Hi, our little one is going to be 9 years old in August and is due for a new bike. So far he has ridden exclusively woom bikes. He currently rides a woom 4 original (20") which is far too small by now. He is 56in (142cm) tall and has an inseam of 26in (66cm). He is very comfortable on a bike.
Our initial idea was to go to a 24", but based how much he has grown and how long he has ridden his current bike, the idea is to move up to 26" and skip the 24". I would like to do this to also make sure he has not outgrown his new bike by next year already. He mostly uses his bike to ride to school or visit his friends in the neighborhood. We sometimes go on trail rides together, but that is probably it. No "real" mountain biking.
We liked the lightweight about the woom bikes. This is also what made us buy the bikes in the first place. I think the quality is solid, but not great. He would like to have a mountain bike next. I read that at this size / weight, especially if you do not go nuts, suspension is a waste of money. At the price I am looking at (see below), the components are probably not great and only add weight.
Based on our history with woom, I naturally looked there first. The woom off 6 looks like a solid choice. The current price is ~ $850 which is also our budget.
So two questions:
- Is moving to 26" the right decision?
- Which other bikes / brands can you recommend for our needs that provide good quality for the budget?
Thanks in advance!
by thimplicity
2 Comments
I work at a bike shop, I would consider not going to a 26 because of the shortage of parts. A lot of people are moving to bigger wheel sizes. I would consider a 27.5 in a smaller size for an adult bike, Specialized’s Rockhopper Sport 27.5. For a 24″ I highly recommend the brand Specialized, for the 24 I would go with the Riprock or Jett. Both are good choices, I always recommend the Riprock because of the great prices for good prices.
What’s your budget? If buying new, then it sounds like an XS adult bike would do him well. They’re usually outfitted with 26″ wheels, but sometimes 27.5. Alternatively, you can snipe a cheap first generation Specialized RipRock 24+ and put 26″ wheels on that (not the most recent version). Other kids 24+ bikes will also fit 26″ wheels like the Trek Roscoe 24, Giant STP 24, and Cannondale Cujo 24+. However, the Specialized is very easy to find used, so it’s the first recommendation if going used. I’ve seen 27.5 wheels with 2.2″ wide tires fit the RipRock frame (minor grinding of the kickstand mount might be needed).
My 10yo daughter is about your son’s height, probably with a slightly shorter inseam. The RipRock fits her well at the lowest seat height and 24×2.8 tires. It’s a boat anchor stock, but it’s cheap enough (used) and reliable, so she can ride it stock to and from school without worry. It works well and she loves it for school rides. If I wanted to spec it for trails I’d drop weight with a nice Markhour fork, lighter tires, better drivetrain (including BB and cranks). However, she has that with her Cannondale Cujo 24+ that she loves.
Between the two the Cujo is her favorite bike, and she prefers that as her trail rig (Deore drivetrain, brakes, Marhour fork, tubeless 2.6″ tires). I can see her riding either bike until she’s about 62″ tall if I pushed it, though. The beauty of all this is I can strip the RipRock frame down and build it up real nice for a few hundred bucks.
My knock on the RipRock is the spec – improperly sized cranks, cheap cable disc brakes, a cheap and heavy suntour fork (that I might swap for a cheap rigid down the road), and Shimano Tourney 8 speed shifting. For local rides to and from school it’s not an issue as it’s still miles better than box-store bikes, but if it were to be used for trails it would need to be outfitted with a better fork (the 26″ Manitou Markhour is super cheap and light and works really well for kids) Deore drivetrain and better levers for the cable discs (or swapped to hydraulics entirely). I can mess with the geo via anglesets and stem lengths easily enough, and I can also mullet the thing w/o much penalty.
Most RipRocks go for about $250-300 on the used market, and the ones for less get snatched up real quick because the frame is so easily built up. Roscoe, STP, and Cujo 24 bikes typically list for more and are hard to come across. You can read up more on building up kids 24 frames here:
[https://www.mtbr.com/threads/lightened-up-riprock-24.1080557/](https://www.mtbr.com/threads/lightened-up-riprock-24.1080557/)
[https://www.mtbr.com/threads/2020-cannondale-cujo-24.1154867/](https://www.mtbr.com/threads/2020-cannondale-cujo-24.1154867/)
If you’re going new, then you have a world of kids 24 and 26 bikes available between Trailcraft, Prevelo, Spawn, Specialized, Trek, Giant, etc.