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Hello,
Was going to post last week for recommendations on kids 24 inch bikes, but late night ebay scrolling on Friday resulted in a good condition scott scale 24, 2019 model with local collection which is a rare event for Mid-Wales. So as of Sunday morning she was riding and in love with her new bike.
So nothing really wants doing other than cleaning up the chain and cassette, general service and i'll probably replace cables (mechanical disc and gear) and check the pads.
Bits i'm considering upgrading:
Grips - i am looking for recommendation on grips to work with the revo shifter and in yellow, we are half way through wasting my working day and i'm struggling to find any options in bright yellow.
Fork - is a rigid fork currently, which i'm not opposed to, given its got nice big 2.6 wide tyres so happy to see how she gets on with it but interested in others who may have added aftermarket suspension, especially for very light riders.
Brakes - mechanical tektro, seem fine as they are but if i want to spoil her with an upgrade, anyone got a favorite kids hydraulic, seen a couple of options for kids size Kektro but wandering if its really necessary, i've got mechanical discs on the gravel bike and have to say they have been largely faultless for 5 years, should i just hold off and put the money into the fork in the future?
Cheers
My opinion is get new grips etc. in the colour she likes plus other accessories that kids want if it encourages them to ride. I even bought a (hateful) doll/ teddy carrier as a bribe for one of mine to learn to ride. Request on the next bike was a basket so on it went (practical child that one). If new cycling gloves, top , trousers , whatever helps the enthusiasm then spend on those things.
The rest of the bling save the cash as you'll blink and she'll be on the next size up.
Otherwise enjoy riding, even just down the bike path to the local swings is a win.
PS sorry no idea where is best for yellow grips.
I have spent an disproportionate amount of mucking about when it comes to both my boy's bikes so, FWIW, my observations (based on kids mtb'ing) are as follows;
Brakes. Most cable actuated ones on kids bikes are rubbish, what feels like a light action and reasonable power for grown up hands are no good for little'uns. Buy some Clarks Clout, cheap, easy to bleed and shorten hoses, and will adjust for small hands.
Gearing. Most kid's bikes are stupidly over geared. The easiest way to ruin everyone's day is to introduce any kind of hill to a kid on an over geared bike. Confidence will be lost and tantrums will be thrown. Chances are, the front chainring will be impossible to replace so if you can either a 12-42 cassette if freehub, or Shimano Mega-range if screw-on, you will improve the experience for everyone.
Suspension. Almost everyone will tell you that there is no need for suspension on a kids bike. If its a heavy coil fork, I would agree but if you can find a kids air fork, on a 24" bike and bigger, they can offer some definite benefits. Most notably terrifyingly (for me) fast fire-road descents where death wobble is a risk. I've found eBay a good place for these in the past but you may need to source slimmer tyres to get them to fit.
All that said, proper clothing and Haribo's, may well offer far more benefit than any of the above.
Oh, sorry, I forgot. Pics please!
I upgraded my boys commencal ramones brakes to some slx i had in the parts bin
made a huge difference to the mechanical ones on before - proper 1 finger braking
Similar to above, I faffed around upgrading various bikes for the mini a11ys over the years - I just can't help tinkering if it's going to make it more enjoyable for them.
Brakes: Clarks M2 at Evans, £36 a pair inc discs. Not the best brake in the world but more than good enough. Generally ended up with basic Tektro hydraulics on the kids bikes we had.
Gearing: just what LimboJimbo says above. I always swapped on a wider-range cassette and fitted a smaller chainring to overcome the chronic over-gearing many kids bikes are as standard. Goes without saying a change to a 1x is an improvement if it's not already 1x. Finally, trigger shifter in place of any sort of revoshift/gripshift was always appreciated by my kids.
Cranks: most kids bikes cranks are far too long. Several options for shorter ones - latest I bought was Goldix 150mm HT2-style cranks that take a standard 3-bolt SRAM direct-mount chainring, to which I fitted genuine SRAM steel 28t N/W chainrings. eBay or Aliexpress for those.
Tyres: if the parts allow, set them up tubeless. I always managed to bodge them but always worked reliably. Same benefits of tubeless apply equally with kids. Even taught mine how to fix with a tyre worm thingy, but thankfully never required.
Decathlon for decent clothing/footwear, Madison for great bike-specific kids stuff, and can't argue with the benefits of Haribo as mentioned 🤣
Ok, some food for thought in the above,
Yellow grips are the requested and desired option at her request so will continue that as a priority item, local bike shop are now involved.
Cranks and gearing - the cranks are 152 with no option to replace the chain ring which is 32, cassette is 14-28 screw on so have a 12-32 in my basket on SJS along with new chain and cables. I'm holding off clicking buy until i review the parts bin, sure i have a chain at least knocking around, might be a wide rang 7 speed.... Interestingly to a11y's comment above, she has only just clicked (pun fully intended) changing gear on the trigger shifter on her prior frog bike, in fact we have come to tears a few times on the subject of changing gear, but has immediately cycled through the gears on revo with no issues so i'll sit on my hands and leave that alone at the moment.
Couple of good looking options for clarkes or tektro on ebay, the clarkes clouts look pretty interesting, will see what local shops can provide at the weekend before i go online.
Tubeless is also a parts bin search later, seem to remember having some Schrader tubeless valves that never worked in a friends kids bike that i did up. They are wide rims so might well have some tape that will fit. Think that will make a real world difference to the overall weight.
Kids ride shot gun unicorn jersey is worn every time we mention a bike ride, pedals and grips to be yellow at her request. Sour jelly snakes are the sugar hit of choice and we shall see if she will come to the shops Saturday to try on new helmet as that is getting to be on the small side as well
cheers
@davespike1981, it was more that little hands struggled to grip the shifting bit well enough to change gear reliably. Mine found it easier to press buttons - we'd painted the shift lever buttons/paddles in red and green which helped them learn. Was easier to yell "red button!" or "green button!" at times.
Good call on sour jelly snakes.
Interesting idea on the red and green, i had been shouting big button or little button which is more confusing, and she was complaining of the effort to depress the button, the revo twist she seemed to take to immediately. But we are only on the second ride in.
You almost certainly won't be successful doing a normal tubeless tape job as therell not be sufficient "friction" between the rim and the tyre and it'll never stay beaded. Especially with the wire beaded kendas. All is not lost though as doing "ghetto" tubeless brings many of the benefits but also takes out that tyre slack for reliable mounting.
I built a sweet scale 24 from frame only for my kids, great little bike, but as you can see, there was plenty of unnecessary indulgence, but each part was an upgrade over most 24" bikes builds
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Try a search for foam or silicone grips, may have to resort to ebay but usually a choice of colours, can be had in thin profiles, shock absorbing and no patterns to interfere with cutting down. Have used them for bike I've put together for friends kids. Some Race Face lock ons on current bike with twist shift.
I've normally added cable outers of their colour choice too, usually matching grips. We also have a fuel tank pod bag for easy snack access
Just starting this process again as picked up a 24" Laufey for the next bike (had to go down to S.Wales for it, couldn't find one in Mid). Keeping an eye out for some 26" XC air forks.
Top tip is that kids don't care about what gubbins they have in their bikes. That's your job.
The only thing my kids have got really excited about was a dropper seat post.
Oh, and child #3 asked for a full suspension bike as her big brothers had them.
And she's been picky on colours, so we've moved on from pink pedals to purple now.
Yellow pedals on order, wider rear cassette on order
Cables and tidy up from local at weekend
Yellow grips in silicon on order to match colour of originals and to be cut down as per guidance above
Brakes under consideration, local shop demo considerations at the weekend and to see what they can order through suppliers when we are looking at helmets.
Swapped from rotor for a hope one last night so now need to find a black hope saw in 160mm on ebay, disappointing lack of parts bin stuff other than than.
Interested in thoughts on 24 inch plus tyres, not seeing many around so wondering if I should get some spares now before it becomes obsolete.
We shall see how it all comes together but currently as below 
In the spares pile, I've got a Kenda Slant Six 24 x 2.6 fattish tyre. Wired. These are ace. Bought a pair, daughter used the front one but her bike could barely fit this one in at the rear, so it got fitted, ridden to school, and removed. £25 posted.
Also a Rocket Ron 24 x 2.1. Nearly new folding performance edition £22 posted.
PM if anyone wants either of them.