cristobal41

Hi,
My 6 son has been riding since he was two. He is an avid biker. but not Lance's heir. I bought him a really light BMX bike pretending that mountain biking should be easier due to the bike lightness. Wrong.
No I am going to buy a double or triple front ring bike. Regarding this matter, only the 34/44 combo is available in most of the kids 20" bikes, except the KTM Wild Thing 20" that features a triple 24/34/44 (or similar) triple ring crankset. (https://www.ktm-bikes.at/2009/at/deta...hing20&kat=Kid)
My questions are:
1.- Does he need front derailleur and more then one ring to ride in hilly trails? If yes,should choose the KTM due to its 22 smaller ring, the only I know in 20" bikes? What about the rest of 20" bikes with just two rings but with a 34 teeth as its granny? I heard many different opinions, but I wish to know yours based in real experience.
2.- I don't know if the front forl is worth it because I am not sure if kid's light weight activates it.

Thanks for your help.

C.P.

I'm of the opinion that at 6, they dont need a front Der at all. A couple manufacturers have followed suit (Specialized Hotrock etc) and have 20 & 24" wheel bikes with gearing, but no front der. My son is 6 also, and he and his 4 yr old brother love to tear it up on a small kid friendly trail we build around the perimeter of our property. They ride little BMX bikes, and do just fine with 1 gear. I could go on about gearing vs no gears at this age, but as long as they are happy that's all that counts...

masiman

I am not against gearing but I think it mostly depends on the kid. At 6 and even older, they don't quite get the gear shifting thing and how to use it to their advantage. I ride with my kids regularly (9&7), and I constantly have to indicate which direction to relative to their current gear selection. However, I am glad they have the gearing because it does extend the distances they can ride comfortably. Our geared bikes are 7 speed, rear only. The US market does not have many front geared bikes in 20" size. KTM is not a brand I have found to be available here in my searches. Even if front geared bikes were offered in what I was looking at, I would have stayed away. I prefer no shocks for a variety of reasons at this age and size, but it was hard to find what I was looking for without a shock.

You'll be the best one to decide what to get.

andymac

My son and I have been riding our local intermediate/expert trails since he was 5 and we got him his first geared mountatin bike (a K2 Zed 20) at age 6. He had it figured out in a couple days.
I purposely got him a bike with a chain guide on both the inside and the outside of the single ring in the front as we had a quite a bit of experience with kids bikes with front derailleurs as a result of taking some of the neighbourhood kids riding with us.
Front derailleurs seem much more difficult for a kid to understand than the rear ones. They have a tough time coming to terms with it being a bad idea to be in the large ring in the front and the large cog in the rear or vice versa. This cross chaining results in lots more dropped chains, which is frustrating for all invloved. With the chain guide on the front ring my son never once dropped the chain. If you get a bike with one of the Mega Range cassettes that have the 35 tooth largest cog you should be able to provide enough gear range for most riding.

cristobal41

Hi to you all,
I highly appreciate your opinons. For what it seems, I shouldn't choose a bike with front derailleur but with the rear one. Once I take this option, fork or not? My son complains of handlebar chattering due to small bumps. DO their wieght activate the fork? Are kid's forks soft enough to operate with a 44 pounds (20 kilos) rider?

Regards.

Sixty Fiver

A 1 by x drive is probably the most suitable drive for a younger child and I am of the mind that any new rider should learn to ride on a rigid as it helps to develop better bike handling skills.

It took my 11 year old daughter a fair bit of time to figure out the front derailer on her bike ( a 15 speed) and for most riding she just keeps it in the middle ring.

cristobal41

I see that your girls and boys are a bit older and stronger than mine. When I think of three rings is because mine just turned 6 and he is an slightly below the average height for his age. He currently rides a singlspeed with a 1,3 gear ratio. It is abit hard for real mountain biking, always according to his level. He dares to ride (more or less) steep and long climbs. So, 1x7 combos provide a maximum ratio of 1, maybe too close to the current one. That's why I like the aforementioned KTM that features a 3x7 that can reach a 0,85 ratio.
Any concerns about fork or not to fork?
Regards.

C.P.

Ya know, the fork thing can go either way really. For the most part, these bikes are heavy, whether you go suspension or rigid. Its a fact. Will the fork work? Sure (not as good as forks on high end mtb's), but it really depends on a number of things, trail type, riding style, etc. Personally, I have been successful convincing my kids to try riding rigid, and soften the tires a bit if they complain...but, if it makes his day, get him the fork...

sunflowerflyer

Our daughter at that age had a 7 speed and 1 front ring. Although she handled the gears fine, I'm glad she did not have to worry about the front rings, and chainline management.

In fact, at 10 Y.O. she now has a double or triple front, and have thought about changing it to a single.

We don't have huge hills in our area, so 7 proved plenty. If you have huge hills, a couple rings might have helped. Also, your son may handle it better than my daughter... lol.

atbman

1 front ring +1.

Have been coaching our kids club for 10 years and I've only seen a couple of kids U8 "get" gears (out of several hundred). As for forks, most of them are too heavy and coil sprung without any damping, so they get the "pogo" effect. Also, many of them hardly move, 'cos the kids are too light.

I'd go with rigid forks because they limit the speed they can do over technical surfaces, esp. downhill. The problems with sus forks are:
a) pogoing can be dangerous on faster downhill sections
b) because they are marginally more forgiving of rough ground, the kid can go faster, so when he crashes - and he will - he does it at a higher speed and gets hurt more.

So I'd go with a rigid, because it will develop his bike handling skills to a greater extent and when you can finally get him a decent front sus bike, his skill levels will enable him to make full use of it in safety (always relative with youngsters, by the way).

If you can get a geared 20", get a wide range 7-speed block. One problem you can have on a smaller bike is that the shortness of the bike creates wider angles from the chainwheel to the rear block. we've had fairly frequent problems with chain throwing on small bikes because of this.

Good luck

atbman

Since I don't have to provide the money, can I suggest you look at https://www.islabikes.co.uk/why_islabikes.html# and click on to the Beinn 20" range.

In fact take a good look at the Islabikes site, particularly Isla's reasons for designing and specc'ing the bikes as she does..

I'm biased, since many of our kids have been lucky enough to get them - and their resale prices are v high, but, IMHO, they're the best value kids bikes there are.

StephenH

My experience with kids that age is that they have a hard time figuring out that the easy-to-pedal-gear is not the go-fast gear. If they want to go fast, shouldn't they be pedalling furiously, instead of in that hard-to-turn-the-pedals gear?

masiman

It takes awhile to figure out the power curves of your body (rpm, power, endurance) and adjust accordingly. Just try to get your kids to comprehend and train toward this article,

cristobal41

Hi, I tarted this thread years ago. I finally bought a FMF BMX bike for my son. Very light but a mistake for real mtb. I swapped to a KTM Wildthing 20" with triple front ring and this is the way. Once you go to the real mountains with your son/dau, he/she is to face some steep hills. Triple ring is the solution. It helps him/her to go anywhere. I also swapped the rear cog from a 11-28 to a 14-32. Much better.
Now he rides for 40 kilometers and three hours with no problem.
Singlespeed and bikes with no front rings are for flat terrain, park rides and so on. But if you want that your son rides in real mtb conditions, meaning adapted to his/her output, three rings.
Do not make the same mistake than me.
Regards.