UKC

afternoon ,I am looking for a bit of advice on choosing a mountain bike for my young fella for his b/day(he will be 10) been looking at sub £300 range as he wants to start a little xc riding over the local hills and maybe a few easy trail centre routes , looked at the felt q24, boardman sport e and the ridgeback mx24 , also looked in decathlon and their rockrider 700 seems to have the same weight and kit but for £100 less , the only difference being that the others have a named front fork but I don't think the fork will make any difference on a junior bike, anybody got any views or experience with any of the above ,
cheers ,stuart

In reply to squirrel00:

I have gone down the route of getting a frog bike for my son for christmas, comes with a rgid fork, the intention was to search out a decent XC fork off ebay as an upgrade at a later date.

http://www.frogbikes.com/lightweight-kids-bikes/hybrid-bikes/frog69.aspx

In reply to jethro kiernan:

may be the way to go ,all the other bikes also seem to have a massive amount of gears what I can see me having to readjust on a daily basis

In reply to squirrel00:

Remember, the number of gears you have on a bike are bragging rights for a 10 yr old!

Seriously though they shouldn't take a great deal of maintenance, and when they do it's normally a 5-10 min job (unless parts need replacing)

In reply to squirrel00:

My advice would be that at the price range you're looking at, avoid suspension entirely. I work for a kid's bike company, we do sell bikes with bouncy forks but advise most customers to go with rigid forks and fat tires. Suspension adds weight, and unless you're spending a lot more than £300, isn't going to be supple enough to move with a kids weight. Look for light weight and good fit and your lad will have a brilliant time wherever he takes his bike.

In reply to squirrel00:

Hi

(I know I always pop up on these kind of threads shouting 'Islabikes!', but...)

As Sam W says, around the £300 mark I'd try to steer clear of suspension entirely (heavy and unlikely to work well at this price point). Also worth looking at the overall weight of the bike. Kids bikes can be staggeringly heavy, for example the Boardman Sport/E has a quoted weight of 13.30Kg - that'd be heavy-ish for an adult, not much fun for a 10 yr old. If you could nudge your budget to £350 then you'd be in the zone for an Islabikes Beinn 26 small (assuming the size is right) which weighs 9.46Kg - almost 4Kg lighter than the Boardman. Also, you'd probably get about 80% of the price back if/when you sell it, makes the overall cost of ownership very low.

Hope this helps

Dave

In reply to Dave Todd:

Cheers for the reply, isla is looking the best his birthday is not till Jan so will see if there is any price drop after Christmas, there are quite a few rigid forks about now I am looking for them

In reply to squirrel00:

You are unlikly to get a sale on isla bike unfortunatly, go rigid forks, single ring up front and let the child learn their bike handlink

In reply to squirrel00:

Just a thought. Is your son a conscientious, thoughtful boy who values and looks after his things? Or is he like I was and uses and abuses his things until they break?

Personally I would be inclined to buy him something stirdy and robust with longevity in mind rather than a performance machine.

In reply to ByEek:

yep he is a typically 10yr old uses abuses and thrashes everything ,but saying that he doesn't throw his bmx around or leave it lying around outside to often which is part of the dilemma don't want to spend a fortune in case he dosent get on with trails but also don't want to get him something he cant use or struggles with in case he enjoys it

In reply to squirrel00:

I am sure he will be fine whatever you buy him. I used to do bmx tricks on my racer at that age!