Recommend me...

[Gordon B]

..a mountain bike for my son.

11th birthday coming up next month and his whole life he has had hand me downs and bikes from freecycle.

As he will be cycling to high school from September we have decided to treat him.

Budget is £100 to £150. Needs to be 24in wheels. Best I can find so far is this

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_26 4609_langId_-1_categoryId_165602#dtab

Reason I like this one is it only weighs 10kg. Jake is a bit weedy see so don't want anything too heavy.

So, any thoughts on Apollos or can you find me something better?

[Venom]

Definite no on anything that claims to be full suspension front and back at that price. It isn't very well suspended and just adds weight and means less spent on other components

If it's for riding to school the suspension won't matter though.

I found this hardtail Giant which is a good manufacturer, from Wiggle. Weight is 9kg according to the Q & A. It probably doesn't look as cool as the full suss though.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/giant-mtx-225-fs-24-inch-boys-bike-2010/

Edit: Also just noticed the frame is also lightweight aluminium which won't rust like the steel Apollo.



Most kids I see riding around town use BMXs like this one. They go to the local park which has a BMX dirt track for them to amuse themselves

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/diamond-back/viper-2011-bmx-bike-ec025208

Good luck with finding a bike, I'm sure he'll be well chuffed with whatever you buy.

[kellyjo]

My 11 and 8 yr olds both have apollos which they use mainly on gravel tracks around local parks.

For usual kids stuff they seem perfectly adequate, brakes and gears work well and the kids have no problems with them.

[pookie]

I have been quite impressed with the little kids bikes at decathlon. I would have liked an islabike but the decathlon bikes seems quite well thought out.

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/EN/24-inch-bikes-3962539/

[andrewsmith]

I'd put your head into your local cycle shop, the bikes at halfords are a pig if something breaks as they're the only supplier of the parts.

I've got a giant mountain bike that is about half the weight of the equivalent apollo and only a little bit more expensive.

Edit, just looked at their website and they don't do the style I've got now, but have a race derived style to most the bikes.