My 7 yo son has been into bikes since he could move. I bought him a wooden run-bike when he was 2 and he took to it from day 1. I remember he used to flip it upside down and work on it every time I worked on mine. He was riding it proficiently before his 3rd birthday, even riding parts of the local BMX track.
Second bike for 3rd birthday was a Big W special 12" wheeld bike. Rode it with training wheels for 3 days to get the hang of pedaling, then off they came and he was riding a 2 wheeler just days after turning 3. Through that year, I got him to the point where he could ride the entire BMX track with a little bit of help on the uphil side of bigger jumps.
For his 4th birthday, we got him a Byk E350. He took off on this and never looked back. This bike got him riding faster, stronger, good position, etc. We started him actually BMX racing on this occasionally. We starting going on slightly longer rides on the bike paths around the Yarra River in Melbourne.
Then, for 5th birthday, he moved up to an Intense Mini BMX. This is one awesome bike! So light and so fast. He loves BMX racing on this.
Finally for his 7th birthday, I built his latest - a custom GT Aggressor 20" mountain bike (specs below). We now ride all over Lysterfield and You Yangs and his confidence in riding technical stuff and jumps grows every ride.
Before I bought the GT, I did a ton of research, looked at all the specs, thought I had my mind made up. Then we went out and actually tried out a few of the bikes. Specialized Hotrock was very nice, but I feel overpriced for what it is and the fork barely moved. Giant XTC Jr20 just looked and felt cheap. Cheap brakes and I seriously could barely make the fork move at my weight. Looked at a bunch of others, but was surprised when both I and my son preferred the GT Aggressor. Getting it for $299
It has good geometry and decent spec. The fork actually works, and it has decent wheels. It was the lightest of the three at 11.4 kg (25.1 lb) with all of the reflectors and kickstand.
I then got to customizing. I used some old part laying around and scoured the web for crazy deals. This is what I changed:
Removed all reflectors, kickstand, etc.
Stem - kore alloy 90mm, 6 degree, $12
Bars - FSA Vdrive alloy, $17
Seatpost - FSA alloy - had laying around
Tires - Schwalbe Moe Joe 2.0 front and 1.8 rear, $15 each
Tubes - Maxxis BMX Ultralight, $8 each
Skewers - A2Z Titanium - had laying around
Brakes - replaced rear calipers with Avid SD7 (front caliper stayed stock), levers are Sinz, full length blue housing - all of which I had laying around
Cranks - decided to swap the stock cranks to his BMX and move the Sinz cranks to the MTB. Honestly, the weight was extremely close. I did it purely for cosmetic reasons. The stock cranks were silver and looked out of place. His BMX is silver, so it worked perfectly
Rear hub - LX 36 hole, 8/9 speed - $12!
Cassette - SRAM PG730 12-32 7-speed - $20
Cassette spacer - to put 7 speed cassette on 8 speed hub - $4
Bottom braket - $10
Shifter/derailleur - SRAM x.3 trigger and med cage der. - trigger is way easier to use than the grip shift - $35
Bling - anodized barend caps, top cap bolt, chainring bolts, dice and skull inner tube caps - had all laying around
All upgrades cost me about $150. And the bikeis now down to around 21lb (9.5kg). This makes a huge difference to his enjoyment. Pics below
then no. 2 came along........ it's amazing what a match box car can do when dragged round the house under a trike,,,hehe
