Buying advice, Which 24" wheeled bike for my 8 year old son.

justjames123

Hi Everyone.
My son turns 8 in December and im looking to get him a new bike with 24 inch wheels.

I am looking to spend a maximum of about £350 . Would be mostly for off road use, tracks and trails etc.. Im hoping to take him to Sherwood pines when he gets a new bike.

I have been looking at the Voodoo Bakka, the Scott Voltage JR Disc 2018 and the other Scott Scale JR bikes with disc brakes. I have also read that the Carera blast is a good value bike at around £250.

Or is there anything better in this price range?

Of the bikes I have looked at so far I am leaning towards the Voodoo Bakka, but thought I would ask some advice on here first.
He has been riding a cheap 20" wheel bike with gears, for a while now but its starting to look a bit small for him.

Thanks in advance, I would really appreciate some advice.

natrix

The Carrera Blast is quite heavy at 16kg and the cheap suspension probably isn't worth having. The Frog 62 is a lot lighter at 9kg, as is the Hoy Bonaloy (my son loves his) or the Wiggins bike. Try to find out how much the bikes weigh, if the manufacturer won't quote the weight, it's probably quite heavy.

davesnothere

We have 2 x specialized Hotrocks in our family 24" wheels - they are now on their 3rd and 2nd owners respectively (we have 5 kids) still going strong. I would recommend strongly, good solid bikes. We do alot of on and offroad miles as a family and they've been great

Number 2 daughter has just outgrown hers at 12 years old (she's about average height i would say) so has had nearly 4 years out of it.

Weight wise they are not the lightest but certainly nowhere near 16kg.I would guess 11 - 12 kg

natrix

The specialised hotrock is over 13kg, when you're only 8 years old that bit of extra weight on a bike makes quite a difference, depending of course on how much and what type of cycling you're doing......

oxoman

To the OP I'd be looking at Natrix suggestions. The Merida Matt's j24 Is also worth looking at, my youngest certainly managed easily on his at Pines on his.

iancalderbank

just put my boy on an orbea mx 24 trail and he's loving it for XC riding. he came to it from a beinn 20 large.
Its a great bike, pretty light, I think around 10-11kg although not actually weighed it. 1x 10 wide range cassette, air fork (tune the pressure to suit rider weight, we are doing this) that actually works for a child, good quality hydraulic discs... can't be wrong. Can be had for 450 if you look around. Or there are versions on the same frame with lower spec components for less.

HardtailDad

I bought my 7 year old son (he’s tall) a 24” Saracen mantra for Christmas. It’s a great bike and I got discount as it was last years colour! I’d definitely recommend it.

figbat

Our kids have Cube Kid MTBs (a 24" and a 20"), not least because they're "like Daddy's". The latest iteration is the Cube Kid 240 which is no weight weeney, but not heavyweight either. Nice bikes, nicely made, they go along nicely.

Steve-XcT

For Sherwood Pines it won't matter much ... it's pretty flat and only the park bit (and one very tame dropoff) really benefits from suspension...
You can have a blast... but its very flat!

On the other hand we stopped there for a week when Jnr was 6 and drove over to the Peaks ... and the suspension and light bike was more important. Before long you'll have loads of other options as well...




If I was buying a first 24" today I'd buy one of the Orbeas .... good geometry and short chain stays... and all have disk mounts (even models that come with disk brakes)

Which one? Knowing what I do now I'd buy the cheapest used one... get some light wheels with disk mounts from superstar or build them and fit a RST F1rst fork ... or perhaps the top of the range??? Or I guess knowing (with a crystal ball) Jnr would be racing XC I'd get a Trailcraft as it would work out cheeper in the long run!