[Closed] Kids bikes...

Should i post ? lol.

My lad did some U10's racing this year and was racing in previous Cats age related before that. Due to seeing many races you get to know and see who's on what and when they progress. The fast kids are on the super light super fast XC bikes running SPDs. I don't know how much of that is deliberate and how much co-incidence but there it is.... The fast ones have the 'right' kit for XC.

Things like the Islabikes, a CUBE and a Scott are common. There's a desire it seems to hit 26" and 27.5 as quickly as possible but as you'll have seen there's nothing techincal in the courses as such, if they can get on it enough to get away from the start, they'll be fine even if a little big.

Weirdly my lad really struggled with his Islabike, the geometry was all wrong for racing and confidence and we bought him a cube120 i think it was.... Higher bars, slightly bouncy front end and gave him masses of confidence on the dirt.

The Whyte T403, was a different level, Bike Park Wales, Morzine and Les Gets.... No worries at all... he did Blues and Reds on that...but... it wasn't as light as some bikes, i'm sure we could have made it lighter though with wheel change etc, the cassette/bits are all about as cheap and cheerful as you get, so modifying out of the parts bin would have been easy to make it a fair bit lighter.

The simplest answer is, the bike he likes most, he'll want to ride most, that's the one for him.

13" frame is about right if possibly a little big at 10, unless like my lad he's quite tall for his age, mine has just turned 10 a few months ago and is now on a 15.5" 27.5 wheel'd Giant/Liv FS bike and he absolutely loves it... However...i wouldn't expect him to win XC races on it.

There’s a desire it seems to hit 26″ and 27.5 as quickly as possible but as you’ll have seen there’s nothing techincal in the courses as such, if they can get on it enough to get away from the start, they’ll be fine even if a little big.

Same at CX where the vast majority of riders (and all of the ones at the sharp end of the field!) are riding on 700c wheels by the time they are 8-9yo...and there's no question that it works. Big wheels roll better and with modern geometries work well. Likewise with light bikes - a lighter bike under a kid is much, much more important than it would be for an adult as the ratio of rider to bike is so much lower than it would be for an adult. So, likewise, you'll see some pretty exotic steeds, even in the U10 and U8 categories and it's rare to see a heavy bike near the front of the pack.

My own experience tells me that this won't be any difference with XC, especially as, for kids of that age, the courses are no more technical than they are for CX (less so, in many cases!) so I would definitely be looking to push the size to as far as you can while your son remains comfortable and in-control of the bike.

It really depends what you/he rides...and what you plan on buying.

If it's pure XC grade then they can get away with the bigger frame and wheels earlier.

If its technical and jump lines then they don't have the bodyweight to throw the bike along (even if the bike was the same weight they need to be moving their weight about much more forwards and backwards)

Close your ears Weeksy 😀

All very interesting thanks - so it seems as though sizing up now while the sales are on seems best and getting him to proper rather than Kids geo is the ways to go.

Mrs K - has been as work for an hour googling bike lol, it seems like a Giant, Spec, Whyte in XS or S is the way to go.   At that price though most of them seem to come with a Coil fork, except an Orbea MX 26 she's found, and what I felt was bizarre most are 27.5.

A very kind chap let him have a play on his owns sons Small (adult Small) Spec Pitch 27.5 yesterday and although it looked "big" it wasn't as big as I thought.  He's 4ft 4 btw.

TBH the 27.5 thing doesn't seem much of an issue. I've bought a smaller stem for the new bike, it has an 80mm on and i got a 50mm to give him a bike smaller reach, but the wheelsize hasn't phased him in the slightest. It also massively helps me out with spares and components compared to the 26" as my main bike is 27.5 so tyres, wheels etc can be swapped between bikes.

We're hitting Swinley hopefully this weekend on either Sat arvo or Sunday, you're more than welcome to hook up and try his Giant/Liv out. Only caveat is that he is struggling with a knee injury which stopped us from doing FoD yesterday, as long as he's recovered, we'll be out.

Check the spec if you're buying a whole bike, you might just find it's adult stuff anyway.  eg most Shimano one-finger levers can be pushed close to the bars by riddling the reach and voila, kid-friendly levers.

If you're planning on taking your kid to ride anything more than round and round a muddy field I would be careful pushing them up wheel and hence frame sizes too quickly.

If you do, then standover and handlebar height relative to CoG  and saddle height gets all out of whack.

My distinctly average 10 year old and my "very tall for his age" 8 year old are on 24in wheeled Saracen Mantras.

I would be very surprised if either of them are on 26in wheels next summer barring massive growth spurts.  They certainly won't be on 27.5.

Doesn't look ridiculous/too big does it ?

15.5 frame on a 27.5 wheel

[url= https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1892/43795668204_14c697a6f8_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1892/43795668204_14c697a6f8_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/29J5fkE ]2018-09-06_03-50-53[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

If you’re planning on taking your kid to ride anything more than round and round a muddy field I would be careful pushing them up wheel and hence frame sizes too quickly.

Honestly, most CX courses for U12s are just as technical (and often more so) than the equivalent age XC courses. One of my mild grumps around junior XC is that they don't cater as well for younger kids as I think they could do and the feedback I've had has often included the word "boring" :-/

Of course trail riding is completely different, but I don't believe that there's any active racing series for U12s that would use proper trail obstacles (I might be wrong here!)

The Gorrick stuff and the Little Fodders enduro is a bit more than field.... but still nothing crazy/daft.

My 8 year old, average size, has just moved on to a 26" XS Cannondale (old F600 I think... headshok, rear disk only but benefits of trickle down are XT front V and lever) - he rode swinley blue red blue last week on his 24" wheel and it was hard work comparatively - bad ratios for short sharp climbs with not so good grip shift. He's flying on local singletrack with the increased wheel size and doesn't stop for long enough to male the slightly reduced standover a problem. Flipping the stem and running a short one sorts reach just fine.

Have got a 26" cx bike (Isla) for the 10 year old for this season, but I think he could have gone 700c - we'll see how a coupe of races go, as the bikes are easy to move on and get your money back on. It was more a case of what came up in driving distance to buy really. The move to SPDs is imminent, but I'm leaving it to him to hassle me, have the shoes ready.

Compact adult bikes are certainly worth a look - Whyte are top of my list for an all rounder, but as has been said they aren't the lightest for racing. Thats where it might get proper spendy.

Of course trail riding is completely different, but I don’t believe that there’s any active racing series for U12s that would use proper trail obstacles (I might be wrong here!)

Probably not in XC but if you can roll the doubles at 417 DH kids course for example but you aren't going to win anything or you can navigate down the second part of the FoD 'advanced' kids course (wormhole) and probably roll the drop offs but not quickly.

I was just comparing the measurements and geo of the kids Whyte 403, to a Giant Talon in Small.  The Giant is about 40mm "bigger" in all directions.   Its certainly a bike he'll grown into.

What does concern me is at 4ft'4 he fits his kids TCX perfectly - and that has 24" wheels....  It'll look small against a 27.5 MTB.