Hi
As in previous and now moribund thread, I'm getting a new bike for my 6 year old daughter.

Heading for a specialised hotrock 20, but put off by one thing - new for the 04 model is suspension forks. Can a £180 bike have sus forks worth their own extra weight? And will sus forks help a 6-9 year old tackle tougher trails?

Thanks for your thoughts.

In a word no. The forks on my daughter's trek are elastomer ones and I can't seem to make then give up more than 1 inch of travel when I push on them with considerable force. I suspect a 6 year old child (plus the not inconsiderable weight of the bike) is not going to produce enough force to get more than a few MM of travel, certainly when I have watched her ride up and down curbs I have never noticed the forks move anyway.
So my guess is that a few mm of rubbery travel is not going to make much difference to anything other than the weight of the bike. A fairly soft tyre would certainly add more comfort to the ride.

With rear suspension on kids bike the spring shocks on many kids bikes yield about an inch of travel, and they do seem to move when going off drops, but I'm deeply skeptical that this is worth the trade off in weight and complexity.

Given this why the hell do almost all kids bike come with at least front suspension let alone full suspension?

Thanks Dylan
Yes, its depressing. Seems like suspension on kids bikes is about as useful as the tassles on the ends of the handlebars. Its tragic that so many parents are happy just to go for something thats going to superficially appeal rather than a bike thats going to work so well its going to instil in children the love of cycling that we know can happen! But, OK, thats the free market and this side of the revolution (after which there will of course be a law against rubbish bikes). But why can't those who know better get a great bike for their children? Grumble grumble.

Agreed, when I bought my son a bike I specifically avoided fads. In fact I went for dirt simple in the shape of a BMX. He loves it although I did have to change the cranks to something half way between adult and the installed length, because the short stock kids cranks don't give enough leverage and he kept running out of grunt.

Kids are even more susceptible to marketing fads than adults.

>Kids are even more susceptible to marketing fads than adults.

Shame is that the bikes which have the prettiest graphics and the coolest names to appeal to kids are usually the heaviest with the worst features for the price. I suppose the licencing fees eat into the budget available for the actual bike. Still the same applies to lots of other stuff marketed at kids and sometimes it's your unfortunate duty as parent to choose what is good for them, not what they want ;-(

I do still wonder if there is niche market for decent kids bikes? I'm sure there's more than few bike pimp parents who wouldn't mind paying a bit extra for a good kids bike, especially one good enough to be able kids to be able to follow parents onto something more than a five minute pootle to the park.

Well, seeing the number of crap quality full suspension bikes available and on the streets, I'm not sure most adults are above marketing fads - so many people suffering all the disadvantages of full suspension without any of the advantages - or even needing those advantages.

But anyhow, yes there's a niche for good kids bikes. Thing is you'd think the big manufacturers who produce the high end bikes in their portfolio - specialized, trek - would be the places to look. They are free from most kids fads - you're not paying licensing for mass market characters. But as with low end adults bikes they get crap suspension forks and pretty pointless accessories - as the specialized web site says for the hotrock 20, its got a - Downhill-inspired dual roller/chain tensioner keeps the chain in place and adds a healthy dose of attitude - more weight and more money - for what?

Yes I want my daughter to fall for her new bike as soon as she looks at it - but a shiny new bike with knobbly tires and a good paint job is enough to make her keen to get out on it, and then its how much fun it is to ride, for goodness sake! If the bike can do that well, its going to help those companies, giving more chance of a future customer by helping kids to love cycling for their lives, not fancy their bikes for a couple of days.

For bike pimp parents of very small children, your prayers have been answered:

http://216.247.25.241/miva/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=LS&Product_Code=T&Category_Code=

Pimp trike? Hmmm, it's still 24 pounds damnit, which is pretty heavy for 850 bucks worth of trike ;-)

Seriously though. I do wonder if it would be possible to get a decent light weight frame sized for children with a rigid fork and sling some cheap but decent bits on it, and not cut corners on stuff like BBs and crank arms and see what sort of weight and cost it comes to. I mean we are not talking weight obsessive here, but a child should enjoy riding a bike weighting under 30 pounds much more. If you think about the weight of the bike as a proportion of the riders weight some kids bikes would scale up to being 80 pound monsters in an adult size, and I bet an adult riding that wouldn't enjoy it much either.

Anybody with the knowhow got any comments about this?

Have you ever watched kids riding? The reason their bikes weigh so much is that they need to be overbuilt to an extent downhillers would gawp at. Kids do stuff you'd never consider.......

But Scott do a nice kids XC race bike.

Old thread - needs revitalising.

My last bikes for my boy - Kona Makena - reasonable weight, fork that worked when he was 6 (he's big) and handling that made him want to ride - held back by 6 speed and 40tooth front ring off road, but he loved it.

Moved up to Scott Juior Racing 24" with 21 speed, weight bearable, fork worse, gear ratios good for all but steep stuff and excellent brakes, he does a good 11 mile off road jaunt every week and asks to go (with the adults!)

He's now 7 and had it over a year - next bike will be a small frame on a light second hand XC machine with 80-100mm air fork, should be able to crack that for £400-£600 quid in a coupe of years.

Incidentally, just spotted a Scott Boogaloo 200 for a friend's child - if the weight is 27lbs, it'll be fine.

I do agree with above thread though - a kid doing XC with parent ought to be able to make a 22-24lb bike last - if they do heavier stuff, then they don't need an XC steed. Light XC steed would help them keep up on single track and longer rides. It has taken a long time for kids specific, performance windsurfing kit to be available - bikes might follow suit if we pressurise the suppliers.

You mean like the Specialized Hotrock A1 FS and A1 FSR (the latter being full suspension) that have been around for about 3 years now!?

yup - but the Boogaloo just brought that spec down to 20" wheels which means kids can get off road as well as on with 21 speed. I just couldn't get a Spec close to me - in saying that - not that they need LBS maintenance.....

A sus fork for kids is not a fad...at least not for my kiddo. He rocks his GT chucker and before that a schwinn mini mesa. We did'nt buy the bike as a fad or for it's color, but for it's intended use hucking down trails with mom and dad!! The 2 bikes we have for him have served him well!!! The forks have had 40mm of travel that his little body have been able to access. So not all forks are created the same!! If you just want a bike to cruise the streets on you don't need a sus fork at all.

We bought a Trek MT220 last year for my (then) 7 year old. Chose the Trek as it has a very low standover height and 3 chainrings.

It also has a couple of other great small people components; a rotating stem and double pedal holes in the cranks.

As he's got bigger and more confident (see pic)

http://bp3.blogger.com/_SzM40NDRZSw/RlvrDyCLYUI/AAAAAAAAADk/u3V0DKhqAEg/s1600-h/Aston+Hill+May+2007+100.jpg

http://www.roaringforty.blogspot.com/

I've slowly rotated the handlebar away.

The fork is (outside) springed and works fine, especially when landing.

Overall I'd totally recommend the bike, and would buy the same again. And nothing has failed.

4 year old thread, which got resurrected again in the past, weird...