Bike for my Daughter

lochindaal

Hi All

coming visiting from the roadie section

I need to get my 11 year old daughter a mountain bike. it will be used on trails but nothing remotely hardcore. I think it is best to go down the ebay route as she is growing fast and probably has a limited lifetime.

What bike should I look out for with a budget of £150. I want to avoid all the dual suspension £99 crap.

Thanks for your knowledge

Pudseyp

Try Wynstanleys being they have a great range of kids bikes that start from about £100 upwards....being 11 she will need a 24" wheeled bike...so they tend to be a bit more expensive....

If you can push to £190 this is a little cracker and you will be the best dad in the world !

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... PDPz1#dtab

lochindaal

she is tall for her age 5"1-2 and can sit comfortably on a small framed 26"wheel.

Is Halfords better in the MTB world than the equivalent second hand off ebay? In a road bike I would always say no

Pudseyp

The Carrera range are well spec'd bikes that are in a different leauge to Apollo....by moving to a 26" wheel then the price moves up a fair bit as the makers tend to spec the bikes up as they are more suitable for women.

Again take a look at the Wynstanleys site as they also do reasonable 26" bikes....

Ebay is an option probably a 14/15" frame would suit

cooldad

Halfords sell some excellent bikes and some absolute rubbish.

The Rookie

Second hand (ebay/gumtree etc) can dig out some real bargains, as you know your bikes (in terms of checking one over) I'd go that route, however trying to recommend one of the millions second hand is a waste of time really, better to post up ones your looking at! Personally I'd look for a good used small or medium Carrera Vulcan although others can be had at that price (the lad has a Spesh P1 that cost £120 off ebay), my Eldest is only 5'3" (and proportionately short in the leg) and she rides an 18" framed hybrid on road and a 14" off road, so you aren't really limited too much on size.

Simon

derm123

Slightly off topic but may save you a few quid. Not sure if you have ever used a cashback site but it might be worth looking at topcashback if you buy online. With Halfords you can pay online reserve and collect. There is a 4% cashback at the moment. It is just a matter of searching for the retailer and clicking through. It sometimes can be a little slow to be paid though, can be paid by BACS, paypal etc.

Its something I've started to use and you'd be surprised how the little amounts add up. Cashback is available for CRC, wiggle, Evans, Leisure Lakes....

A shameless link giving me a referral is http://www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/derm

The Spiderman

I managed to buy a superb almost as new Scott 26" wheeled mtb for my son ,earlier this year for £120 via my LBS.

Always worth seeing if your LBS does trade ins,if not ebay and wanted ads have been a very good source of kids bikes for me.

If you have no luck with that,I would second the reccomendation for Carrera bikes.Both of my girls have Carrreras and they are are equal to any of the big brand names in temrs of spec and preformance for kids bikes.