Want MTB bike for my 12yr old daughter of certain spec?

d3matt

I need to get a bike for my daughter who's 12yr (13 in Nov). I want to encourage her to get out and join me.
Looking for a hard tail, but something that has reasonable components. Ideally want disk brakes and SRAM derailleurs as I can either use her bits for emergency replacements if I break anything on mine, or can upgrade her bits when I upgrade mine. That's my thinking anyway. Also I know how to setup SRAM gearing.

Any of course, like always, don't want to spend too much as she'll be outgrowing it.
Any ideas on what bike and where? I don't mind buying off the internet.

Or if I knew of the bike to source, but it was out of my budget, then I could hunt one down second hand.

nicklouse

moved to family and kids.

thel33ter

Sounds like exactly what you are looking for, but may be too small very soon

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

Your best bet is probably looking for a 13/14" adults MTB for her age. What kind of budget were you thinking of? Most big brands do a 14" frame, and Marin used to do 13.5" full sussers, I started on one of them.

d3matt

Looking at the sizing charts, a 14" is ideal. But she is currently 5'1" and will be growing fast so I was thinking a 15" bike would be a wiser buy as these are suitable from 5'2". I suspect she'll be 5'2" buy the summer holidays!

The perfect spec bike I've found so far this evening is this Boardman. Finding a second hand one would be great, but none on eBay at the moment.

But when you forget about going for SRAM gears, then the price drops a lot.
This Specialized from Evans looks good.

thel33ter

I'd keep an eye out for a bike with air forks, even just Tora airs, as they will be a chunk lighter and are easier to adjust.

The Spesh is ok, but at 13.5kg weighs as much as my Enduro, and has bottom line Shimano kit.

That Boardman would be perfect, as it's 2kg lighter, but also nearly double the price.

dsmiff

The Boardman looks something of a bargain, but it all depends on how much you are prepared to spend and how much riding your daughter is planning on doing, air forks were something of a revelation when I swapped them on my son's first proper MTB

Personally would spend as much as I could, my eldest (12) has a much better bike than me the idea being originally that I was stronger and would help him keep up.

I now ride with both of my lad's every weekend and there is nothing more motivational for a kid than to whip their Dad's arse!!

floosy

I in the same dilemma. though my daughter is 11 and only 4`6"

Ive narrowed it down too either a specialized myka elite or cube access team (both a fair bit of money... 650.0 pounds)

Cube is being test ridden tommorrow.

Dave

d3matt

I finally ended up getting my daughter a Carrera Kraken 16" from Halfords. It was reduced to £349 as end of season, so couldn't be ignored. It's got SRAM X5 gears, hydraulic disc brakes and a Suntour XCR 100mm travel front fork. Spec wise it beats everything out there and I didn't see anything at this price which had hydraulic brakes.