Who makes decent childrens bikes

[saywot]

I'm trying to source a suitable boy's bike
The child in question can straddle a bar about 65cm from the ground without actually touching it

But these critters grow like crazy (so I'm told)

Who makes one of them faux-MTB with half-way decent gears and brakes with a design that means all I have to do every year is lift the seat up an inch or so until he can get himself a 26" MTB?

[paulz]

Try the brand Fourty Four. 3 speed internal gear hub. Bicycling Australia did a review of these bikes a few issues back and gave it thumbs up.

My 10yo has one of these and it has been a really solid bike. He is at the point where he is ready to move onto a small adult bike. The boy has good taste...he is after a Bianchi road bike. He has a snowflake's chance of getting a Bianchi before I do.

[Jean]

I don't think you'll get a bike that grows with your kid. 'Byke' bikes are pretty good, but overpriced IMO. I recently bought a Trek for my 7-year-old that is pretty good - SS, coaster brake rear + V brakes F&R, alu frame, etc, for abour $220. There are some ok Giant ones for similar prices.

[twizzle]

The Cell 20" I bought for child2 is heavy, but no worse than the Giant 20" that I bought for child1. And half the price. The original 12" bikes (from a bike shop) from Child1 & Child2 were inherited by Child3 and Child4. Bottom brackets and headsets loose despite not much use. Child3 then required a 16"... $60 alloy 16" from Target, three hours in the shed redoing every bearing on the bike... and now it's just as good as any of the others.

So... I'd buy cheap and expect to do a lot of reassembly work, anything that's really wrong then take it back and swap for another. As far as I can tell, the only advantage you get from buying the more expensive ones is that the assembly job is better.

[singlespeedscott]

I've been looking for a bike for my 7 year old for awhile and can't find anything. All i want is something with 24" wheels, Alu frame, stable geometry, and single speed with front and rear v-brakes. I don't want a coaster brake, gears or a bike that weighs 20kg. How hard is it.

[jacks1071]

I've been looking for a bike for my 7 year old for awhile and can't find anything. All i want is something with 24" wheels, Alu frame, stable geometry, and single speed with front and rear v-brakes. I don't want a coaster brake, gears or a bike that weighs 20kg. How hard is it.

Something like This?



http://www.pro-liteoz.com/store/index.p ... roductId=6

I've seen people convert them to single speed but I wouldn't bother.

[singlespeedscott]

No. To many things a kid can break and really doesn't need. I just want something he can ride at a reasonable speed but doesn't require kit gloves to look after. Kids are kids. A bmx would alright but the geometry is all wrong and they weigh a ton.

[mikedufty]

The race model BMX bikes are much lighter than kids or freestyle focused ones. Can be expensive to buy new. You can even get 24" models, though I'd have thought 20 was better for a 7 year old. Not sure what is wrong with the geometry, my kids don't complain about it.

[Bentnose]

I just bought my daughter her first bike, 40cm (wheel size) from Big W, $78, didn't seem worth spending about double the amount for a bike from the bike shop, that can wait till the growing slows a bit, she's almost 4, it had an owl on it, like Hoot from Giggle and Hoot so she's happy.

[jacks1071]

No. To many things a kid can break and really doesn't need. I just want something he can ride at a reasonable speed but doesn't require kit gloves to look after. Kids are kids. A bmx would alright but the geometry is all wrong and they weigh a ton.

My kids have basher BMX's they use around home. When they get on their road/track bikes they know to treat it with respect and these are kids that can break pretty much anything.

[Ken Ho]

I can attest to Deon's comments. He has bred a horde of 2 wheeled demons who zip around on everything form scooters to BMX's to fixed track bikes.
As a child, I had an over-sized Dragster, which I had to prop against the clothes hoist and clamber on to, to get going. Once I was off, I couldn't stop as I could not touch. I just rode and rode and rode until I was done, then somehow I would get off. Not sure how now, but possibly involved some kind of controlled crash.
I never grew out of it, but eventually I grew into it.

[Abby]

Just to pile in on the original question...

I'm currently in the market for an mtb for my 11yo daughter. She's on the short-side, and it appears a 24" wheeled bike will be the right size for her for at least a few years... She wants to take it off road for fire trails and maybe some easy single-track, so I'm looking for something a little better than a BSO from K-Mart...

So far checked out 24" variants from Specialized, Giant, and Merida... Has anyone gone through this exercise already, and gotten a bike for the same purpose and been very happy with it? Being a roadie, I'm a little lost as I try and rapidly learn as much as I can about mtb componentry, etc...

Thanks!!
Abby

[jacks1071]

Just to pile in on the original question...

I'm currently in the market for an mtb for my 11yo daughter. She's on the short-side, and it appears a 24" wheeled bike will be the right size for her for at least a few years... She wants to take it off road for fire trails and maybe some easy single-track, so I'm looking for something a little better than a BSO from K-Mart...

So far checked out 24" variants from Specialized, Giant, and Merida... Has anyone gone through this exercise already, and gotten a bike for the same purpose and been very happy with it? Being a roadie, I'm a little lost as I try and rapidly learn as much as I can about mtb componentry, etc...

Thanks!!
Abby

Something like this maybe?

http://www.bicyclesonline.com.au/2012-p ... -21-speed/

[mikedufty]

I bought a fluid shred 24 from Anaconda recently. They regularly have 50% off sales on children's bikes, which makes it a really good price.
I liked this because it had 8 speed gears, which is compatible with 9 speed components I have lying around if I need to upgrade, and trigger shifters instead of grip shift.
Generally seemed to have all reasonable adult bike spec components, but with small frame and short cranks. My son is using it just for off road, at 8 he finds it a little big, (hard to start on steep bits) but goes pretty well on it considering it wieghs about a third of what he does.

[Abby]

The Polygon dual-sus looks pretty good (especially at only $300-ish).

But I wonder how my 11yo daughter will go with the weight. The bike weighs 15kg, and she weighs only 25kg... Although I suppose all bikes that spec are gonna be heavy...

[MattyK]

Abby - http://www.bykbikes.com/kids-bike-range ... range.html ?

Dual suspension sounds like overkill.
No suspension > bad suspension.

[mitzikatzi]

Specialized Hotrock 24 21-Speed Boys 2012 / New

[MattyK]

I've been looking for a bike for my 7 year old for awhile and can't find anything. All i want is something with 24" wheels, Alu frame, stable geometry, and single speed with front and rear v-brakes. I don't want a coaster brake, gears or a bike that weighs 20kg. How hard is it.

http://fourtybikes.com.au/ - steel frame and caliper front brake but meets your other criteria. And looks sufficiently rad - or whatever word kids use these days.

Or maybe a E-500 RaceR: http://www.bykbikes.com/kids-bike-range ... bikes.html

http://www.avantibikes.com/au/bikes/kid ... nder-24-i/ - 3 speed / coaster brake?
http://www.avantibikes.com/au/bikes/kid ... der-20-ss/ - if 20" is OK

http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-au/bik ... 360/58360/ - 3 speed hub

http://www.mongoose.com/aus/bikes/bmx/youth/kid-kruiser - seems to meet all criteria except caliper front brake (not shown in picture)

Probably more, knock yourself out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bi ... _companies

[jacks1071]

The Polygon dual-sus looks pretty good (especially at only $300-ish).

But I wonder how my 11yo daughter will go with the weight. The bike weighs 15kg, and she weighs only 25kg... Although I suppose all bikes that spec are gonna be heavy...

Pretty much all cheap kids bikes weigh a ton.

[singlespeedscott]

I do like the Mongoose Kids Cruiser. Can't find any in my area though.

[mikedufty]

Pretty much all cheap kids bikes weigh a ton.

I've weighed most of our collection.
From smallest to largest
JD Bug balance bike 12.5" 3.5kg - a good weight
Mud blaster 12.5" cheapie 7.2kg
Huffy 16" cheapie 11kg
Malvern Star Master Blaster 16" Al frame 9.5kg
Hillbrick BMX Mini 20" 9kg
DK BMX Jr 20" 9kg
Fluid Shred 24" 24spd, front shocks, 13kg

I'm quite impressed how they managed to make the Mud blaster weigh so much. It was slower than the trainer bikes too. The BMX minis are much faster than the 16" malvern star, despite being about the same weight.

[Alien27]

Cell have a kids bike on special at the moment. 36&41cm frames and 650c wheels. 8kg

http://www.cellbikes.com.au/Cell-2013-Cadet-Bike