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Hi All,
Whats the best 20 Inch Kids Bike out there - looking for lightweight front Suspension.
Extra marks for weight of bikes and a suspension that may actually work for kids ...
Canditates so far:
Specialized Hotrock
Diamond Back Octane
Islabike?
carrera blast, excellent bike well made and fairly light, always had islabikes before for the kids but this was a bargain as halfrauds had a deal on, £160.
would highly recommend.
Shame they don't do front suspension but they are superlight in comparison to the rest of the bikes out there - hmmm....
Carrerra Blast. Had I not happened upon a Beinn 20 at a good price I'd have happily bought the Carrerra. Well worth the cash.
And there's not a lot of difference between my lads Isla & his mates Carrerra.
Giant XTC JR 20".
Thanks Carl- Do you know the weight - halfords say about 14.5kg 31 pounds or so - thats heavier than my 26 inch full susser ....
My lad has an Isla - its a great little bike. Just a quick question -why do you want suspension? From what I have seen it doesn't really add much apart from weight on the kids bikes.
dont know the weight off hand and its pissing down outside so not dragging it out of the shed!
its certainly not 30lbs though..! my lad is teeny tiny and hustles it around the trails. fwiw after a ride around my local trails he goes through half the travel so its working somewhere.
Trek MT60 for adjustability (two crank drillings and adjustable stem). To be honest, there are no bad choices at this size anymore.
My son's bikes have increased in size but weight seems to have remained constant. From 12 through to 26"
Two reason for front suspension, the unimportant reason of he wants it just cause his mates have it, other reason is he'll be coming riding around Cymcarn and forest of dean plus afan etc etc ... he does the forest of dean blue on his Hotrock 14 no suspension but does get bounced around a fair bit ...
Carl - what make are the forks? I'm toying with adding suspension to my son's Islabike and 20" wheel 1" threadless steerer forks ain't that common.
other reason is he'll be coming riding around Cymcarn and forest of dean plus afan etc etc ... he does the forest of dean blue on his Hotrock 14 no suspension but does get bounced around a fair bit ...
The question though, as mentioned above, is does a sus fork on a 20" bike actually do anything useful?
I think the standard suntour fork on a kids bike is only 50mm travel, so not much use, will take a bit of sting out the trail. My son's got a gary fisher pre caliber 20, it's got a really long and low top tube, great for stand over and growing space, it's very light too, sadly not made anymore, I'll be keeping mine for son number two.is does a sus fork on a 20" bike actually do anything useful?
I think the standard suntour fork on a kids bike is only 50mm travel, so not much use, will take a bit of sting out the trail. My son's got a gary fisher pre caliber 20, it's got a really long and low top tube, great for stand over and growing space, it's very light too, sadly not made anymore, I'll be keeping mine for son number two.is does a sus fork on a 20" bike actually do anything useful?
To echo other comments, have a close look and feel of whatever fork is being offered on a 20 inch bike. On my lad's older Scott, I have to work hard to compress it, he's got no chance, so it adds precisely nothing to the ride except making the bike handle badly and weigh a ton. My daughter's Merida Dakar has a marginally softer feel, but even then I'm dubious about any benefit vs the extra weight.
Given the chance to choose again, I'd be making a real effort to talk them into a rigid fork, even for trail centre use. Would have thought the slightly bigger wheels would have more of an impact on the bouncy ride than any suspension.
The best/lightest 20" we had was a Scott Jr 20 - significantly better geometry and lighter that the specialized hotrock, as light as an Isla bike.
[img][url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7131/7592878108_bf55ce99a7.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7092/7015297991_5c5e3ee959.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/matt_outandabout/7015297991/ ]Loch Ard Ride[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/matt_outandabout/ ]matt_outandabout[/url], on Flickr
2" BMX tyres with minimal air pressure helps, but I keep wondering about suspension.
Thanks for all the comments guys and absolutely valid points regarding suspension V's tyre pressures for the little uns.
Scott Scale sounds like the best out there at the mo - but is also reflected in the price.
So two questions on that - Does the suspension work for a little un (any adjustability available ? Also anyone know the exact weight of hand ?
Considering he will have it for probably 3-4 years and then passed onto his Sis - don't mind paying a bit more ....
Have a used Trek MT60 my lad has just grown out of - all works fine, just lots of scrapes to the paintwork. Available at a bargain price if you are in the East Midlands....
Just weighed my lads Beinn 20 small...9.5kg with the Islabikes full mudguards & std tyres.
I fitted him some Smallblock 8's that gives him some suspension but they wont fit in the mudguards so had to come off for winter.
If we pop by Halfrauds later I'll see if they will let me weigh a Carrera. 🙂
They dont tend to be hitting rock gardens at 20mph so at that age my take is that suspension just adds weight. My lads never complained. Likewise big daft tyres. The Smallblocks can be picked up cheaply in 20" size & had plany of grip.
I've just picked up a 12" framed Spesh Hotrock with 26" wheels. My lad is quite tall for his age so should by-pass a 24" wheel bike.
[i]They dont tend to be hitting rock gardens at 20mph[/i]
No, but it's easier for them to get up kerbs without knackering the front wheel 🙂
Spesh Hotrock I got from the STW Classifieds for my kid is great. The forks work. His previous bike was a Haro, which I also couldn't fault - I'd keep an eye on Ebay/classifieds for the big brands. They don't have 20" bikes for that long, so decent ones come up for sale.
I have HotRocks from 20" down to 12" - all have done sterling service through 3 lads knocking 7 shades out of them.
re: Suspension - the best reason is that it's [b]their[/b] bike and if it mkaes them ride it more then it's all good. My eldest (6) is already a retro grouch and keeps pinching little bro's 16" single speed rigid bike because it's 'more jumpy'. Luckily the middle one (3) is tall enough to get aboard and ride the 20" geared suspension version so they swap about a fair bit.
These are popular bikes and look good
http://www.ukbikesdepot.com/m14b0s11p7546/RIDGEBACK_2012_MX20_boys_20_Inch_Mountain_Bike
Ridgeback do a nice 20" bike, was looking at one in my LBS the other day.
My mate bought a Carrera Blast off ebay last week and brought it round for a once over before giving it to his son. I did put it on the scales and it was a shade under 25lbs which i thought was ok.
Seems strong as i had a little ride around the drive on it (i'm 6'7") and it was fine. I could even lock up the rear brake with my weight.
Bought the Scott Scale in the end ...
But for future users:
Isla bikes were the lightest.
Not Much difference between:
Specialised Hotrock
Carrera Blast
Giant XTC
Also if you have LOADS of money, these look amazing!
http://www.lilshredder.com/Pictures.php
Not cheap at all $2-3K