Kids Custom Build

paulski1966

Well my son has out grown the first bike i built him - a 16" Hutch Pro Racer replica -



And he decided he wants a mountain bike like dads. So decided that I would get a second hand bike and build it up properly. Colour scheme will be the same as my 456 -



Managed to pick up a cheap Giant XTC from ebay. Its tatty but I wasn't concerned about that as it was blasted and powder coated, and the majority of it will be binned.




The bike will be a 1x8 set up , steel parts replaced with ali to drop weight, I've managed to source a 20" Spinner Air Fork (no mean feat as Spinner do not have any outlets in the UK), folding Maxxis Snypers and a change to hydraulic discs, so that meant building up my first set of wheels. Most bits are second hand, but working on the basis that this should cost around the price of a new Isla Bein but be better specced and more suitable for riding trails. Looking to have it finished for my sons birthday in a couple of weeks.

paulski1966

So here is the fork going on it - it is a 20" Spinner air fork. the reason for using this is that having an air fork means that it can be adapted to my sons weight - most of the kids forks I've looked at previously tend to be next to useless as the coil springs are too hard to compress - being an air fork also means it weighs in about 25% lighter then a coil fork.

I'll be making a slight modification to the internals of the fork which will mean it will give 60mm of travel - which for a 20" fork is pretty good as most only give about 35mm of travel.

paulski1966

For the wheels i started out with a mismatched pair of these -



As one was silver and one black, and the fact that they didn't really have th look I was going for I decided to give them, a clean up and polish -



And here it is laced up into the wheels - this was the first wheel i've ever built - took a while to true but overall I'm happy with how it turned out. Its a 36h rim and hub laced up with 24 spokes to keep the weight down.



I've also picked the frame up from the powder coaters, colour is RAL 2004 - apologies for the crappy phone pic as it doesn't really show the true colour, but its the same as my 456.



I also cleaned up a second hand NS quark stem i picked up cheap. Before -



After



Next job will be to polish up the rear hub, build the rear wheel and then start the final build up.

Matt-r8

This should be good
Get some Decals made up from your favourite brand. Something high end like Yeti or Intense. That'll get a reaction from the bike snobs.

mike hunts alpine

Think your son is going to be pleased
Best thing to do get them Intrested when there young he'll be shredding dh when he's 14

paulski1966

mike hunts alpine wrote:

Think your son is going to be pleased
Best thing to do get them Intrested when there young he'll be shredding dh when he's 14

Cheers. He already loves coming out on the trails with me, but his 16" bmx just bucks him off constantly as the tiny wheels and lack of suspension just don't cope with the slightest root or bump, plus it only has a rear brake which leads to some interesting moments when coming to a stop! Hopefully the large volume maxxis snypers and fork will lead to a more controlled decent. I've also got a new set of Shimano M615 Deore brakes - which is overkill, but the lever design works well with kids and I'm a fan of Shimano brakes as you get a lot of brake for not a lot of money and should hopefully give my son a bit more confidence (not that he needs it tbh, as i seem to spend my whole time riding behind him screaming "BRAKE BRAKE"!).

paulski1966

Matt-r8 wrote:

This should be good
Get some Decals made up from your favourite brand. Something high end like Yeti or Intense. That'll get a reaction from the bike snobs.

Did think about getting some Santa Cruz decals made up actually! Think it might need decals to break the paint up a little as it is very orange.

The Rookie

Shouldn't the decals be On-One in blue?

Love the back to front seatpost on the as bought pic of the Giant!

1x8 is definately the way to go - good call, looking forward to seeing this complete now!

paulski1966

The Rookie wrote:

Shouldn't the decals be On-One in blue?

Love the back to front seatpost on the as bought pic of the Giant!

1x8 is definitely the way to go - good call, looking forward to seeing this complete now!

I agree about the decals - the only reason I looked at the santa cruz ones is that I can get them for a couple of quid from eBay where as the on one decals are about £14.

The seat post was rather odd! But then the whole bike was a weird mish mash of parts, which was good for me though asit went cheap because of that.

1x8 should be fine for my son, originally it has a double ring up front but they require too much hand strength to switch from 1 ring to the other, I've no idea why they would put them on a kids bike tbh. 1x8 also allows me to use the og derailleur as well which is handy.

Kowalski675

paulski1966 wrote:

apologies for the crappy phone pic as it doesn't really show the true colour

Aye, if that's 2004 the phone camera's white balance is miles out, lol. Went for a spot of RAL 2002 myself (bit darker, but v nice colour):

poah

I had the same issue with the shifters on my son's Carrera. I swapped the grip shifts to sram triggers. the fork is a almost useless so I'm interested in where you got the spinner.

paulski1966

POAH wrote:

I had the same issue with the shifters on my son's Carrera. I swapped the grip shifts to sram triggers. the fork is a almost useless so I'm interested in where you got the spinner.

I've never understood the use of twist shift - decent trigger shifters require a lot less strength - my son has no issue moving through the gears on my 456 but cannot change gear at all on my daughters Carrera Luna.

With regards to the fork I managed to track down the European Agent for spinner in Poland and had the fork shipped over from there - if you want I can PM his email address. I'll let you know how the fork gets on when the bike is built up, but I assume they are pretty good as they are used on the Lil Shredder hardtails. One thing to bear in mind is that in stock form the shock only gives about 40mm travel but they can be modded to give 60mm easily. The only other air shock I could find for a 20" wheeled bike is the White Brothers RC80/Rustler, which is proper serious money.
One thing to consider is a 24" air fork - both RST and Suntour make one and they are used on the Commencal Supreme jr 20" and the Specialized Hotrock 20" Pro. Whilst these are likely a little heavier they have the advantage of slackening the head angle, and in the case of the Suntour offering slightly more travel.

poah

its a 24 inch bike - I've seen the RST F1SRT air on bike-discount but wanted to see price diffrerence with the spinner air 24. email would be good.

The Rookie

paulski1966 wrote:

I've never understood the use of twist shift - decent trigger shifters require a lot less strength.

Depends on the setup, the X0/X9 on my commuter is light as a feather.....

JMcP92

The Rookie wrote:

paulski1966 wrote:

I've never understood the use of twist shift - decent trigger shifters require a lot less strength.

Depends on the setup, the X0/X9 on my commuter is light as a feather.....

I had a twist shifter on a little bike when I was a kid and hated the thing, I've never used twist shifters since. Maybe it was just cos I was a kid but I couldn't get it to shift and when you eventually did it just jumped 2 or 3 gears and was useless - triggers all the way

CitizenLee

Adopt me?

Jokes aside, loving what you're doing here! Will definitely be keeping an eye on how this turns out.

paulski1966

The Rookie wrote:

paulski1966 wrote:

I've never understood the use of twist shift - decent trigger shifters require a lot less strength.

Depends on the setup, the X0/X9 on my commuter is light as a feather.....

I've heard nothing but good things about the XO grip shifts, the problem is I guess that the majority of kids bikes will always have low end components. Deore trigger shifters work fine - revoshift shifters however require wrists stronger then a teenage boy who has just discovered his window looks directly into Kelly Brooks shower room.

poah

paulski1966 wrote:

I've heard nothing but good things about the XO grip shifts, the problem is I guess that the majority of kids bikes will always have low end components. Deore trigger shifters work fine - revoshift shifters however require wrists stronger then a teenage boy who has just discovered his window looks directly into Kelly Brooks shower room.

can I come for a visit lol

poah

the spinner 24 forks have a non adjustable rebound so while they are cheap $108 US delivered from Poland they are not going to be any better than the crapy suntour XCM jr already on the bike.

The Rookie

paulski1966 wrote:

The Rookie wrote:

paulski1966 wrote:

I've never understood the use of twist shift - decent trigger shifters require a lot less strength.

Depends on the setup, the X0/X9 on my commuter is light as a feather.....

I've heard nothing but good things about the XO grip shifts, the problem is I guess that the majority of kids bikes will always have low end components. Deore trigger shifters work fine - revoshift shifters however require wrists stronger then a teenage boy who has just discovered his window looks directly into Kelly Brooks shower room.

I have a Shimano Revoshift on my Hack, that is heavier than the X0, but not by much, but the SRAM MRX that were on my wifes bike are now Deore trigger as, yes, they were heavy, I found them fine, but my wife couldn't get on with them.

gt-arrowhead

At first i thought you had built that On One for your son, i was thinking "wow, thats a big leap" Then i scrolled down a bit and i saw the giant. That looks good! Im loving the stem especially. Very shiny.

I hate grip shifts personally. They dont look too great, its quite hard to get decent grips to replace them, and for some reason they are never the same once you open them up and put them back again. Its probably because the ones ive used were all old, cheap, and nasty. The bets shifter ive used so far is a brand new Shimano Altus shifter. Im using it with a Deore XT mech. Very weird combination. I prefer it to my older style Deore LX mech which i also used with my Deore XT mech. Wasnt as good as the Altus.

paulski1966

GT-Arrowhead wrote:

At first i thought you had built that On One for your son, i was thinking "wow, thats a big leap" Then i scrolled down a bit and i saw the giant. That looks good! Im loving the stem especially. Very shiny.

Cheers - he has had a bit of a growth spurt recently but would be concerned if he could ride my 456! And with regards to the stem its amazing what a bit of spit and polish will do. Tempted to polish up the crank arms but not sure that I can take a sander to brand new cranks.

paulski1966

Finally polished up the rear hub so it was wheel building time -



And a little teaser shot -

mike hunts alpine

paulski1966 wrote:

Finally polished up the rear hub so it was wheel building time -



And a little teaser shot -

Christmas has officially came early.

Kowalski675

Looking great. His mates will be jealous.

JMcP92

This gonna be from Santa for him? Or just be given it when it's done?
I'd use it for an xmas present - jobs a goodun'

paulski1966

JMcP92 wrote:

This gonna be from Santa for him? Or just be given it when it's done?
I'd use it for an xmas present - jobs a goodun'

It's his birthday next week so it will be for that. Was considering giving it for Christmas but don't want Santa to get all the credit

warpcow

Looks fantastic. A little bit jealous/relieved my little one's a few years away from needing me to build him a bike

paulski1966

A picture of the modification I made to the frame. This was originally set up to handle cable brakes, but thankfully i remembered to sort this before it went for powder coat (at admittedly the very last minute). The guides were cut down to widen up the hole and allow a hydraulic hose to fit through them, so no cable ties

Matt-r8

This is absolutely brilliant.

mike hunts alpine

Do you work for a bike company or are you fishing for a job you legend. how much do you thinks gone into it all together then ?