A bike for my son

[v8 jago]

Im looking at getting a 24" wheeled mountain bike for my 8 yr old son but not sure on what to get him. I was looking at the scott genius jr 24" but struggling to find any due to new 2013 coming out in next 6 - 8 weeks but his birthday is in 2 weeks. Ive looked at these Genesis core 24" and heard they are good but not sure how good and dont know how heavy they are. http://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/bikes/mountain/core/... Has anyone got any knowledge on them ? Or any other bikes worth a look at for upto £450 ish.
Thanks

[HeatonNorris]

Surely at that age a 100 quid Halfords special is more appropriate?

[v8 jago]

Im not a bike snob but like quality and if i had to ride something horible and heavy i probs wouldnt want to ride and i dont expect my some to ride something like that either. If i was just riding the streets i maybe wouldnt mind but i want to get him to the trail centers and to enjoy riding bikes like i do. When i was a kid i was always the one with the heavy racers and wasnt very nice but when mountain bikes came popular i got a muddy for and never looked back. Sorry but halfords isnt an option.

[snotrag]

I always liked selling the Genesis kids bikes, very nice. Always in very appropriate childish colours like puke green or neon pink too.

Specialized Hotrock 24 and Giant XTC 24 were always nice too.

[v8 jago]

Was the genesis bike a well made bike as far as kids bike go, Its the lime were looking at and do you think its heavy for a kids bike or on the lighter side ? I think a lot of kids bikes are around 27lbs. Because we are buying from a shop via the net we cant get to look at it so would be buying it on other peoples views or blind. Any info would be very helpful.

[gary71]

I completely agree about getting them a decent bike if they are actually going to use it!

I bought my Son a Trek MT220 24" wheel bike from Ebay for about £70 then bought new tyres, bar ends, pedals etc to tidy it up. Total spend about £120 and ended up with a bike good enough for us to tackle trail centres with confidence.

Doing part of Black run (by mistake!) in Brechfa forest last week:



My Daughter has a Specialized 24" A1 Hotrock which is lighter than the Trek (mainly the wheels) but doesn't see anything like the use, but I'm sure gets used more than a heavy version would!