# Yama-jama 20



## LosAngeles (Aug 21, 2011)

https://spawncycles.com/yama-jama-20

I just ordered the above bike. After having such a great experience with the 14 furi it was the next logical step.


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## DickyT (Mar 30, 2017)

That's a heck of a bike! I drooled over that a bit when I was shopping bikes for my son, but he just lost the training wheels on his 12" bike 3 weekends ago and is showing no signs of prodigal riding ability, so I capped my budget at 1/2 of that.

Very nice machine there, may you and your kid enjoy the trails!


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## RMCDan (Feb 28, 2008)

Wow, that's a massive improvement over the Savage 2 for an extra $100. Seems kinda of crazy that they can offer it at that price.


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## multiplex (Jul 5, 2016)

haven't seen much online about this bike - should be amazing. Really hoping they ship this week!


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## CeUnit (Jul 9, 2014)

RMCDan said:


> Wow, that's a massive improvement over the Savage 2 for an extra $100. Seems kinda of crazy that they can offer it at that price.


Totally agree.. The fork alone is *soooo nice* compared to the Spinner Grind on the Savage 2.0.


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## normarin (Feb 14, 2010)

Any long term reviews of the Yama Jama? For me its either this or the Flow kids bikes out of Truckee.. My daughter is 5, 19 inch inseam, 3'8" tall.. good fit?


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## RMCDan (Feb 28, 2008)

If you're American, get the Flow. If you're Canadian, get the Spawn 

My son has a Flow so I'm biased, and the owner John has been great to deal with. Seems like a great guy who is worth supporting. My son was the same height and inseam when we got his last year and it fit great.


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## Steve-XtC (Feb 7, 2016)

I guess ultimately its a question of guessing what your kid will want over the next year against money?

We had no idea at 5 ... but then we'd only just started riding and as it works out our riding has gone nowhere like I expected. 

If the kids are already riding and they are riding technical trails or starting DH and that is what the love this looks fantastic but we wouldn't have been in that position t the time we bought his 20er. Jnr's riding decisions seem to have been driven by a set of semi-random events ... most of which I doubt I would predict and would even go the same a second time around...

Knowing everything I know now ... and presuming we did exactly the same again this would be the perfect bike but Murphy's law being what it is I'd probably have bought that and be looking for a kids indoor velodrome bike today  

Jnr's current cycling seems largely influenced by events such as meeting another parent/kid and them saying "Oh there's a XC race next weekend - why don't you take part" and before that seeing a load of club riders out on our local trails ... and more lately "There's a kids Enduro race this weekend" that just overlapped with me having booked a trip to the very place. 

Looking back he could have just as easily got into something else like velodrome TT's from any one of those events. 

If you are lucky enough for money to be no object then that looks like a fine bike... but then less downhill capable of a money no object Lil Shredder but more versatile??? 

I know one of the kids we meet at a XC race series has a Lil Shredder Prodigy and that's a fantastic downhill 20er... very capable on trails but it's not a XC machine by a long way... so I wonder if buying 2 bikes less than 1/2 the price each wouldn't actually be better ???

That's where we ended up a couple of years on (aged 7) on a 24er anyway.
Jnr. enjoys his XC races and wants to do more DH and Enduro and trail wise when we go riding he is more into technical Red's into Black... he'll ride XC and blue for race training but he wouldn't choose to do it given the choice on any day... and when we ride to school he quickly learned his XC bike is a lot easier than his FS Enduro Bike 

So I guess the point I'm trying to make is this looks like a fantastic bike so long as that is what the kid ends up wanting to do but the niche where this bike excels is probably very narrow... 

If I just use racing just as an example... it's hard to see how a 20" hardtail would ever be a benefit over a rigid for XC (on a 20er) just because of the extra weight so even taking that to trail riding the positives and negatives might need to be carefully considered as a only bike. 

That's a bit longer than I thought it would be.... for what look like a fantastic bike


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## Bob3 (Jul 26, 2017)

normarin said:


> Any long term reviews of the Yama Jama? For me its either this or the Flow kids bikes out of Truckee.. My daughter is 5, 19 inch inseam, 3'8" tall.. good fit?


The Yama Jama 20" is an awesome bike, and a little cheaper than the Flow bikes we compared them to. My daughter is 5, 3'8" as well, and the bike fits her perfectly with room to grow. I am thinking she will be on it for another two years before she needs a 24" wheel.

These bikes cost a lot of money for a kids bike, unless the kid is really into trail riding. Ours started on her sister's hand me down Trek Mt60, but hit the ceiling on what the bike would allow her to do in about two months. In essence, she earned the Yama Jama with her enthusiasm and ability to mountain bike, and was a great investment for us because she has been riding a pedal bike without training wheels since she was two, and on trails at age 3 trying to keep up with big sis. In looking at what it would take to upgrade the Trek to what she needed to do real trails, the Spawn was about the same cost for the upgrades that I wanted to make her Trek a capable trail bike. We have had it for a month, and ridden singletrack almost everyday with her, and have now put in over 150 miles on it so far. If your kid is not really into biking, it is hard to justify the costs of these high end kids bikes, but if your kid is into it, The spawn was a game changer for us and allowed us to go out on real trails with a five year old.

The fork makes the yama jama 20". With the ability to fine tune and adjust the air pressure as well as the rebound, we have been able to set the fork to maximize the travel (rare for a kids fork), while allowing the front tire to track great through rough, root-filled and rocky terrain. The 15mm through axle up front keeps the wheel stiff and helps the bike to track well. It has allowed her to dramatically increase her overall speed and the amount of trail we can ride (about 15 miles of single track now). The carbon fiber dropouts make the bike much lighter and easier to handle than every other kids bike we tested. In essence, this fork is the real deal. We have had no issues running the tires tubeless yet, and the entire drive train is geared right so that the bike can actually climb. The bike is tough - our kids nickname is "crash", and she has had some good ones with the bike coming out unscathed thus far.

For us, we live in the midwest, so we are limited to mostly cross-country style trails for singletrack, but we have some good technical climbs. She used to walk most of them if we even tried them at all, but now she can clear so much that we never thought would be possible, and I don't think we have even come close to how good she could get with this bike as she keeps progressing almost daily. Instead of struggling to finish a climb, she is now singing and smiling at the top, and it really is because of the bike.

Overall summary, the yama jama was well worth the price, but only if your kid really bikes. The older sis didn't really show an interest in real trail riding until she was about 7, and this bike would have been overkill for her when she needed a 20" wheel.


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## normarin (Feb 14, 2010)

Thanks guys, 

Ya I wouldn't be looking into a bike this nice if my daughter wasn't into it, we are in Ashland, OR and she is riding a lot of the singletrack. Really getting the concept of berms, cornering, her balance has always been great. Hoping to run a shuttle with her this year from the top of Mt. A. once she gets her feet under her on her new ride. 

It was either this bike or the Flow, components seem great on this one, and it looks a touch bigger. Only consideration with Flow would be the interchangeable wheels, which could benefit my younger daughter who turns 4 next week. Gonna make a call here soon, thanks again for the suggestions!


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## tristero (May 11, 2010)

My son is 5 and on the Early Rider Trail Belter 16". A beautiful bike and he loves to ride and race it XC here in the midwest. I'm looking to put him into a 20" bike on the other side of winter, and leaning toward the yama jama, or early rider 20" w/fork. My kid is on the light side (5.4 years old, 34 lbs), so I want as light a bike as possible. How much does the Yama weigh? Cheers!


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## SactoGeoff (Aug 11, 2017)

tristero said:


> My son is 5 and on the Early Rider Trail Belter 16". A beautiful bike and he loves to ride and race it XC here in the midwest. I'm looking to put him into a 20" bike on the other side of winter, and leaning toward the yama jama, or early rider 20" w/fork. My kid is on the light side (5.4 years old, 34 lbs), so I want as light a bike as possible. How much does the Yama weigh? Cheers!


The 20" is right about 21lbs. - I pulled that from a comment on the Spawn FB page.


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## multiplex (Jul 5, 2016)

I weighed ours at 22.3 lbs. it was a little bit of an adjustment for my 5 yr old coming from a 16" spawn that weighed 15 lbs. But that quickly went away once he got used to the size and weigh difference.


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## svinyard (Aug 14, 2017)

tristero said:


> My son is 5 and on the Early Rider Trail Belter 16". A beautiful bike and he loves to ride and race it XC here in the midwest. I'm looking to put him into a 20" bike on the other side of winter, and leaning toward the yama jama, or early rider 20" w/fork. My kid is on the light side (5.4 years old, 34 lbs), so I want as light a bike as possible. How much does the Yama weigh? Cheers!


HARD pass on that Belter 20. No one wants to race XC on a single speed (unless there is something magical about belt drives that I don't know). Its also not exactly a cheap bike. Spawn YJ 20" is the best out there for a 20" hardtail and not the most expensive either. Ours is 21lbs. Geo is great. Fork is second to none (seriously nice). The tires are outstanding and still very light at 440gr despite being 2.2in and tubeless ready. The component set is is REALLY nice for the money too. Your resale value alone with easily makeup for the price difference. FWIW we ride ours hard on a little of everything from climbs to legit downhill with small gaps and drops and roots and rocks and big kicker jumps etc. Its been fantastic. No more kid trails. FWIW another big leap for the kid has been hydraulic brakes. VERY big deal if you are riding or will be riding some legit trails. Hand fatigue is real for little kids and it could end badly. Hydraulics gives my kid a lot of confidence and me peace of mind on the longer, faster decents.

If you want a cheaper bike that is still sweet, the Norco Charger 2.1 looks great for the money. I'm told its only 22lbs too. Nice bike, Hydraulic brakes, nice fork, light, good geo and an OK component set with ok gearing. That was my second choice if I couldn't drop 1100$ on the Spawn. In the end, the resale of Spawn stuff is going to be strong though so I figured it'd be worth the extra bucks and I have two kids so really not to hard to stomach.

Another super nice bike is the Orbea MX20 Team Disk. Hard to get ahold of but very nice. If you aren't riding stuff that benefits from a suspension fork, this is an excellent rigid bike (everyone seems to like it a lot). You can also add a fork to it later if you wanted too.


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## RMCDan (Feb 28, 2008)

svinyard said:


> No one wants to race XC on a single speed (unless there is something magical about belt drives that I don't know).


Not SS, it uses an internal gear 3-speed hub. However, the range on those hubs is not great at 186%, compared to 327% for a 11-36 cassette.


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## Bob3 (Jul 26, 2017)

tristero said:


> My son is 5 and on the Early Rider Trail Belter 16". A beautiful bike and he loves to ride and race it XC here in the midwest. I'm looking to put him into a 20" bike on the other side of winter, and leaning toward the yama jama, or early rider 20" w/fork. My kid is on the light side (5.4 years old, 34 lbs), so I want as light a bike as possible. How much does the Yama weigh? Cheers!


Our Yama Jama is 22.3 lbs, running it tubeless, but she insisted on having a couple of spoke beads and other random spoke bling items, and heavier than stock grips, and a seatpost disco ball. The gear ratio makes the yama jama worth it, and in the midwest, my kid uses all of her gears on most rides. The suspension fork is the real deal, and if you can afford it and the kid really rides, the YJ20 is a sweet ride.


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## eyeballs (Sep 16, 2016)

After originally buying a pello rover with spinner air grind for my daughter's b-day/hanukkah/christmas gift, there were some extended delays so I went with spawn and got one of the last yama jamas in stock. Her other bike is a green banshee which she loves, but blue was all that was available. It still looks awesome, and she seems to like it with the extra green bits I threw on. Also made the cockpit a bit smaller, and a 28t chainring is on the way.

2019-01-16_09-07-54 by Eric Ferris, on Flickr

2019-01-16_09-06-43 by Eric Ferris, on Flickr

2019-01-16_09-07-31 by Eric Ferris, on Flickr


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