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But before you do, the bike's for my son not me and I'll post pictures of him crying :D.
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Ok, before I cower behind my pre-adolescent, the project began thus. Boy now too big for his Islabikes Beinn 20. Wife refused my preferred replacement (Genesis Core) on cost grounds, so I revert to the tried and trusted technique of buying separate parts over a few months..., which of course cost far more than the Core ever would. I like to think that ours is the better bike though, in terms of all-round solid componentry.
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The parts bin was part filled with some bits I stripped straight off my Bird Aeris 3: Raceface Evolve bar (now cut down to 640mm), Answer Atac stem (50 mm I think), Deore Shadow+ dérailleur, XT 10 speed cassette, KMC chain and SLX shifter.
Next up, the frame. Go to CRC, sort rigid MTB frames by price, by the cheapest - Octane One Zircus, which also happened to be right what I was after. I also went nuts with their "Brand X" stuff: headset, seat post, clamp and pedals, plus a paire of Deore brakes with 160mm discs back and front (as son weighs nothing).
A stop at bike-components.de furnished: Shimano UN55 bottom bracket and a pair of "Propulsion" (not sure if this brand name is a weird German translation) 26" wheels with DT Swiss rims (466D) and spokes (no idea) and Deore hubs, plus tubes.
Wiggle were kind enough to send me a pair of on sale Schwalbe Black Jack tyres, 2.25" front and 1.95" rear, and some own brand headset spacers.
SJS Cycles for 150 mm Thorn cranks, to protect my son's little knees, plus chainring bolts and saddle.
Finally, One On for a rigid fork (will get boy a suspension fork in a couple of years when he's heavy enough to activate it) and a 30T chainring.
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All in I reckon it's cost about £475, which is clearly steep for a kid's bike but the parts are solid and most of them should swap on to a bigger frame when he needs it. It was also great fun building it together, which you can't put a price on! We'll head out to the local woods tomorrow and see how we get on.
Oh, pre-emptively, I don't give a hoot about my lawn, tile alignment etc... 😛
Oh, pre-emptively, I don't give a hoot about my lawn, tile alignment etc...
Clearly.
Looks spot on that, bet he's thrilled & is clearly the kind of kid who doesn't go without pudding often.But WTF do you get him for Xmas now?
Will you be my dad?
@RocketDog. Cheers for that. I just need Boy to get it a bit muddy so I can give it a whirl myself without herself noticing :D. As for Christmas, bugg€r, didn't think of that!
@Survivor. Plenty of room here, but only if you can mow lawns, lay tiles etc.
Looks like you need to demo it on some dirt jumps for him. Make sure it's all ok
Looks amazing
@M0rk, purely in the interests of safety, I think you might be right! Not sure the result'd be very pretty though, my ambitions are flightier than my takeoffs...
Think it's time for a celebratory bevvie 😀
I think that looks cool and classy as ****. No lairy graphics and very uncluttered. Top dad. 😀
Edit - I think your lawn and tile arrangement are fine. The pink sun lounger however....
He's one lucky lad!
Looks better than my bloody bike.
@Sofabear. Ha ha, would you believe me if I said it was red, faded in the sun?
I explained the raw alu frame as such, no paint to scratch! And my son is still discovering the delights of 'hands off bars' to impress his friends... he has a dirt lid to take the multiple hits 😀
That looks a cracking effort, I'd have on myself if I hadn't sent all my money on a new fangled bike with 29" wheels... I like the 29er but I bet I'd love that little thing!
gaidong - Member@Sofabear. Ha ha, would you believe me if I said it was red, faded in the sun?
Lol, is that what happened to the lower box too? 😆
As you've built such a cool bike, I think we can let the pink garden accessories slide. 😀
Very nice! Aiming for something very similar myself. Almost there with the parts, then the build can begin.
Top work 🙂
WTF do you get him for Xmas now?
some decent tyres
Cheers lads.
@Pimpin Gimp, hope you enjoy your 29er. Given the relative sizes, I imagine this build will feel like a 29er to my son.
@Sofabear, Missus and I have our favouite colours, pink/red for her (including bike), green for me (both my bikes and most of my clothes). Odd, maybe...
@Swedish Chef, good luck with your build. I don't think I'll ever buy another complete bike, why when you can have this much fun!
@Dirtyrider, are the Schwalbes known to be bad? I did much of the spec as 'cheapest decent stuff'. I paid about £7 per tyre I think, and he likes doing skids...
Nowt wrong with those tyres at all, they're brilliant. I happen to work for a Schwalbe wholesaler, so I get to see all their range close-up. I've done loads of races on a pair of 26 x 1.90 Black Jacks cos the tread pattern gives a great, fast-rolling centre ramp, but there's plenty of grip from the outer knobbles when required. At £7.00 a tyre you've only paid a few pence over Trade price too. Bargain.
If its for a youngster then it needs to be fun.
Please add some Simpsons stickers and handlebar tassels.
That all works very well. Lucky son. Sure he cant have it until Xmas, bit like my new thermal jacket I tried for size today and was taken off me by the wife 🙄
Needs a dropper! 😉
Front brake hose could strangle the boy.
Lovely little bike that though!
@core, amazed it took so long for someone to mention the brake hose! First time I've ever touched hydraulics today, and managed to do a hose shortening without needing to bleed using online instructions. I left it a bit long as I mentioned I'd get a suspension fork in a year or so, and didn't want to buy a new hose. If it does prove really too long, well it's just the cost of an olive. Hmmmm, olives...
I'd leave it for now, but yeah, they're very easy to shorten and bleed, I won't move away from shimano brakes for that reason alone.
Very nice build!
How old/tall is your lad? Mine is growing out of his 20" bike too and I was wondering wether I should buy him a 24" bike or just step up straight away and build a 26".
Hi NordofJura,
My son is seven and a half... but very tall for his age; mostly thanks to the amazing lanky genes I have bestowed him with. That said, the new bike is still slightly too big for him to ride safely - extreme tippy toes to touch ground whilst sat. I'm overseas for a couple of months, so I probably won't let him roam free on it until I get back in late February. However, I've read of others going down the "skip 24 inch" route, as there's obviously a lot more kit around if you're building a bike. I also meant what I said above about it feeling like a 29er to him. The frame is 'dirt jump' but his use will be trail for the time being. I think the key is just finding the absolute tiniest frame possible. I've heard of some 12" but I couldn't find any myself and settled on the Octane One at 13". Cheers, Gaidong.
Cheers, Gaidong!
Will do some more research.
N.
I did base my calcs a bit on the Islabikes sizing page. My son is tall enough for their small Beinn 26" but not quite long enough in the legs. He's hanging upside down in the loft as I write... 😀
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looks good - how old is the young person? youngest antigee could run with V12 stylee's from about 9 no problem and not too many obvious marks when we got home
[gaidong]pink planter????????????????????[/gaidong]
If anyone's looking for small frames, [url= http://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/cube-access-wls-pro-26-frame-white-n-blue-495903 ]this[/url] 13" cube looks like a good option to build up
Cheers for that sgn23. Just what I was looking for to build up for my somewhat compact girlfriend. £91 delivered.