[Closed] which bike for 12 yeard old trail/DH 163cm/50kg

It depends on the rider...

It would be fairly unpleasant trying to ride round Red/Black trails on a DH bike. It's not just the weight but the fact it's more set for taking hits than climbing.
There are a lot of bikes in the middle ground/top end Enduro travel that would fill the gap and be ridable on more trails.
It also depends how DH he wants to go, for a first season/few races a longer travel trail bike would give him an idea of where to go, if he likes it. The added bonus that at 50kg you will probably get on a lot better with air shocks than finding very light coils.

The other option is to split the budget and look for 2 used bikes.

IMHO, buy him a used Scott Voltage FR. Run with less travel for now, and you can change the travel and shock as he gets bigger, trails get rougher. It will take triples quite easily when he wants/needs it.

Thnks for the feedback. What would your thoughts be on

http://www.yt-industries.com/en/products/bikes/enduro/225/capra-cf-pro?c=92

Or Canyon ?

btw we are also considering the Scott Voltage FR 710 looks great bike.

Capra but stick 26" wheels and 155mm cranks on it. keep the supplied ones for when he grows.

Lucky boy BTW

He's gonna grow a lot more so I wouldn't get too hung up on weight. My DH bike weighs 40lbs . . . I weigh 55kg . . . I think it's called character building 😆 Air is definitely an option to save a bit of weight but I'm firmly in the coil front and rear camp.

Nice dilemma to have though - enjoy!

My eldest is 12 going on 13, I've just built him a bargain Genesis Grapil, I'd be inclined to look at a Specialized Enduro or something similar for that cash, light enough to pedal up and easily enough travel to come back down anything...

My daughter is 5' 2" and about 50kg. She is strong from rock climbing.

She rides my Trek Remedy 26. It has air susp, so its fairly light. She uses it to ride the Black at Antur Stiniog on Hope/Stans Flow rims. When we do a trail centre, we run with a lighter set of wheels and lighter tyres. Its 1x10 and has carbon bars. She has ridden my YT tues, but it was a bit stiff for her as we didnt change springs.However, she would kill for one in addition to her trail bike.

Id have expected stw to throw a barrage of "wtf £3k for a 12 year old's bike" abuse at you!

If he gets good, factory teams will be fighting to buy him kit!

If he gets good, [s]factory teams will be fighting to buy [/s][b]a shop might offer him a discount on[/b] his kit!

He's 12. let's hope he just enjoys his riding for now, eh? 8)

Glasgowdan

Id have expected stw to throw a barrage of "wtf £3k for a 12 year old's bike" abuse at you!

My lads 9,& got a 3k bike !.

What is it Reedspeed?

Thanks for all the feedback. Do you know if a good enduro is ok to do Orange (I am guessing that the colour codes are the same among most of the forests?) We cant justify to the wife a second bike, we are going to be lying big time about the cost of his enduro without looking at a second bike at this stage.

I am from a BMX background as a kid (45 now) and to be truthful been so much wrapped up in work for however many years didnt even realise that thee trails existed or what MTB was about up until last summer. I wish so much I had found out 20 years ago. Well and truly got the bug for it.

Thanks for all the feedback. Do you know if a good enduro is ok to do Orange

There are a couple of other threads going at the moment along these lines.
http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/so-that-means-downill-bikes-will-become-obsoleteoverheard-in-the-lbs
Just skip the BS.

For a young growing kid (and if you are trying to lie about the cost) head used. Plenty of bargains out there
http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1655829/
http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1725785/
http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1642668/
http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1686262/
No comments on quality/size etc. but plenty of bang for your buck out there. Shopping round there is are DH bikes and Enduro that you could pick up for 2k.

there's nothing you can't hit on a hardtail at Hamsterley so any modern enduro bike will cope admirably. same with any of the newer graded trail centre style DH venues. Innerleithen, Ft William, Revolution, Antur etc.

Aluminium Capra would be my first choice.

Aluminium Capra would be my first choice

The Scott voltage FR seems to be bike of choice for teens at bike park Wales too. Nice bikes and decent value.

Specialized enduro evo not bad option either, similair to the Voltage.

DH bikes are just no fun on anything other than DH. The seat tube angle alone means they are not great for trail riding.

Modern Enduro bikes are more DH capable than many DH bikes were just a few years ago and offer the chance to race Enduro and have a lot of fun out on the trails.

Bikes such as the Capra are very capable but I would suggest reading up on leverage ratios or you will end up with a full susser that is essentially a cumbersome HT as at 50kg the rear end will not function.

Glad you and your son are out enjoying biking, be careful not to take all the fun out of it by getting too serious and by being too over biked.

WOW! so much nonsense in that last post.
firstly, not all DH bikes even have slack seat angles.
Modern Enduro bikes are NOT MOAR capable on DH tracks. for one thing, they'll generally use air springs and smaller oil chambers in their shocks/forks and won't be anywhere near as durable.
I'd suggest YOU read up on leverage ratios. it's the spring rate and damping that needs to be adjusted for a lighter rider, not the leverage ratio.

mtbel, they are more capeable on most other tracks, as the OP wants something to do both riding a DH bike round Hamsterly red sounds like a serious perversion. We all know you ride 50 miles each way to the trails in your DH gear
[img] [/img]
but an enduro style bike makes a hell of a lot more sense

I know that. read my previous posts above Michael 😉

[img] /revision/latest?cb=20080916164231[/img]

Actually... 8)

yep just drop us your R&R id and we can see how fast you are 😉

Having taken two girls through all this dilemma over the last ten years then my recommendation is for what ever you get build it as light as possible for what he will be riding and stick to air shocks and forks. They are a lot easier to tune for lightweight riders to get the necessary travel.

Abigale had a Rockshox Lyrik fitted to her latest build and even with TF Tuned fitting an extra soft spring she couldn't get anywhere near full travel

Our youngest is now sixteen and weights 57kg, she threw this round the Alps for 5 weeks last year

[img] [/img]

That's good advice from Tracy.
also, when I recommended running 26" in the Capra this is because at his weight he'll benefit from the lighter wheels and tyres (There's also still a wider range of tyres available).
using 26" will drop the bikes chassis so shorter cranks will be needed but this also happens to be a good thing for his height.
a lower bike will turn better and be more stable (especially good for a small light rider on rough tracks)

mike you're adding nothing constructive here now

thanks mtbel, it's a start that you are adding something other than your riding 30 miles on a DH bike comments 🙂 Come on drop a name so we know how good you are 😉

Anyway my advice is £1k Trail/Enduro bike second hand and £1k DH bike second hand

You don't need to go mad on price, if you keep an eye out there are some great bargains to be had. The only things new on Abigales build were a shorter stem and the forks and both of them were bought in the sales.

Any good 6" bike will be good enough for DH and will do you other coloured trails.

But key, is two pairs of wheels and tyres. Something light for pedalling, something big with dual ply for DH. Sorted.

It's not accurate to talk about orange trails as a step up from black. As far as I know orange trails are fun parks? Black trails are downhill or black trail centre trails. Fort bill black, Glencoe black, etc. Don't think he'll enjoy pedalling a dh bike about. Just don't even try.

A 170-180mm trail bike, though, will be fine. Look at Giant Reign, spec Enduro, etc. And agree with above, 2 sets of wheels, and really, really reconsider £3k! A used bike at 1500 will be ideal and tip top.

Thanks for everyones comments, they are all great feedback and thankfully for once I have asked before I have bought (normally I buy first then realise I made a mistake). So we will look at second hand options as well as a couple of the cheaper bikes.

Would love to get him some coaching/training in the north east of england and will try and find where it is available, if anyone has any knowledge of this please let me know.

Glasgowdan the Orange at Hamsterley is the hardest trails classed for DH the blacks are just a little more technical than the reds and the reds can be rolled completely if required. Not sure if different forests use different colours/scales.

I might go and see the guy who runs gravitate cycles, he frequents hamsterley a lot. My concern with a second hand bike was incase it has had a lot of abuse, I am not sure I would know if it wasnt in good enough state or maybe if it was stolen etc.

Thanks again.

Don't get too hung up on the grading colours, I think orange is a catchall for bike park stuff including DH trails at most places. Grading is also far too subjective most of the time.

For used it's a risk bit you can do a decent visual inspection, check for cracks and bearing play etc. As for stolen it really depends, mostly you are buying from bike riders, if it's a DH bike then checking the riders name here https://www.rootsandrain.com/ will bring up photo's of them at events so easy to check if they actually used the bike. Budget for a shock service at some point.

Just wanted to touch base and let you guys know we bought a bike.

We went up to KBCycles in Newcastle and bought a Trek Remedy 9. Bike was perfect for my boy for size and weight and I am confident it was a great choice for what we wanted. I know it was over budget to what I wanted to pay and to probably what he needs but I really wanted to give him the best within reason to allow him to develop his skill set and possibly compete in two years time when he is 14.

http://www.kbcycles.com/view/trek-remedy-9-275-2015/103179

I would like to add that we were looked after by Brad Illingworth who we had no idea at the time (until we done a little digging back home) is at the top level of MTB racing. He is an absolute asset to KB Cycles and gave us fantastic advice and answered every possible question I could think of.

Even though the shop is a good 100 miles round trip it will now be our new local bike shop! Brad even offered to let my son take his Remedy 9 out for a spin in the local woods this wednesday to see if he liked it! Top guy and top company.

Again thanks for all the input and advice from you guys.