Boys 24" MTB

[ratbane]

My 9yr old son has a Merida Dakar 220 which he's getting too big for. He's used to 15/20 milers at Afan with me.
Thus, looking for a 24inch hardtail MTB, light as possible, with air forks.
Anyone bought/had experience of bikes that they would recommend?
Quite like the look of the Cube 240 Team with RST forks.

[v8 jago]

Ive asked on this subject a couple of days ago mate as im in the same situation. Never got many replys on it though I like the look of the cube but was also looking at the genisis aswell, Just wanting to know how good they are and what they weigh as i want something as light as poss with front suspension and only want to spend no more than £500. Its a mine field out there for kids bikes and choosing the right one is looking to be difficult. I was favouring the scott scale but cant find any as they have sold out and new ones out in about 6 weeks or so :/

[sjg]

Islabikes had a prototype 24" hardtail on their stand at the weekend - looked great with proper brakes and forks. No idea on ETA or price but may be worth an ask? Price is likely to be quite a bit more than the Cube though, their rigid forked 24" is £299.

[gary71]

sjg said:

Islabikes had a prototype 24" hardtail on their stand at the weekend - looked great with proper brakes and forks. No idea on ETA or price but may be worth an ask? Price is likely to be quite a bit more than the Cube though, their rigid forked 24" is £299.

http://www.islabikes.co.uk/bike_pages/creig26.html

If the 26" wheel small frame kids bike is anything to go by (£600) it will be significantly more than £299.

Whilst I agree that your kids should not have rubbish bikes that is an awful lot of money for relatively small gains over something like this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Specialized-Hotrock-24-B...

[cjs]

Specialized Hotrock, great bike, my friend's boy has one.

[BOR]

My kid has a Cube 260, so slightly bigger than the 240.

Frame is very good. My son has subjected it to multiple 1m+ drops with no problems. The rest of the components are obviously selected on the basis of low cost, but are generally ok.

The RST fork was a disappointment. Functioned ok, but needed periodic greasing of the bushes to avoid it siezeing up. I would have upgraded this if he hadn't moved on to a Cube jump bike.

For the price, very good.

[gary71]

For reference (having just weighed them!):

Trek MT220 24" 13.8kg
Specialized Hotrock A1 FS 24" 12.6kg

They both have the Shimano 'Mega Range' rear cassette which whilst only 6spd has a 14-34t range to get them out of trouble on the long grinds to the top of the trails.

[scubadude]

Friend of mine bought his kid (age 10) a 26" wheel female spec MTB as with a seatube change he could ride a much better spec bike and frankly once the graphics where peeled off you couldn't tell it was a girls frame rather than a compact diamond boys frame :-)
It should hold its value better, last longer if the kid is happy to keep it- no reason he can't ride it as a full grown adult and best of all he can now keep up with his parents!

Of course- only works if your sprog is big enough!

[P-Jay]

It's difficult. AFAIK they don't make a decent suspention fork for a sub 26" wheel / frame, well certainly not for a 20" anyway.

My Son has just progressed from Hotrock 16 to a Hotrock 20, the frame is light and made from the same stuff as my old Enduro, the parts are pretty cheap but robust enough. The fork however is nothing more than a spring in a tube really. You can pre-load the spring, but that's about it, it's bloody heavy too.

I'd love to get him a nicely damped RS / Marz / Fox fork for it, but they don't seem to exist.

[P-Jay]

Of course, if you're feeling flush there is the Kona range of 2-4 bikes.

£1300 for a mini-stinky...

http://www.konaworld.com/bike.cfm?content=stinky_2...

[subsea99]

My son had the team 240 cube,again i would agree that nice frame but forks are rubbish and cheap components,not a fan of the grip shift tho that can be changed,i ended up selling it and buying him a second hand stinky 2-4 as he hated the arm pump he was getting from feedback on forks.

Another option is depending how tall your lad is could be a specialized hardrock in 13" frame which i bought for my daughter when she was 10 she was fine with the 26" wheels and i knew she would get plenty use from it size wise.

As for the stinky 2-4 its the dogs and he loves it

[Watchman]

I'll be in the market to replace son's 20" wheeled MTB with a 24"er, in about a year. We've agreed a short-travel front fork and discs should be on the shopping list. The Scott Voltage JR 24 Disc looks good but why manufacturers persist with cable discs over hydraulics beats me. Luckily I've a complete set of hydraulics "spare" in the garage. I just hope the cable-tidies on the frame allow for a full length outer cable.