MTB for my 7yr old

sws

Hi there,

My son is showing a real interest in mountain biking and I've taken him out on the green trail at Glentress and he loves it.

Trouble is his current bike is a 31lb Apollo from Halfords - bought by me before I knew better !! He struggled on the hills a wee bit.

I'm looking at replacing the Apollo with a bike at the £200 bracket. Choices being the Specialized Hotrock 20", Felt Q20 or a n other ???

Can anyone recommend the Spesh or Felt, or recommend another option ?

Many thanks

thelawnet

Try http://www.islabikes.co.uk/bike_pages/beinn24.html
Full knobbly tyres, rather than semi-slicks, are a £10 option.

My son is just turned 7, and not well-built or particularly large and it fits him fine.

dsmiff

Or you could try the Hotrock A1FS (£100 over budget) - couple of pound heavier than the beinn - but has Front suspension (not sure if it makes a hugh difference ).

My second son(7) is now riding it round llandegla every weekend (his older brother had used it first) , everything is still tight - unlike the trek mt 220 we had before(big mistake).

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Specialized-Hotrock-A1-FS-Boys-2009-Junior-24W-Bike_20955.htm

See if he fit's a 24" bike first, I would get one in preferance to a 20" if possible.

theblender

Marin Hidden Canyon is a great choice, very light, soft forks, 2 chainrings for the hillclimbs. My does Cwm Carn on his in less than 3 hours.

Also check out the XTC jnr 20" and 24" bikes from Giant, very light, well specced, well priced kids bikes.

The spesh models are very good though.

Mark_K

dsmiff wrote:

Or you could try the Hotrock A1FS (£100 over budget) - couple of pound heavier than the beinn - but has Front suspension (not sure if it makes a hugh difference ).

My second son(7) is now riding it round llandegla every weekend (his older brother had used it first) , everything is still tight - unlike the trek mt 220 we had before(big mistake).

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Specialized-Hotrock-A1-FS-Boys-2009-Junior-24W-Bike_20955.htm

See if he fit's a 24" bike first, I would get one in preferance to a 20" if possible.

Strange My lad has a Trek MT220 when he was 7 and now hes turned 9 we are just looking to upgrade his bike ! However the MT220 has been great not had a moments problem with it only thing i did was change the twist shifters to triger shifters, other than that the sticker came off the front forkleg but thats it
Hes done a lot off rough off road miles on it and the school run come rain or shine summer and winter, been a realy good bike for £220 i would recomend one ?

sws

Many thanks for the responses. Hadn't considered 24" bikes, but these may well be an option - each bike shown above fits the bill prefectly. I think I'll need to pop along to the local bike shops and try them for size - an excellent chore that I'm sure we'l both love !!

neillyboy

I got my 7 year old a Hotrock 24 and started him with seat as low as poss - so that the bike fitted!. He took to it no problem and now (1 year on) I've got him on single track stuff with technical bits with no problems at all. The seats well up now obviously with him being bigger and really another year or two (max) and he'll be looking for something bigger. I'd say go for the 24" as your son will be too big for a 20" in no time.
Cheers
N

dsmiff

Mark_K wrote:

Strange My lad has a Trek MT220 when he was 7 and now hes turned 9 we are just looking to upgrade his bike ! However the MT220 has been great not had a moments problem with it only thing i did was change the twist shifters to triger shifters, other than that the sticker came off the front forkleg but thats it
Hes done a lot off rough off road miles on it and the school run come rain or shine summer and winter, been a realy good bike for £220 i would recomend one ?

Apologies - it's an MT60 (20in bike!)

Bottom bracket gave up after a couple of months (BMX), fork bottom out.