WTB: Child's / small cyclocross bike

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Permalink Reply by Hamilton on September 15, 2010 at 9:11am

Only one I know of is the 24" 'cross bike from Redline. Seems to be a decent bike, I'd buy one(some) for my kids if they were old enough.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Church on September 15, 2010 at 10:18am

There are about 5-7 choices, only a few of which are readily available, at least in this area.
We bought a used Felt 24 for my 10yr old daughter that I found on the Internet (the Serotta Forum) and paid $400.
It's a great bike and I highly recommend it. It's got internally-routed cables, and lots of great features, including a second set of brake levers on the handlebars for small hands that can't reach the levers from the hoods. My 10-year old is 53" tall and it fits perfectly.

She has now used the bike for a full season of cyclocross and a full crit/TT season. We bought 24" x 1" Intense Micro knobby BMX tires from Dan's Comp, and it works great as a cross bike in all but the muddiest conditions.

The other potential choices are:

Trek KDR 1000 - available used only
Giant OCR 24 - available used only
Specialized Allez Junior - new and used
Orbea Carrera - used only and hard to find
Redline Conquest 24 - new and used.
Pinarello FPO 24 - pricey at $899 new, but it's a Pinarello.
Blue 2Four - $350 MSRP for frameset only - sweet bike and a good deal if you've got a spare groupo sitting around.


I personally like the Felt or the Redline. The Orbea, Giant and Trek haven't been made recently, and the Specialized is pretty expensive. The Redline, being a cyclocross bike, is bombproof, and you can stick road tires on it with no problem and do double duty as a road bike in the spring/summer.

You can expect to pay in the neighborhood of $400 for a used bike, and up to $900 new. The do not seem to lose value very quickly, as they can be hard to find. I expect to get a 100% return when I sell my daughter's Felt 24.

If your child is too big for a 24" bike, there are a ton of choices in the 650c size such as the Fuji 650.

It may take a few months to find a good deal, but keep an eye on Ebay, Craigslist, Slowtwitch, Beginner Triathlete, etc. - they're out there but you have to move fast.

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Permalink Reply by curt k on September 15, 2010 at 8:03pm

Thanks very much to all for the replies, especially Jennifer -- you learned this a lot better than I would have!!

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Permalink Reply by curt k on September 19, 2010 at 5:41pm

Alrighty, I posted a wanted to buy ad on local Craiglist and got a response from a great guy, self-confessed bike pack rat. Anyhow, he has a couple bikes that could work, but I'm wondering a couple of things and thought I'd ask here.

Basically, one is a 14.5" mountain bike (Univega Aplina 5.3, double butted cromoly, mid-90's, no suspension). The other is a Bridgestone XO-2 (I think also double butted cromoly). He understandably wants $100 more for the XO-2, so I'm kinda leaning to the Univega! But I'm concerned that putting drops on a mountain bike and racing 'cross on it could have some problems, like the geometry of the mtn bike wasn't intended for drops, or something like that. And yes, the final bike has to have drops because my daughter likes them (I don't blame her).

Any thoughts on these bikes out there??

Take care, Curt

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Permalink Reply by curt k on September 23, 2010 at 1:00pm

Just to follow up on this in case a similar question comes up for someone (looking for an affordable cross bike for a child), we wound up with the Univega with drops and "skinny" 26 inch tires (1.5 inch). My daughter loves it. I do too, wish it fit me so I could play around with it. It's kind of heavy, but *way* better than her old dept store mountain bike. It's got bar-end shifting, which I'm not very happy with, but the man who built it up for her didn't have any STI stuff around. So that's the next move, but for now, it's a perfectly useable cyclocross / street bike for not a lot of money.

It's a great bike, a real beast, she'll kill in mud, be kinda slower in dry stuff.

BTW, I found some reviews that talked about the XO-2 as not cut out for racing. It seems there's a consensus from owners that it's a great bike for laid back rides -- not the thing for cross!!

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Permalink Reply by Steve Kahn on September 15, 2010 at 12:02pm

Both Redline and Blue make very nice 24 in cyclocross bikes.

http://www.redlinebicycles.com/bikes/cyclocross/2011-conquest-24

Steve

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Permalink Reply by nik c on September 30, 2010 at 5:37pm

Minor (but hopefully related) threadjack...
My vertically challenged friend has gotten the cross bug and is searching for smaller frames. This thread gave her some hope.

She can't go bigger than a 50cm TT (and would prefer a 48-49cm), a couple of her bikes have 650c and isnt averse to running something that needs that or 26" tyres.

What options exist out there?

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Permalink Reply by Chris Cleeland on October 12, 2010 at 9:58am

Look at Redline's products. I have my 10 year old son on a Redline 44cm with super-short stem and it works with room to grow. What's nice is that the geometry is the same from the "Sport" model all the way up to the "Team", so you can pick your investment.

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Permalink Reply by curt k on December 19, 2010 at 7:13pm

Hey, old thread, but I finally got the bike together, with pictures. So, my daughter's "monster cross" bike! Nice bike for not a lotta $.

Univega Alpina 5.3 frame, I think 14.5". She's almost 5' 1". It's a tad big for her, which I'm okay with because then she has room to grow. 26" inch wheels, heavy wheelset, tires probably too knobbie, cantis, needed a little piece as a brake stop, Dura Ace 8 speed brifters saved the day from a certain Illinois cross promoter (thanks again!). 1 X 8.

She loves it. I love it. It's kinda heavy. She's not into cleats yet. 2 little brothers to hand it down to. See who if anyone really gets into racing, but it's a great bike for a kid, and again, not a lot of money invested. Success! Rest! (Not that I did the wrenching!)

Thanks for everyone's input!

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Permalink Reply by Ray Falso on October 21, 2010 at 11:24am

Here's a nice 26" Kids CX bike. I bought one for my 10 year old. I bought this over the Redline because I thought with 26" wheels he wouldn't grow out of it as fast.

http://www.rei.com/product/795151

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Permalink Reply by Chris Cleeland on October 21, 2010 at 11:54am

The 44cm Redline uses 700c wheels. Obviously if that's too big then it won't work, and your tire and wheel selection is better at 26" than 24".

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