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I must admit I'm struggling, 9yo KJ01 is successfully riding an racing on a 24" Frog. A lot of the kids around him seem to be doing very well or just as well on bike which appear way too big.
He now neeeeeeeds a bike with "proper" disc brakes and a suspension fork, but what bike do I get for a 140cm tall 90yo? Giant do a junior ATX 26, Suntour fork, tetra discs, in XS and XSS for £375.
What do you other parents do about gapping Kid-to-Teenage?
For a racer kid you need to sort a frame and forks, then raid your parts bin for decent quality and light bits. The cube frames are pretty light the xs is very small so should suit 140cm. See bike discount for these.
140cm tall 9 yo
Ours at that age - all 26" XS frames with old, light air forks from Retrobike....
[url= https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3940/15563930505_ed4397a59b_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3940/15563930505_ed4397a59b_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/pHkdip ]Trek 4300[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/matt_outandabout/ ]Matt Robinson[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7454/13739578913_5eb2f4507a_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7454/13739578913_5eb2f4507a_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/mW7W8B ]Callander House Falkirk MTB trails[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/matt_outandabout/ ]Matt Robinson[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3895/15143443856_ee42400e92_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3895/15143443856_ee42400e92_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/p5b7gA ]SBC Wallace Monument Hillclimb[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/matt_outandabout/ ]Matt Robinson[/url], on Flickr
Whyte t403. You're welcome to borrow it for a weekend mate.
In my experience building a bike up from forum bits with your nipper is a great experience (although the amount they actually 'help' is somewhat limited!).
As people above have said, find a light 26" hardtail frame some air-sprung forks then add the contents of the average STW'ers parts bin and you're almost there.
What about one of the new Frog kids MTB's ?
As for kids racing on bikes that are too big for them, its probably down to the fact that a lot of kids MTB courses area bit crap and can easily be ridden on 'cross bikes.
I always thought these looked pretty decent
https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/junior-bikes/voodoo-nzumbi-mountain-bike-26-wheel
He now neeeeeeeds a bike with “proper” disc brakes and a suspension fork, but what bike do I get for a 140cm tall 90yo? Giant do a junior ATX 26, Suntour fork, tetra discs, in XS and XSS for £375.
Maybe at the higher end of the cost scale, but this is my 9yo on his trail bike:
Was built around a carbon Haibike 650b frame picked second-hand online and then the rest of the parts are either scavenged from the garage, bought S/H from eBay and Facebook (e.g. a nice pair of Fox 32 Factory forks spacered down to 80mm) or bought new (M8000 11-speed XT with a SRAM NX 155mm crankset). Wheels were built by me around a pair of end-of-line carbon rims I picked up from Superstar for £30 each and the finishing kit was picked up from the garage floor, or eBay.
650b frame running 26" wheels actually works really well as it lowers the BB and standover height, which is further helped by using offset shock bushings which also help slacken the head angle a bit to compensate for the shorter fork. As he grows, I'll take the spacers out of the fork and, eventually, build a set of 650b wheels for it. I suspect he'll still be riding this in 5 years, or I'll have flogged it on and got him something else, but either way there's a fair amount of flexibility here. Weight is a trifle under 10kg.
Personally, I like the "pick up a cheap frame and hit the parts bin" option if you can, as you can always swap bits here and there along the way until you're happy with it, or as they grow up.
As for kids racing on bikes that are too big for them, its probably down to the fact that a lot of kids MTB courses area bit crap and can easily be ridden on ‘cross bikes.
This. It's one of the reasons that we don't travel much for XC racing as, frankly, there's as much (or more) technical riding on our doorstep in the CX leagues. It's a real shame that kids XC is so sanitised.
This year, all of his competition has been track, grass or CX and MTB is ridden purely for fun and giggles, which suits me just fine!
Whyte t403. You’re welcome to borrow it for a weekend mate.
Thanks Steve - that looks an awesome bike!
Throw me a message etc. I've set it up tubeless with conti race kings
On the OEM wheels?
I might have to meet you at Swinley with the kids Steve...
Yes. Just gorilla tape and tubeless tyres.