Originally Posted by
andymac
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If your daughter is likely to actually ride mountain bike trails you may want to look at some of the Scott bikes for cross country style or the higher end Kona (Stuff 2-4) or Norco (Kompressor) if she is going to be riding downhill or dirt jumps. These bikes are pricey but it gets you into better component levels. I ended up getting a Norco Kompressor for my son as it seemed unlikely that any of the other bikes in this range were going to stand up to the riding he is doing.
+1 on the Kona bikes. I am pretty impressed with what they did with them. They pretty much are smaller adult bikes. We don't have a local dealer locally that stocks kids Scott or Norco bikes. I would have liked to have seen them to try them out. The Shred at least is still a little heavy, especially for kids to maneuver around but not out of line with other kids bikes (someday I'll try to do a weight comparison). The only other bike I'd like to see available here as an option are the
UK Isla Bikes. Although, the exchange rate makes them not very affordable right now. Funny how Trek is slowly making the KDR series bike available to smaller riders. This is exactly the style of bike the Isla has been making for at least a few years.