Kids Bike sizing question and help

M

Macrusso

New Member
I just purchased my son a new Trek Mt 220 which has 24" wheels. I was set on getting him the Mt60 which has 20" wheels but the shop owner suggested going with the bigger size saying he would out grow the bike in a year.

My son is about 4'1"/4'2" range and although he can ride the bike he seems a little shaky. I'm not sure if its just the jump from the 16" wheels and he needs to get use to it or if the bike is just too big.

I know a lot of people who either own a bike shop or work for one read these boards so I was hoping for some advice or if anyone with child in this size range have any advice that would be great too.

Thanks in advance.
 
My son is also in that range 4' exaclty and when I went to my lbs he also suggested 24". While looking over the bike a Haro flightline it looked like the standover was a little too high I mentioned this to the lbs and told me to get my kids inseam which was only 20". We went with the 20" instead. I am not worried about him outgrowing it.
 
This is common spot for us in the shop.

Fit it just right and the parents come back next summer and complain or too big and the kid suffers.

You just can't win. I know that I had bike that were too big for me when I was little. Maybe that is why i love 29ers.
 
jdog said:
This is common spot for us in the shop.

Fit it just right and the parents come back next summer and complain or too big and the kid suffers.

You just can't win. I know that I had bike that were too big for me when I was little. Maybe that is why i love 29ers.
Click to expand...

Timmy outgrew his 24er in LESS than one year and Brett warned me that would likely happen when I bought the bike. I figured I'd get a year out of it, but Timmy grew something like 4"-5" that year. He is almost 11 now and is 5' 2" (145 lbs, 8 adult shoe!).

Outgrowing the 24er worked out for Timmy, though. I took his brother's old 13.5" Trek 4500, bought a set of $135 Mavic 317/XT BWW wheels, a cheap 160mm crank off fleabay, take-off X7 twist shifters, and threw a bunch of parts that were on my old 5-spot that were victims of one winter's upgraditus (Fox 125R fork @ 80mm, BB7's, X9 der, XC Fire Pros, etc) and voila! For the last 1.5 years he's had the nicest bike in the 'hood :2guns:

Oh, and I sold the 24er to Robbie who's son loves it!

Now I'm back into the 24er shopping mode with my daughter. She is 52" tall w/a 24.25" stand over (w/o shoes). If she wasn't *my* child, and was okay going with a "standard" 24" girls mtb with a sloping top tube, everything would be fine. But no, she wants this girls A1 FS (top o' the line) machine with a straight top tube (only difference w/the boys version is the paint scheme, I think).

They make a 11.5" and 13.5" version of this bike. The 11.5" has a stand-over of 24"...which, with shoes on, only gives Maggie about 1/2"-3/4" clearance...a little tight. But, I'll probably go with it. And I figure by the time Maggie outgrows this bike, Timmy will be ready for a 29er and she can inherit the Trek (I'm serious).

So what is the point of all this? At 49-50", your son is probably a 'tad too little for a 24er. He will get over the "shakiness" on the bike, I'm sure. He will grow into it shockingly soon. I'd only be concerned with, what I assume is, little to no stand-over. Though, I'd assume that the LBS would've at least flagged that if it were a significant issue :hmmm:
8490-1104_EL_HOT_G_A1_FS_black_d.jpg
 
I let the kidz pick...

I put them on both and asked my son which one he liked. He picked the 20" bike. While I worked in the bike shop I picked up a 24" too and put it in storage and gave it to said son the next year. My daughter get the 20" now and at the same age and quite a bit shorter than the male child she is not at all ready for a 24" bike.

But then I've seen 8 year olds who are now using clipless.... who were on 24" bike's in Kinder-first grade... but I think that's far from normal unless the kid really wants it.

If you keep your eyes on you can usually find a 20" bike that is being tossed and put that into the works till the 24" becomes the weapon of choice.

I'd just put him on a two-niner right now! I hear those bikes ri.........:sleep:
 
jdog said:
This is common spot for us in the shop.

Fit it just right and the parents come back next summer and complain or too big and the kid suffers.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Normally the first question a parent asks is how long it will last, not whether it's the correct size. I find it's worst for the early teens kids, they almost always get strapped onto bikes that are way too big🙄

-Jim.
 
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