The 5yr old is finally back on his bike after a bit of a set back...Feel for the bugga though, his bike is fkn heavy! Any pointers for a decent light weight bike ? There's a Haro on TM that looks okish. Ideally after something that I can take him to the trails on and maybe a play on the bmx track.

Specialized Hot Rock.
Awesome bike for little dudes

Thanks. Like this ?
http://www.trademe.co.nz/sports/cycling ... 797584.htm

We bought our son a BYK, lighter and better than everything else on the market, he actually went with an 18" and it has lower standover than all of the 16" bikes on the market

Exactly like this one: http://www.trademe.co.nz/sports/cycling ... 080709.htm

We had a 12" and then 16" BYK for our daughter. They were much lighter than anything else we looked at.

One sons got a 16" hot rock but too heavy. As he's still small (5yo) he's staying on that and his about to turn 4 brother is getting a byk 350 next week.

Thanks all. looking like a byk is the way to go. Kinda like the idea of the rear V brake too.
Anyone got one for sale ?

I don't think they've been round long enough to be many second hand.

Ticket price is $320 but should be able to get one for at most $300

dwgknz wrote:I don't think they've been round long enough to be many second hand.

Ticket price is $320 but should be able to get one for at most $300

How was the Eskdale ride ?

Didn't make it on Art Deco weekend. Just rode napier hill doing the climbs there. Next up on the 21st but sons birthday so probably have to skip it again. Should have a bike 350 and speccy hot rock 16 there if you wanted to see the difference on the 22nd.

deliverance wrote:We bought our son a BYK, lighter and better than everything else on the market, he actually went with an 18" and it has lower standover than all of the 16" bikes on the market

Exactly like this one: http://www.trademe.co.nz/sports/cycling ... 080709.htm

it is a shame that a light kids bike is still 8+kg's but then again at 320 what do you expect. you could try and source one of these http://www.islabikes.co.uk/products/bikes/item/cnoc-16 at 6.1 kg

$400 to save 2kg, most people would jump at the chance to get that type of weight saving per dollar on their bike

We have the Hot Rock 16" which is sitting waiting between daughter (now on a 20" geared GT) and son (12" Hot Rock). If you are in Wellington you are welcome to try it/borrow it. It's pink but I was going to wrap it in multicam duct tape or something to "boy it up".

We had a 14" BYK which I was a bit disappointed with really; while the frame, forks and wheels were pretty light a bunch of other stuff was steel so I didn't think it was particularly lighter than the Hot Rocks, though I didn't do an actual weigh to compare.

A couple of big points against the BYK were that you couldn't get a tyre with any grip on it, only the smooth BYK ones (in that 14" size) and the seatpost was really short so while the standover was nice and low by the time our daughter was starting to ride it properly it was too small. It seemed totally unnecessarily short and like you were meant to buy the 14, then 16, then 18, then 20, then 22 etc every month or so. Also the brake levers were ridiculous relative to being so far off the handlebars that she couldn't reach them and no real way to adjust them in enough. I did expect a bit more thought on something supposedly designed for kids.

The Hot Rocks are pretty good and they seem much easier to come by second hand than the BYKs.

Think I've narrowed it down to the byk e450. His just on the min height for one so should see him ggod for at least a couple of years. Thoughts on gearing, yeah or nah ? I'm thinking nah..but would be good for him to access the trails..

We've got the 350 byk that middle child has had since she was 4 so she got 18 months out of it so far. She can pick it up herself which helps her confidence on the bike.
We mostly do bike paths so haven't missed the tyres with tread and the slicks are much better for us as knobbliest would slow her down too much.

A friend had the hot rock and ditched it for a byk as well.