# 24" Kids Bike: 8,4 Kilos/ 18,5 lbs



## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

Ok guys - some seem to have lost what it's all about in a forum like weight-weenies: it's the passion for a light bike.

So here we go - i built my 8 1/2 year old son a nice 24" Scott hardtail.

I got a sweet little Scott Team issue by a friend of mine. His 2 boys already spent the last couple of years on it (they now race "big" bikes in the swiss championships) so it had already seen it's best days before...i swapped out all parts except for the frame and wheels.

It's a Scott Team Issue scandium frame: 1300g
I made the seattube bigger from the stock 26,8 to a more common 27,2 size so i was able to put a lightweight seatpost that was left over from my very first roadbike (FRM). There is no light posts in 26,8 so the 27,2 size was a big help here to shave some grams. Since my son is pretty short i first had the seatpost all the way in to allow his toes to touch the ground when seated. Coming off of his 20" bike he just barely made it at first. Therefore i also mounted a low height SLR. All regular Kids saddles are about 20mm taller which at first wouldn't allow my son to touch the ground...he felt uncomfortable. I also mounted the shortest stem with the most rise i could find, a low rizer handlebar turned slightly backwards which brings the cockpit a bit closer too...after all these mods he felt comfortable on the "big" bike. After he got accustomed i was able to raise the seatpost quite a bit so now he has the saddle where it belongs but has to get on the top-tube if he want's to stand. Therefore i put him a BMX pad on the top-tube...

I then realized that the stock 24" fork just plain $ucked. It was heavy and would barely move under my sons 26 kilos (57 lbs). So i was out to make a 26" fork fit the small bike. i needed to shorten the travel to just under 2" stroke so it would have the same lenght than the 24" fork. I also needed an adapter to lower the cantistuds some as the small wheels ask for a much lower position of the brakes. I tuned a Mavic adapter which usually gets used to convert 26" bikes to 700c wheels. As you can see i had to modify it quite bit to make it fit. I had an older Manitou Mach 5 MRD in my basement and many, many parts to tune it to my likings so this is what i mounted right now. It might get replaced by a sweet SID WC soon since i also have one left in one of my boxes collecting dust...but so far he is super pleased with the Manitou. Not only is it 250g lighter but for sure 10x better than the previous fork.

The cranks are some re-worked Truvativ 175mm. I had asked a couple of weeks ago in this forum if anyone had an idea and it turned out that the link i got here to the guy shortening some cranks was the perfect tip!! There are no good cranks for kids, you'll find ultra-heavy cranks and those would ask for ultra-wide BBaxles which make for a wide Q-factor....not really what you need for small kids! I only use 2 chainrings as the gearing suits my son perfectly. They still don't have the leg power to go any faster on top and he already goes pretty fast with the 32/11...i mounted him a 11-34 titanium cassette so he doesn't have to shift a lot in the front and it allows him to stay basically in the granny ring for a long time while the "big" 32 also allows him to do some climbing. So far i am 100% satisfied with the gearing. When he grows we can still put on a big chainring on the outer position which by now is empty.

Tires and inner tubes as always are very important and i was able to find these sweet Schwalbe Mow Joe BMX tires.They are not only light but also offer great traction and roll fast. Paired to some custom 24" tubes we got from his godfather (the main man at Eclipse) this makes for the lightest and fastest possible setup at the moment.

You'll note STI shifters on the right while he has SRAM Attacks on the left. It just happens he likes the STIs for the rear but hadn't enough force to use the STIs on the front chainrings. he wasn't able to pull the trigger until it clicked. So i had to install some Grip-shifters at least for the front derailleur. As mentioned i had to bring the handlebar quite a bit backwards to allow him a good position on the bike. Therefore i bought a shorty stem and off the german WW-forum i was able to get a used Easton Monkeylite that i cut to 520mm width and that i mounted slightly rearwards so the grips come backwards. The FRM-brakelevers got tuned with much longer reach adjustement bolts that allow the lever blades to be set-up pretty close to the grips which is needed for the small hands of the kids.

The rest of the components is a mix-and-match of parts i had in my basement. Interesting though that he likes the SLR much better than other Kids saddles i tried to mount now that the seatpost would allow it...so back is the SLR

Frame: Scott 24" 1300g
Fork: Manitou Mach 5 MRD incl. Mavic Adapter to relocate the V's: 1432g
Headset: Amclassic 80g
Stem: No-name 50mm 120g
Handlebar: Easton Monkeylite SL 52cm 118g
Brakelevers: FRM DP-3 115g
Shiftlevers: XT STI rear and SRAM Attack front ca. 200g
Brakes: KCNC front/Vuelta Magnesium rear ca. 200g
Grips: Foam ca. 20g
Crankset: Truvativ shortened to 153mm with 32/24 chainrings ?
BB: Token Titanium square 103mm 150g
Pedals: Ritchey Ti ca. 300g
Front Derailleur: Dura Ace incl. adapter clamp 31,8 ca. 90g
Rear Deraileur: old XTR 207g
Cassette: Titanium 11-34: 188g
Chain: KMC X10SL ca. 225g
Seatpost: FRM carbon 27,2/250 ca. 140g
Saddle: SLR XP ca. 165g
Seatclamp: Token 31,8 8g
Kabel: Alligator I-Link ca. 70g
Wheelset: Scott 24" original ?
Rimtape: Ritchey WCS 10g
Innertubes: Eclipse 24" Prototypes 48g each !!
Tires: Schwalbe Mow Joe foldable ca. 410g
QRs: FRM Titanium ca. 80g
Cables: Alligator I-Links ca. 60g

Actual total on the hanging scale (as pictured): 8,4 Kilo / 18,5 lbs

He now does all on his own. No more pushing up the hills like i had to do before. We can go biking for real now, we ride real trails and i am amazed to see him having fun doing so.
The difference the bigger wheels made is amazing. He had a sweet 20" before but this 24" really allows him to do so much more than i ever thought.

Just about a month ago when i was in Italy for my biking holidays i had a stock 09 Scott 24" bike in my hands and it was at least 11-12 kilos! The difference is HUGE to say the least.
http://scottusa.com/de_de/product/24...18/scale_jr_24

Now he hasn't the smallest bike anymore in his MTB-club. Those kids are amazing-they learn tricks that open some eyes of us adults.


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## Gezzza (Jun 13, 2006)

Thats one pimp kids bike!!!


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## eliflap (Dec 13, 2007)

grrrrrrrrrrrrr and my daughter at 7 years old still have to learn to ride....

not interested at all ... grrrrrrrrrrrr


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## nikoli8 (Mar 23, 2008)

*Future entertainment*

Eliflap and Nino-- the weight weenie gods building lite weight rides for their kids...
wow---- that competition would be interesting......

I could imagine 5 kg rides with custom one off parts....and custom paint....

All jokes aside Nino's kids bike is lighter than mine........ ouch... :madman:


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## liam2051 (Apr 19, 2008)

Interesting combo of the shift lever and the twisty, i would imagine for this age group it works well


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

nikoli8 said:


> I could imagine 5 kg rides with custom one off parts....and custom paint....


No- i wouldn't invest un uber-bling. I don't do that for my own bikes and wouldn't do so for my son. I just happen to have a lot of nice parts "left-overs" from my own builds and assembled them but i don't spend stupid amounts in some crazy stuff (Schmolke,AX-Lightness etcetc).

The only parts i had to buy were:
Cranks:100$
stem: 20$
handlebar: 25$
Mavic adapter: 40$
tires: 50$

All the rest was already on hand.


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## moto367 (Nov 20, 2006)

*Nice!!*

Very nice indeed! I'm facing a similar situation for my 9 yr old son who is growing waaay too fast. He is already "almost" too big for his 24". I'm thinking of options for his next bike and your post has helped with some ideas. Thanks!! How did your son adapt to the clipless pedals?


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## DeeEight (Jan 13, 2004)

Heh, makes me want to take one of the Miele BB243's at the store and weight-weenie the thing. We've sold quite a few of them to parents wanting lighter kid's bikes (in canada, the market selection is pretty limited... most 24" wheel kids bikes have heavy CrMo or even pretty bulky Al frames).


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## Cheers! (Jun 26, 2006)

Nino: Isn't the front derailleur a little too high? Isn't it suppose to be 1-2mm clearance between the big ring and the outer cage in height? Or basically a penny's thickness clearance?


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## DeeEight (Jan 13, 2004)

When going double rings, you don't have to set it lower, in fact it shifts better if left in its original spot (anyone who's gone inner-middle with a bash guard knows this). If you set it too low it won't shift reliably to the middle position. Personally I'd run a thin guide ring in the outside position. It won't really work as a bash guard but will keep the kid from catching his leg on the teeth in a crash.


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## Cheers! (Jun 26, 2006)

DeeEight said:


> When going double rings, you don't have to set it lower, in fact it shifts better if left in its original spot (anyone who's gone inner-middle with a bash guard knows this). If you set it too low it won't shift reliably to the middle position. Personally I'd run a thin guide ring in the outside position. It won't really work as a bash guard but will keep the kid from catching his leg on the teeth in a crash.


This is only true if you drop the biggest ring? For applications where you drop the granny ring you follow the 1-2mm rule right?


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

*good point...*



DeeEight said:


> When going double rings, you don't have to set it lower, in fact it shifts better if left in its original spot (anyone who's gone inner-middle with a bash guard knows this). If you set it too low it won't shift reliably to the middle position. Personally I'd run a thin guide ring in the outside position. It won't really work as a bash guard but will keep the kid from catching his leg on the teeth in a crash.


I was actually looking for such a lightweight "ring" just as you mentioned to avoid him catching the teeth.

@Cheers:
I have to have it a little higher otherwise it would touch the chainstays on the rear. But it shifts perfectly and as mentioned by D8 already you also have it in this high or even higher position if you would have 3 rings...anyway - it works great.

@Moto367:
The guys at his club asked me to put clip-ins as soon as possible so they adapt and learn to ride with them.My son was really happy to get them as his dad and all the other kids had some too...so i put him my old Ritchey Ti and looked around for the oldest, most used cleats as i was told those work best for beginners. I then had to find some small shoes as my sond has still only 33 Euro size. Italian DMT has the smallest bike shoes so that was about the most expensive investment i had to do. I bought 1 size larger so he can at least wear them a litrtle longer before i have to get the next bigger size He had problems to get it an first even when i set all the spring adjustements on the pedals to the softest settings. But now he has already adapted.He still falls occasionally as unclipping also needs quite some force for him. But as mentioned those kids learn tricks it's really amazing. You know, i call that "Hans Rey-riding" as they would learn to stand still, jumping.clearing obstacles by jumping (going up stairs for example), the bigger ones do tricks like standing on the rear wheel and hopping around on it or the same on the front wheel...real cool.

Here's some impressions of his clubs training:


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## bikeny (Feb 26, 2004)

moto367 said:


> Very nice indeed! I'm facing a similar situation for my 9 yr old son who is growing waaay too fast. He is already "almost" too big for his 24". I'm thinking of options for his next bike and your post has helped with some ideas. Thanks!! How did your son adapt to the clipless pedals?


I built up a similar 26" wheeled bike for my 10 year old over the winter. It is not as light as Nino's, but not bad. The hardest part was finding a suitable frame. I ended up buying an Ibex for I think $199.00. It weighs just over 3 pounds, so not super light, but not bad. For wheels I used a set of Rolf Propels that I had lying around after I moved to discs. Brakes were also leftover XTR V-brakes. Derailleurs were also from the parts bin, XTR rear and XT front. 11-32 8 speed XTR cassette, also from the parts bin. For cranks I went to E-bay and found some used XTR M 950 cranks. I have 165 on there right now, and also have a pair of 167.5. I mounted a 20t granny, a 32t middle, and a Spot ring guard. I did buy new SRAM 8 speed grip shifters for like $30.00. Bar is a leftover Ritchey WCS. Hutchinson Python air light tires also leftover. Oh yeah and I bought a used Skareb fork in the classifieds. Total weight is about 21 pounds.

I'm sure I could loose weight in a few places, but the price was just not worth it for me. It is probably 10 pounds lighter than the 24" wheeled bike he was riding before anyway! I will try to get a couple of pictures and post them.

Mark


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## DeeEight (Jan 13, 2004)

Shimano SH-56 M-cleats would be best... the multi-release options mean the kid can bail out with a upward twist in either direction, not just a flat heel out twist motion. But frogs or bebops would be better still as there's very little spring force involved in their cleats to resist twisting out.


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

DeeEight said:


> Shimano SH-56 M-cleats would be best... the multi-release options mean the kid can bail out with a upward twist in either direction, not just a flat heel out twist motion. But frogs or bebops would be better still as there's very little spring force involved in their cleats to resist twisting out.


Thanks for the hint! It's too long ago i used SPDs so i didn't even remember hat there were those 2 different cleats available. I will try to get my hands on some and hopefully they work smoother than the ones he uses now (oldest ones of myself i could find). He still has to fiddle around occasionally to click in and it still happens he can't unclip when he has fallen...


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## sanrensho (Feb 20, 2004)

nino said:


> The cranks are some re-worked Truvativ 175mm. I had asked a couple of weeks ago in this forum if anyone had an idea and it turned out that the link i got here to the guy shortening some cranks was the perfect tip!! There are no good cranks for kids, you'll find ultra-heavy cranks and those would ask for ultra-wide BBaxles which make for a wide Q-factor....not really what you need for small kids! I only use 2 chainrings as the gearing suits my son perfectly. They still don't have the leg power to go any faster on top and he already goes pretty fast with the 32/11...


Very cool build. I recently had to deal with many of these issues building up a budget weenie 12.5" bike (26" wheels) for my 10-year old daughter.

I agree completely about not needing a large chainring. They don't need that top end speed and quite frankly, I would be scared to watch my kid crank out a 44x11 on a steep downhill. Furthermore, my daughter isn't able to use a left trigger shifter at her age.

I have a quick question about the cranks. Did you get them re-drilled locally or from the guy in the US?


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

sanrensho said:


> Very cool build. I recently had to deal with many of these issues building up a budget weenie 12.5" bike (26" wheels) for my 10-year old daughter.
> 
> I agree completely about not needing a large chainring. They don't need that top end speed and quite frankly, I would be scared to watch my kid crank out a 44x11 on a steep downhill. Furthermore, my daughter isn't able to use a left trigger shifter at her age.
> 
> I have a quick question about the cranks. Did you get them re-drilled locally or from the guy in the US?


From the US - I got the link by f3rg here in this forum a while ago:
http://bikesmithdesign.com/Short_Cranks/index.html

That guy is cool - i mailed fore and aft and the cranks arrived within a week from overseas.


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## Bikemonkeys (Dec 3, 2005)

For kids shoes Fly, 661 and Answer both make clip shoes for little kids. There are 5 year olds clipping in at the BMX tracks.

Both my kids would love a bike like that. Their mountain bikes are crap Treks, and they seemed the best we found. I guess they don't see a market in Kids bikes, not while dads are spending big bucks on BMX bikes.


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

Bikemonkeys said:


> For kids shoes Fly, 661 and Answer both make clip shoes for little kids. There are 5 year olds clipping in at the BMX tracks.
> 
> Both my kids would love a bike like that. Their mountain bikes are crap Treks, and they seemed the best we found. I guess they don't see a market in Kids bikes, not while dads are spending big bucks on BMX bikes.


Then there's dads that spend in both: BMX and MTB alike

That little GT also got lighter. But now he has already grown out of that "Micro" and BMX at the moment seems not so cool anymore.He now likes MTB better...

Maybe it's because he alraeady got good results in some races we did...i don't know. But i do know that going for a real ride with him is more fun than standing on the side of a BMX track


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## moto367 (Nov 20, 2006)

Priceless picks! Kids sure add to the fun of it don't they!:thumbsup:


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

moto367 said:


> Priceless picks! Kids sure add to the fun of it don't they!:thumbsup:


well - Kids do take away a LOT of your precious freetime where you would go cycling....but now getting older they add to the fun (while still taking away a lot of time). But looking at the older kids of some of my friends i see they transform the joy of biking into their own lives and some are already going faster than their dads:skep: . You know- seeing those kids grow and getting up to speed is cool...now they go faster and you have the tongue around your front chainrings while trying to keep their rear wheel. Time passes bye...oh well. At least they do also good in the swiss championships so you kind of have an excuse that you have a hard time:thumbsup:

No honestly - about 1 month ago i was asked by one of those kids if i would come with him doing a nice ride on the road. He wanted to do a longer pass and just needed an adult to come along. Ok - i went and then there was also Frischis (Thomas Frischknecht) son Andri, also just 15 or 16 years old. We headed for that pass and on the flats those kids weren't all that impressive...so i was pretty relaxed. Once the climb started they would accelerate like mad-men and i really had my heartrate going...and worst of all Frischis son was always talking:madman: I'm by no means slow, i would say i am in a pretty good shape and the time we did up that climb was also pretty fast....we blew by other cyclistst like they were standing still...so i was really,really impressed by the uphill-speed of those kids. Well - maybe it's the weight-advantage as they might weigh only about 45-50 kilos. Anyway - i guess by next year they need a different "babysitter" or i would need a lot more miles still.

To save my honour i simply smoked them in the downhill of that pass  ....but this might change once they get more accustomed to ride their roadbikes.


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## Megs (Jun 17, 2009)

Nino, cool build. I want to shave down my 8 year old's 24" wheeled bike and you've given me some good ideas. :thumbsup: 

Can you please explain exactly how you modified the travel of the 26" wheeled fork so that it had only about 50mm travel? It seems like a good idea so as not to alter the geometry of the bike. I have access to an old 80mm travel SID but I am scared to take it apart until I know what to do with it because I don't want to wreck it. And it would be good if I can then convert it back for use on a bigger bike in the future.
Thanks


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

Megs said:


> Nino, cool build. I want to shave down my 8 year old's 24" wheeled bike and you've given me some good ideas. :thumbsup:
> 
> Can you please explain exactly how you modified the travel of the 26" wheeled fork so that it had only about 50mm travel? It seems like a good idea so as not to alter the geometry of the bike. I have access to an old 80mm travel SID but I am scared to take it apart until I know what to do with it because I don't want to wreck it. And it would be good if I can then convert it back for use on a bigger bike in the future.
> Thanks


SID's can be changed to 63mm travel using a spacer that usually comes with the fork. all you have to do is put that spacer inside on the forks internals so that it doesn't extend all the way but rather stop- instead of just 1 spacer you can add 2 or maybe 1-1/2...just the amount you need. You have that bumber which dampens the fork when it extends to it's fullest. the spacer mounts BEHIND that elastomer. this just reduces the travel. I think you should be able to find the exact description on how it's done in the SIDs manual somewhere. As mentioned the SID has the option to change the amount of travel so you basically change it just a little bit more.

I did the same with the Manitou where i still have a whole box with spacers, elastomers and springs to play around...

My son did a race lately but he suffered badly from allergic asthma that day. Also having to start from way back at the start didn't help but he still managed to get 11th place coming from about 45th. He definitely wasn't able to go any faster that day but he still had a lot of fun...and that's what counts.


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## Megs (Jun 17, 2009)

Thanks for that, Nino.
Looks like a cool racing scene for kids in your part of the world. Here in Australia, its pretty rare for kids to race xc mtb - my three daughters are sometimes the only kids at our local club races and have to race the women (there's usually not too many of those either!). Way harder to find cheap parts here too. My 8 year olds Giant MTX 250 weighs 13.6kg (2.5kg more than my dually, which doesn't seem fair) so I want to make it lighter without spending too much money. The Schwalbe Mow Joes will take 750g off on their own from the heavy tyres it has on it now, so that's easy. And a light bar and stem will take off a bit more pretty cheaply. Lighter pedals (she has the heaviest shimano clip ins now) will help too and the fork alone could easily lose 800g. That should get it down to 11.6kg, which is just acceptable. Heavy frame and heavy wheels but I don't know where to get lighter ones without spending way more than is worth it.

Was it easy to fit the Mavic adapter to get the brake mounts in the right place. It looks like you have just drilled an extra hole in it?


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

Megs said:


> Thanks for that, Nino.
> Looks like a cool racing scene for kids in your part of the world. Here in Australia, its pretty rare for kids to race xc mtb - my three daughters are sometimes the only kids at our local club races and have to race the women (there's usually not too many of those either!). Way harder to find cheap parts here too. My 8 year olds Giant MTX 250 weighs 13.6kg (2.5kg more than my dually, which doesn't seem fair) so I want to make it lighter without spending too much money. The Schwalbe Mow Joes will take 750g off on their own from the heavy tyres it has on it now, so that's easy. And a light bar and stem will take off a bit more pretty cheaply. Lighter pedals (she has the heaviest shimano clip ins now) will help too and the fork alone could easily lose 800g. That should get it down to 11.6kg, which is just acceptable. Heavy frame and heavy wheels but I don't know where to get lighter ones without spending way more than is worth it.
> 
> Was it easy to fit the Mavic adapter to get the brake mounts in the right place. It looks like you have just drilled an extra hole in it?


Yes - as you noticed all you need to do is to make a set of holes in the right place to have the cantistuds in the right place. I further shaved the inside radius of the adapter to make for more tire clearance if things get wet.

The race was not only for kids. Over here the kids take place at the same races also the big boys race. This partucular race was actually a race of the EKZ-cup, about the second biggest series here in Switzerland next to the Racer-cup (former Swisspower cup). The youngsters race on the same course, the same day. The "mini"-classes logically do a much shorter loops without too many climbs but they race the same day on the same location than the top-shots. Not too seldom you also see pros like Frischi and others do some "warm-up" at these races as well. So our kids actually grow into it naturally.


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## xc71 (Dec 24, 2008)

Nino did you ever weigh the Truvitiv 153mm cranks.Just ordered a set of Middleburn 160mm cranks for my sons Spark RC JR.Very nice & light cranks,the new Sparks now come stock with 170mm cranks, way to long for kids.


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## raceer2 (Jul 21, 2007)

cool bike nino, i WANT to be an 8yr old now


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

xc71 said:


> Nino did you ever weigh the Truvitiv 153mm cranks.Just ordered a set of Middleburn 160mm cranks for my sons Spark RC JR.Very nice & light cranks,the new Sparks now come stock with 170mm cranks, way to long for kids.


I did but i don't remember their weight...i might have to take them off again so i can also complete the spreadsheet above.

Anyway - as mentioned in that other 20" childrens bike thread even on the "big" 24" bike my son is happy using almost all the time the granny ring up front. With the 11-34 cassette this gives him enough top-speed already.Only on paved downhills he has to shift to the bigger chainring. But most of the time he doesn't shift at all on the front.

The bike is holding up great.No complaints so far. Although i can already tell there is some drag in the Manitou fork. I remember those seals were pretty bad and didn't like any water. Might be time for a cleaning and re-greasing of the internals already but other than that the bike is doing perfect. Lifting the other kids bikes in his riding group makes me shake my head.Those kids all have really good bikes.None comes with a "Huffy" or alike...but still they are just too heavy. Their dads have nice bikes that cost a fortune but their kids have to ride heavy tanks:nono:


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## CaseyS (May 8, 2008)

> I was actually looking for such a lightweight "ring" just as you mentioned to avoid him catching the teeth.


Nino, a BBG superlight "bashguard" 32, 104 BCD weighs only 28g. I have a 36,110 on my son's 20" bike as an outer chainguide and it works well if you don't plan on bashing stuff with it.

http://www.bbgbashguard.com/superlights.html


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## CaseyS (May 8, 2008)

*Other crank options*

Here is another crank option. FMF I think is now out of business but I have seen these cranks in both square and isis from 140mm to 175 mm in 5mm steps around on the net.

FMF cranks

It is setup for a single 110 ring, but you can use one of these

IRD tripleizer

and get any xx/36 combo you want.

I run the 145mm with an FMF 36t on my son's 20"


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

CaseyS said:


> Here is another crank option. FMF I think is now out of business but I have seen these cranks in both square and isis from 140mm to 175 mm in 5mm steps around on the net.
> 
> FMF cranks
> 
> ...


cool-that's some nice cranks for cheap!

36t at the moment would be way too big but that IRD triple-converter is a smart idea.


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

*Update 2010*

Ok-here's a short update on that bike:

Just about 2 months ago i had to inflate the tires when the front rims would collapse! As mentioned at the beginning the bike once belonged to a friend of mine and his two boys both spent several years on it so the rims were pretty much worn from the use and so the sidewalls simply exploded. I though i just order some new rims but oh-boy what a desaster to locate those rims!!

Those are some sweet and light Alex rims that you can find only on these higher-end kids racebikes. I could find them only on those Scott and Merida high-end kids bikes. No aftermarket sales at all. So i went looking around for these rims but Scott wasn't able to supply them in the needed 16/24 bore. Neither Merida. All they had was with a different spoke count so i was forced to buy new hubs along with spokes and rims and i had to build new wheels from ground up....

Now just the other week we went riding and after our ride i cleaned our bikes and discovered that his frame was broken right behind the steertube. I'd say we had luck that it didn't break in half while riding. Okok-now i went shopping for a replacement frame and first thought about the smallest 26" scale frameset but my son is just too small to do the switch already. Top tubes even of the XS sizes would still be too long. So i was lucky that Tilo from Tilosshop.com could locate me such a frame. I just finished the "new" bike. As with the old frameset i used a reamer tool to get that weird 26,8 seatpost diameter to 27,2 so a ultralight Token carbon seatpost would fit. During assembly i also put my sweet Extralite Ultrabrakes which i had collecting dust in a box since i converted to discs early that year... i told my son that these brakes alone cost more than his friends complete bikes...

Anyway - he likes the new colour scheme and is all happy about his new ride. So we now have 3 Scales in our stable and all bikes are pretty black coulour as well.

The next upgrade will be some longer cranks. I will try my wifes old LX crankset which also is just 165mm long.I just discovered that these 24-bikes get sold with 165 cranks so i will give them a try.My son is still on those custom 153mm cranks now.


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## TigWorld (Feb 8, 2010)

Great bike. Can you give us a complete run down on the wheel build? I've found it impossible to find any light 24" rims. Even finding quality short spokes has been a real pain.

I've got my daughters FS 24" bike down to 10.5kg but I need to build a new rear wheel with a standard freehub to lose the absurdly heavy 7 speed screw on cluster.


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## markw1970 (Oct 8, 2007)

What a super thread! Well down Nino, fabulous work : )


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

TigWorld said:


> Great bike. Can you give us a complete run down on the wheel build? I've found it impossible to find any light 24" rims. Even finding quality short spokes has been a real pain.
> 
> I've got my daughters FS 24" bike down to 10.5kg but I need to build a new rear wheel with a standard freehub to lose the absurdly heavy 7 speed screw on cluster.


As mentioned you can't find these sweet Alex ACE-20 rims in the aftermarket. They sell them as replacement parts only and also with just those given spokecounts.My son just left for a ride with his bike so i can't count but i think they are 20 front /24 rear or similar. Anyway - just try to get all the parts from your local Scott dealer.The parts are for the 24" RC Scale. There is also a cheaper and heavier 24" bike so take care when ordering the parts.They should be able to get hubs (some rather heavy Ritchey hubs), spokes and rims which all go together. I didn't want to invest in ultra fancy hubs since the wheelset is already light enough. I will get him lighter parts when he jumps on a 26" bike but for now this is perfect.

Here's the link to the actual pricution version of this bike:
http://www.scott-sports.com/us_en/product/9137/44907/scale_rc_jr

Just lifting it tells you they have built it using some cheap parts.It weighs around 11 kilos if i remember right.


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## DeeEight (Jan 13, 2004)

26.8 is not weird in the slightest for seatpost sizes. There's been more frames produced for that size than 27.2.


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

DeeEight said:


> 26.8 is not weird in the slightest for seatpost sizes. There's been more frames produced for that size than 27.2.


So please tell me a light seatpost in 26,8 !
The one i have mounted now was 116g in full 320mm lenght...now at about 250mm lenght i think it is less than 90g. Fell free to suggest a 26,8 that can compare-thanks


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## nino (Jan 13, 2004)

double post


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## parkrider (Mar 7, 2008)

nino said:


> So please tell me a light seatpost in 26,8 !
> The one i have mounted now was 116g in full 320mm lenght...now at about 250mm lenght i think it is less than 90g. Fell free to suggest a 26,8 that can compare-thanks


They don't exist. I have a Kinesis Maxlight with 26.8 and have had serious troubles finding a light post. Eventually I got hold of a USE Alien post in 26.8 that came to around 170g's if I remember correctly, but I recently broke the clamp mechanism so I'm switching to a 27.2post and reaming out the tube like you've done Nino.
Any tips on the frame surgery?


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## paddler28 (Apr 4, 2010)

Nino, did the new frame and wheels change the weight at all? I am still a 700g heavier on the new frame but I guess it is just all those little bits of weight all over. thanks


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## Jake Pay (Dec 27, 2006)

paddler28 said:


> Nino, did the new frame and wheels change the weight at all? I am still a 700g heavier on the new frame but I guess it is just all those little bits of weight all over. thanks


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## DeeEight (Jan 13, 2004)

just 53 more posts jake...


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## erkan (Jan 18, 2004)

;-s


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