"Decent" bike after 24"

Mike_Mac

Hi everyone,

I'm thinking about buying a new bike for my daughter who is aprox 150cm tall / 11 years old.
Shes currently using a Early Rider SEEKER 24 (that is amazing and still fits her, but my son is growing out of his SEEKER 20, so its time for to add another bike to the collection!)

From what I can see the options for decent 26" bikes are limited. range of gearing seems limited Islabikes 26" for example, seems great but asking my daughter to use a 36t / 11-34t seems a big jump from the 30T / 11-46T that she has grown to like.

I'm thinking about ordering a XS womens gravel bike. Has anyone experience doing this. I think the GRAVEL FEMME GRVLW120 from Decathlon might be a decent buy )

Has anyone experience doing this for there younger children - Does the "longer" crank (I'm guessing its 165mm but cant find the info online) - Will she be able to reach the brakes?

(btw, there not in stock, but I can get delivered, I dont know wheather to take the risk...)

Any comments, most welcome!

Mike

oxoman

My youngest lad shot up around that age and I got him an xs boardman mtb 27.5 which fitted him fine. The gearing shouldn't really be an issue unless in a really hilly area. TBH if I was in your position I think I'd be looking at bikes in stock that she can actually sit on and try. The lad also went from a 24" Road bike to a small frame 700 wheeled one not long after his 12th birthday and the gears and breaking on the drops was a problem even with spacers in. He soon learnt to brake and change gears from the hoods but wasn't ideal until his hands grew abit around 15yrs old. The go to bike used to be islabike for this reason, but you have hoy, frogbikes to name but 2 more.

Mike_Mac

Thanks very much oxoman,

I'm going to look at hoy and frogbikes....

Thanks for sharing the XP with your son using gear shifts- you may have saved me an expensive purchase.

Theres a 2nd hand isla bike bike here that looks great, but I'm fearful the 36t 11-34 will not be enough for her. (unless anyone knows where to find a claris compatible 8pd cassette that goes bigger than 34??).

We live in the Switzerland, I'd like something that allows for her to climb - she spends alot of time in 30:46 on her current bike, I think asking her to use 36:34 may be too much of a jump....especially if we're then stuck with no other options.

Cheers,

Mike

oxoman

You should be able to change the front chain ring to something easier. Not sure on max capacity on 8spd claris but I'm sure there's a few on that can assist on here.

larkim

Hoy Bonaly 26 was our choice when we wanted a 26in wheel for a child of a similar height that was lightweight too. Rigid forks but when they're lightweight (both bike and rider) I doubt anything but the finest of forks would really be hugely beneficial.

We've since added wider bars to provide a bit of extra cockpit space and that should now sort my kid for life (he's naturally very short so won't exceed about 5ft now).

edward.s

Frog MTB 72 is a 26" wheel machine if you are looking for a mountain bike style ride, but she might already be mid-size range for one of those. My son rode one of those for 2 years and was happy with it. At the same time he had a S/44cm Planet X london road as road/gravel bike with 700c wheels.

My son is now 1m56 and currently riding a size M Stumpjumper 29'er and a size M Sonder Colibri, both at minimum settings but he's growing like stink!

You seem to be in that difficult child/adult area we are in. As someone said above, maybe try to ride what is available and see? an adult bike in a small size might work.

Also, don't get fixated on wheel size, the fit of the bike matters too - e.g. the Stumpjumper 29er I would have discounted for my son but with the low stepover height and a short travel dropper it works really well for him.