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His brilliant orbea mx20 is too small now, so we're looking at the next bike. Any recommendations?
Orbea MX24 Trail if you can find one. Ace bikes with decent brakes and a fork that works.
Isla bike Creig 24, awesome wee beastie and available to order for February delivery so you'll have it for the Spring.
Saracen Mantra 2.4
Frog MTB 62
Good luck!
Hoy Bonaly 24 is a lovely bike for kids, very, very light. My ten-yr old has been riding one for about a year. Latest versions have disc brakes which isn't necessary in my opinion.
Got a Cannondale Cujo 24 for my son, great little mini fat bike. Might be tricky to find now although some places look like they’re expecting new stock soon.
I wanted a Cujo 24, after my daughter loved the 20" version, but couldn't find one. Couldn't find one so went with a Commencal Ramones 24 which is pretty much the same thing. The bigger tyres give loads of confidence.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">They even seem to have some in stock!</span>
Saracen Mantra 24 was ace for my young lad until he outgrew it. Orbeas great too, as you already kow.
My youngest (8) has an Orbea 24 MX Trail, great bike and all we've upgraded is the bars as the stock ones were too narrow. However now they've changed it to the Laufey name and increased the price I'd go with an Islabike Creig instead. My eldest (10) has the Creig 27 and it's over 1kg lighter than the smaller Orbea. With the high price of 2nd hand Islabikes it'll probably cost you no more in the long run either.
out of stock at the moment but I think this is the great for the price. £400. https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/kids-24-inch-age-9-12-mountain-bike-rockrider-st-920-green/_/R-p-305463?mc=8529457&c=KHAKI
Haven't seen a Carrera Blast re-build thread for a while...
We went the MX24 route for both of ours on the basis of tyre clearance - you can fit some decent width rubber in there. The Hoy and Islabikes equivalents we looked at at the time had quite narrow chain stays. One anecdote I heard was that if a manufacturer specs a kid's bike as a mountain bike, it then has to pass CEN testing for a full size adult's bike - which would result in a real boat anchor of a frame. Speccing them as hybrids gets round this, and allows reasonably light steel frames. I don't know if this is true, but we had an amazing experience with Islabikes and would definitely buy again if this weren't an issue.
Note with 24" wheels you can get away with 26" forks if you find something relatively light that you can take enough travel out of to get the right A-C. I hear old SIDs are excellent for this, but we were able to adapt some Fox Floats. Added benefit to all this is that the forks can (and have, in one case) followed the sprog to a bigger bike with only a travel adjustment.
We had the basic MX24s from memory, with the steel forks and disc mounts, but run with V brakes. Not the way everyone will want to go, but for us it was a case of hand-me-down disc brakes paired with old forks and some home-built 24" wheels with disc hubs. Once we've had value from the wheels, I'm sure we can get something back for them from someone putting their own children on the upgrade path 😀
@Pook - I know you said hardtail, but I’m about to sell a Stinky 2-4 full suss. Ridden round Dalby and in Les Gets mainly. Much lightened from the ridiculous 36lbs stock weight, air suspension, tubeless wheels, short cranks, geared for an 8-10 year old.
Message me if it’s at all interesting.
If you're handy with tools then 24" is when you can start buying components at reasonable prices for the long term. Both my kids rode 24" Carrera Blasts, bought used for £40 as they were pretty knackered. Both entirely stripped down to the frame and then rebuilt: Zee 1x drivechain (short cage, less likely to hit things), old Deore M610 brakes, reasonable tubeless wheels, carbon fork...
The plan proved itself as last year my eldest moved from that to a 650b frame and we just had to get a new fork and wheels (my old 26" Crests, and a 650b fork off classifieds).
We went with a Serious Trailkid Comp - got it direct from Germany and been very impressed. Great frame, hydraulic discs, maxxis tyres. I think I paid about £300.
https://m.bikester.co.uk/serious-trailkid-comp-24-kids-redgrey-1122773.html
Although it seems to have gone up a bit now.
PSA ...there's a Cujo 24 just popped up in the classfieds if you were looking (not me).
I have a red Cube 240SL I'm flogging soon. Used but vgc.
BEntudder, i bought our young un a MX 24....its running 2.0 inch tyres. did think it could take bigger. What tyres have you run?
What type of riding will they be likely to do and how heavy are they?? Do they really need front suspension, it can add quite a bit of weight. I went with Hoy Bonaly rigid bikes for my two and they got on really well with them. Some of the lightest childrens bikes going which helps getting up the hills (there's a big one on the way to school) and doing any distance. Get's them round Swinley, but I wouldn't take them to the alps............
We live on the edge of the dark peak and he's keen to get out with me on the rocky stuff
Reggie- interested
Just out of curiosity how tall are they? My 8yr old (9 in April) had a Saracen Mantra 24 (which is well use but mechanically sound and up for sale) and it was ace, he did however end up looking like he was riding a bike that was way too small in an arse up head down old school XC style and he's not exactly massive at 136cm tall.
So we got him an XS sized Spesh Rockhopper which comes on 650b wheels, safe in the knowledge that it fits him just fine and it "should" last a couple of years, its the Elite model so has a nice 1x10 Deore drivetrain with 11-42 cassette, 30t chainring, hydraulic brakes, air fork (important for kids if you go down the suspension route) and tubeless ready wheels & tyres.
They're really very well proportioned for the shorter person as they come with a proper dinky stem and measuring it up the reach was about 15mm more than his 24" Saracen and with the added advantage of the rear wheel being closer (in proportion) to the seat tube than the Saracen, which like most kids bikes has long chainstays.
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He's just over 4' with an inside leg of 22" so the mantra, which has been recommended by others, might be ideal.
He's 7 now, 8 at the end of feb
Sound, if you're interested in 2nd hand let me know as we have one going spare
Cool, I've DMd you
robw1 - Schwalbe somethings in 2.125 from memory. Will check for you.
My lad is on 24" Hans Dampf on his Mantra and they're enormous things. They're also quite slow which make them unpopular with him as he likes a whinge. Seem pretty grippy in most conditions though which is good for confidence.
Steve, any luck with those pics?