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My eldest daughter is 8 on Saturday and she's mad keen on bikes and riding. She has outgrown her Beinn small and we went bike trying the other day with the shortlist of a Cuda 24 hardtail, a Trek Roscoe 245 mid fat and a Whyte 403. I genuinely thought the latter was a faint hope as its a 26 but she was happy on it and decided that is the bike she wants.
OK. So we have bought her the Whyte and it will be a surprise on Saturday as she keeps telling me that I need to get on with ordering her a new bike please for her birthday and I keep telling her I'd forgotten to do it.
And heres where my problem kicks in. I've now picked up a pair of American Classic Tubeless Race XC wheels to take a kilo or so off the bike and now I'm looking at replacing the Suntour XCR forms - A used set of Rebas will take another 600g or so off and if I can find a decent set of SIDs that'll save kilo. My brain says that weight reduction will only help her enjoy the bike and I love a bikepimp project. But I suspect I'm being a bit of a **** really.
(I even took the current forks out of the frame a bit to see if they are a straight 11/8 steerer - they are - and got a little surprise to find caged ball bearing rather than cartridge. Thats one for the list....) Oh and it got new yellow lock on grips cos thats her favourite colour!
So what would you do STW???!!
Upgrade it obviously!...but will await posts about how suspension is wasted on kids and how it would be better putting your daughter on a diet rather than the bike 😉
I see no issue here, carry on.
sounds like she needs a full sus to me
Upgrade it obviously!…but will await posts about how suspension is wasted on kids and how it would be better putting your daughter on a diet rather than the bike
I did think that the suspension was overkill which is why we looked at the Roscoe but as both my bikes are 26 I decided it was better to have another as they then had common parts (..for upgrading obvs!!)
WHAT THE JEEBUS HAPPENED THERE??!! that smiley?????
There is no age limit on upgrades or hand me downs. Cant think of a bike we got the girls that wasn't upgraded. Get some pics up from the first ride. I've gone from handing down to the girls to them now handing down to me.
The nice thing about your kid finally getting to 26 is that they can use all your old 26 kit. Like those nice tyres I have.. ooh.. except I gave them all away. Sold the wheels too. Damn.
I look forward to being the recipient from my lads then Tracey!
Sounds exactly like the sort of thing I do ! . When my son was 9 or 10 he was riding around on a tiny framed 26" wheel Offroad master but fully tricked out with all my retro bits that I dared not part with (but since have). Tioga disc drive, Grafton cranks, RS1's and Xtr M900, pretty much dream build stuff from the early 90's. Doesn't get any better the older they get, he's now nearly 16 and riding around on a Badboy but with Enve wheels and Tune hubs. Don't judge you would cry if you knew how cheap I got them. Aim is to get this under 20lbs but not easy as it's a heavy frame and rigid lefty fork which is a bit of a lump. Now the moral of this. Do all these trick bits and weight savings make much difference to him, probably not in all honesty. Does it make me happy, yes,but that's because I like my bikes to be one off's. So personally I say go for it 🙂
My 7yo's new bike has a Zee drivechain. In my defence: it's not going to wear out any day soon so hopefully will go with her to a 26er in a few years, the mech is far more tucked out of the way than anything cheap, and the mech and shifter were just 30 quid.
It's all about realistic upgrades. Especially with 26ers, suddenly a world of cheap forks (as you say, old SIDs) has opened up.
why not upgrade it, you’ll both get enjoyment out of it.
My 8 year olds bike 😆
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Just go for it.
My 11yr old is now on an Orange ST4 with all sorts of trick bits including carbon rims!
When he grows out of it his mum can have it!
Loving the Ibis above although my son now has his eye on my Ripley as he can ride it with the dropper all the way down.
Go for it OP. I built my niece as good a bike as I could afford for her birthday this year and she loves it. Pretty much all decent second hand stuff and single speed to a) keep the weight and cost down and b) it's less stuff to get broken. Nice stuff is nice. I warned her that the (hydraulic disc) brakes would be very good next to the U-brakes on her BMX and she's now got the hang of doing endos. Rolling stoppies next hopefully... 😆
Crack on I say!
I took a more moderate approach. When I took delivery of my lad's Saracen Mantra 24s, took off the post, stem, pedals, saddle, bars and tyres and weighed them vs the available options.
I was able to save a bunch of weight by swapping just the tyres and the seatpost.
Definitely crack on. If you can get the upgrades cheaply, or better still have them in your parts bin then you might as well do it. It will get out of hand eventually though when they start nabbing your best spare parts.
Just do it.
My son's upgraded Carrera blast 24 is now going to my 7yo daughter - will be further upgraded with Stan's wheels, 1*10 SLX and Deore brakes.
My son now has a 26" wheel NS Clash with all decent spares box bits - Mavic Crossride,1*10 SRAM X5, X-Fusion dropper etc.
Kids aren't really impressed by this stuff but I like building them decent bikes.
Another voice to say don't worry about it - if she loves riding, she'll love it even more if it's been customised specifically for her. The challenge will be knowing when to stop, but otherwise crack on and enjoy it!
My boy started riding this last year when he was 8yo:
...and now, some 12 months and 1500 miles later, he loves riding it as much as the first day he got it.
My advice for upgrades echo what others have said - tyres and wheels. Get the rotating mass as low as possible and the bike will feel more nimble for the lighter rider.
Just remember, it’s Christmas soon. Might be nice to get some fancy new (old) bike bits from under the tree?
Thanks for the reassurance team!
New used pair of lovely American Classics arrived today. Tubeless taped and tubeless tyres also arrived. That's 1kg or so off.
I'm on the lookout for forks. Current ones are straight steerer but I'm wondering if I can go tapered if I change the headset....
I’m on the lookout for forks. Current ones are straight steerer but I’m wondering if I can go tapered if I change the headset….
The likelyhood is not, unless the frame already has a 1 1/2" -> 1 1/8" adapter at the bottom for the existing straight steerer forks. There are a fair number of older, lighter but still very good forks available on the used market for straight steerer frames, so you should be able to find something nice that will fit.
One thing that we did was to spacer the fork down from 120mm to 80mm travel to make it more proportional to the rider - this was a great decision and has worked well. It also allows you to run a "proper" fork and, in the future, remove the spacers to return it to a longer configuration. The pic above shows the form in its 80mm configuration.
Can't stop pimping the winter commuter, in all its cheap, singlespeed, mudguarded glory.
Cost £350, I've spent at least that on a new Whyte freewheel, new (posh) mini-Vs, new bars (a necessity t.b.h. due to quirky sizing) new tyres, new carbon forks (although this was refunded by Wiggle as they couldn't source a warranty replacement for the stock forks which had started creaking). new chain (the stock one looked like it was designed for BMXers to grind kerbs on), and of course some PDW guards which are living up to their price tag.
Am now tempted by a cheap eBay ti seatpost, some needlessly pimp TRP carbon brake levers (£60 on eBay postage free from Japan, or £75 once UK customs get their hands on them...) and eventually some 'proper' wheels rather than the 2.2kg stock wheelset it came with.
I think it's just a case of 'favourite bike' syndrome, plus it would cost waaaaay too much to significantly improve my road bike which is already pretty light with good wheels and full Ultegra.
The headset is a semi-integrated which I think means the inner head tube diameter is 44mm, so I ‘think’ a Hope type H bottom headset cup would allow me to run a tapered fork. I have tried contacting Whyte but if I am honest they are not being entirely helpful. I asked the dealer and they said ‘dunno’ so I contacted Whyte through their website who said ‘ask a dealer’!!
Looking at the picture of the Whyte it looks to have a 44mm head tube.
You should be able to fit tapered steerer with an external bottom cup.
Drop the forks and take out the bearings and measure the diameter of the steerer tube.
Dirkpitt ~ I’m sure now it willl. I’m away with work but looking at the specs of the headset it is 44mm so I’m gonna risk it!
my wife said “you're basically changing the whole bike!” Me “No. Improving...” !