Lewis's carrera blast

poah

Lewis's bike started off as a normal hefty 27.5lb ish bike from halfords. I didn't want to spend too much on him if he wasn't going to take an interest in the sport. other than the really crap brakes which where swapped straight away he got on ok with the bike. Once he started to show an interest I changed things over so that the bike was more suited to his size and so we could loose a wad of weight. I did the transformation over a year or so.

at the start 27.5lb ish



and now 22.78lb



current spec

forks - RST F1RST air 24
Brakes - avid elixir 3 160mm rotors
Crank - Thorn 150mm + RF NW 30t
Pedals - DH sport direct from china
Chain - KMC X10 93
cassette - XT 10sp
Rmech - SLX shadow + medium
shifter - zee 10sp
Wheels - superstar switch evo (rebadged Novatec D881SB front and D882SB) laced to Alex ACE 20 rims with sapim race DB spokes. titanium QRs
tyres - schwalbe rocker ron set up tubeless
saddle/seatpost - SDG bel air & Kore T-Rail post
bar - eXotic Scandium Riser Handlebar 620mm
stem - standard
grips - uberbike lockons


sadly I work weekends so we don't get as much time to get away as I would like but his skills are improving as is his confidence. If he comes off he gets back on and trys again.

mattrixdesign2

Nice, what size wheels are they, 24inch? Where do you get a decent small fork from? Must have cost a fair amount?

We have a Blast, the smaller Blue 20inch, its been a good bike, but gone through some changes - but only replaced like for like:

Shifter change - grip shift pants, now using X3 underbar
Tyre change - the original ones were prone to flats, now Scwable BlackJack - no punctures since
Rear meach change - the X3 got mashed, now X4
Chain - it got mashed with the above mech
Rear cassette change - just went wrong, replaced with another screw type - wish it was a proper freewheel!
Brake levers - my eldest hit a plank of wood, went over the bars, they bent, now Tektro junior levers
Pedals - binned the rubbish plastic ones and got V8 copies put on

Depite all that, its been ridden quite a few miles, and bashed a fair bit, now being used by my 7yo. Decent frame. Would recommend them if people don't wish to pay Isla prices, shame Halfords don't think to do one without a suspension fork!

My 10yo is now riding a used (but very good condition) Dawers Espori CX, it needs to loose some pounds, but I will only replace things as and when required.

poah

article on my blog about 24 inch forks

http://mtbmumblings.wordpress.com/2014/06/07/kids-suspension-forks/

Mark613

Hi POAH
I'm in the process of upgrading the same Carrera Blast for my soon to be 8 year old. Not to the extent as you have gone as he's not that confident yet and won't even contemplate dedicated trails. I've changed the cassette to a new bigger range 7 speed and shimano Alivio rear mech as the stock were rusty as hell. Keeping the triple chainset for now with new front mech. Ditching the gripshift for shimano 3 x 7 speed trigger shifters. I'll see how he gets on with the Clarks CMD 11 mechanical disc brakes but plan to upgrade to some Clarks M2. If he gets more confident I want to change the drivetrain to a 1x 10 as you have done but what freehub did you use to get a 10 speed cassette on there and did you have to relace the wheels? Also what BB did you use for the Thorn cranks?
Thanks
Mark

slowbike

Ah - this looks promising ...

We're in the process of moving Little Slowbike to a 20" Islabike - currently with 7 speed twist shift - it's a hand-me-down from his cousin and needs a bit of TLC. LSB is not yet 4 and slightly too small for the bike, but that didn't stop him going offroad yesterday - loved being able to carry on pedalling up the "hills" in the lower gear and going over what is the equivalent of a pump track - but although he can shift the gears down himself - he can't shift back up - so he's ending up in 6th or 7th ... and stuffed until we stop, manually shift him back up and carry on (assuming he doesn't promptly shift down again - which is what he was doing yesterday) ...

I assume the X3 is easier to shift for tiny hands?