such as SID and Mars work well with little ones - and are cheap on Retrobike 8)
Cheers binners, was struggling to find the original thread, hadn't realised I'd posted on it. D'oh!
Some decent tyres I would think is the first thing, presumably the tyres it will come with will be cheap, heavy, with poor traction - the stock tyres that came on my Carrera Vegeance were lethal in the damp.
Will save some weight, improve handeling and make it easier rolling.
Rocket Rons are 440g compared to most 24" tyres which seem to be around 700g - thats a fair bit of rolling weight lost.
[url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Schwalbe-Rocket-Performance-Line-Folding/dp/B00G52H34S/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1440593694&sr=8-2&keywords=rocket+ron+24%22 ]Rocket rons[/url]
a few
http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1836702/
http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1836701/
http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1836700/
the grip shift is pretty crap so a change to thumb shifters is worth while. pretty sure I've got some X4 shifters too as I changed his to 1x10
tyres cheaper [url= https://www.bike-components.de/en/Schwalbe/Rocket-Ron-Performance-Dual-Faltreifen-Modell-2015-p40633/ ]here[/url]
The rocket rons are light but they don't really grip well and are prone to punctures particularly at the pressure you need to run to get any sort of grip on them.
My experience is the opposite, I've been using them on my 26er for about 8 months and think they are great, getting on for a thousand miles mainly bridal way, including the Mary Townely loop.
Can't comment on other models of tyre, but they are a milion times better than the stock kenda rubber that came with the bike, grippier, lighter, faster rolling. No issues with punctures, although I did write one off when I gashed the sidewall in a sharp rock, but that could happen to anyone.
I've been using them on my 26er
there you go, huge difference.