Recreational & Family - Quality of Performance house brand kids' bikes?

Shopping for a new bike for our almost-7-year old son. We went and test rode a Spec Hotrock 24" 7-speed and he loved it. It is definitely a sweet ride, but at $359+ tax (the 2012 would be $30 more), I'm a little reticent to pull the trigger, although the service & potential later trade-in we'd get from the LBS is worth a fair amount, I'm sure. But still, budget is tight.

So I'm back to looking at the Performance Bike house brand 24" mtn bike (http://www.performancebike.com/bikes/Product_10052_10551_1084257_-1_20000__400122) for him, too. At under $200, that would leave a lot of room in the budget for tune-ups and upgrades later on, if needed. He likes the looks of it, so that's a bonus, but we don't live near a store, so I can't go in and check it out or have him test-ride one. Have any of you any thoughts on whether these "generic" bikes are rideable? We're not off-road bikers, mainly going on family rides around town & bike path (5-7 miles) and of course riding with friends around the neighborhood.

http://www.performancebike.com/images/performance/products/medium/30-3188-BOX.JPG

Decent bike. My kids grew up on one of the older Performance brand bikes and it was passed down promptly until it was completely outgrown. The youngest did not like it as he wants a road bike. Decent quality and not too much trouble in the maintenance department.

Thanks for your input! As it's about $150 cheaper than the Hotrock at the LBS, I was really hoping it would be a serviceable bike for us.

You should be alright with the Performance brand. My Scattante X-330 CX bike is from Performances adult road bike line and I've been real happy with it so far (> 600 miles). The important things that I look for like build quality and toughness of the frame have been more than acceptable.

I'm fortunate enough to have one of their locations about 5 miles from me so they are my primary LBS. If you join their rewards program you get 10% back on all purchases towards a future purchase. The one disclaimer I would make is that I'm not familiar with them from an online standpoint but if their brick and mortar service is an indication you should be ok.

After all of my shopping and staring at the Performance website and weighing options and the boy falling head-over-heels in love with a Specialized Hotrock 24" last week at a different shop, we ended up at the shop where I recently bought my bike, and are now the proud owners of a Raleigh Rowdy 20". It's last year's model so it was a touch cheaper than what I was expecting, and I am happy to be supporting a LBS. He didn't even want to test-ride it at first because he didn't like the green color scheme, but once he got on it he was sold.

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/283364_2033338467689_1070984265_32209954_7287965_n.jpg

Nice bike, and he looks so happy to be on it!

Glad you found something great for him. Raleighs seem to hit a pretty good price/performance point.