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Morning All.
The young Beamlet is on the hunt for his next MTB. He's 11 and has grown up riding Islabikes and is currently on a Creig 26 which he'll grow out of in the next 12 months. He's currently about 144cm tall.
Ability wise he's scorching down red trails launching off tabletops, and clearing them, and happy riding off of step downs. We were at Glentress earlier this week and he nailed all of the reds at speed.
We've been eyeing up the Canyon Neuron Young Hero which looks good on "paper" in terms of price and spec. That's our shortlist of one so far.
Anyone have any real world experience of that bike and any other bikes to consider.
Ta in advance.
Liv Embolden for my lad at that age, despite it being a girls bike so to speak.... it was superb.
After that he had a Specialized FSR jobbie in a Small.
The Vitus Mythique 24 looks decent.
*Edit - didn't read properly - 11 and already on a 26"
Rift Zone junior (used to be the Hawk Hill junior) is a 26er I'd recommend.
But I'd go down weeksy's route and go adult xs 27.5. At 11 and due to outgrow the isla within 12 months means he'll be due a growth spurt. 2nd hand something or other and sell on within 12 months; rinse and repeat.
2nd hand something or other and sell on within 12 months; rinse and repeat.
You abosolutely have to look at bikes at this age as a short-term thing, i think a couple of his we got 6 months out of before a 3-4" growth spurt made them too small.. OK, they 'could' have stayed another 3 months... but if you can get into and out of them OK in terms of swapping, then it's all good. But the right FS and you'll get out of it for roughly what you've paid. I think we made £100 on the FSR, we lost a bit on the Sworks and the Liv we got out about even with... There's always a market for this sort of age/size as loads are going through the same thing with kids.
The Marin FS XS (and even S) frames are small to make a decent transition across from even a 24". Hoppy Jr went to a Marin Hawk Hill S from a cube 24" hardtail (by the way of a short time on a 26" orange 5 XS that didn't suit him). I had to put a stopper on the dropper post that I let out over time as he grew.
I’ve just got my 10 year old daughter the Canyon Neuron Young Hero in the smallest size. It looks pretty awesome and arrives tomorrow, I am excited! 🙂
The only other bike we wanted was the Kona Process 134 XS but I was looking for one for several months and finally gave up, rocking horse poop indeed. I refuse to look for one now in case they have just flooded the market with them.
We considered several others, but they are the only ones that made the shortlist for various reasons. Her FS Kona Process 24 has been faultless, hopefully the Canyon will be the same.
Cheers all. Some top advice up there.
The suggestions regarding the Liv bikes got me to thinking about Mrs Beamers now largely redundant 2006 Spesh Stumpjumper FSR Comp (Female specific version of this) which he's just a little bit too small for.
Needs new chain set, chain, cassette so a conversion to 1x and the addition of a dropper, which might be tricky due to the very short cut away seat tube, and it might be a good option.
Especially if there is a growth spurt on the horizon.
I'd also pop into a Go Outdoors for a look at Jamis and Polygon 27.5 models.
A friend has just picked up an xs secondhand Nukeproof reactor 275 alloy for her lad - I think he’s about 11 or 12 and he’s loving it
The Bird Aether 7 in small is worth a look - perfect for my 11yo.
My 12yo nephew wants that Canyon too but he doesn’t even ride in any woods so he’ll probably just go to the shop or school on it and get it stolen. It’d be nice if we could drag him out on some trails if he did get it though. Looks quite smart.
We made the step up to 26” wheels at 10 with both of our kids. Specialized and giant make xs frames in full suspension. We also found ibis mojo frames comes up pretty small. My son has been riding one since the age of 12. Some bargains to be had with out of fashion wheel sizes.