My daughter progressed quickly from her 12" Hotrock and was keen to move onto a 'big girl bike' after turning 4. After reading all the other posts in this forum and with zero experience I got hold of a used 2014 Hotrock 16.
The rear wheel with coaster brake was the first to go and this was replaced with an Alex Rims Z1000 wheel and a standard Dicta 16T screw on freewheel. The front brake was worse than useless so this was ditched completely and the Tektro 926Al mini V brake kit with a 316A lever were ordered for the rear. The evolution adaptors were the only way to secure the v brakes and it took a little smoothing of the chain side adaptor to get them to fit snugly. The chainstay side is oval but the adaptors are not so 10 minutes of work with the dremel took off enough aluminium to match the shaping.
The one piece crank was too short at 89mm and had to be changed so I took the opportunity to swap it to a 3 piece crank. It was difficult to get something around 102mm and the shipping costs from the usual places such as Spawn were prohibitive. Frog Bikes in the UK came to the rescue and provided Prowheel branded 102mm alloy cranks with a 32T steel ring and double plastic chainguard. I had to remove the inner chainguard to get enough clearance from the frame but it slotted on nicely to the Shimano UN55 68x113 bottom bracket. The most difficult part of the crank conversion was getting the Truvativ bottom bracket adaptor into place. There was a significant 'lip' inside the hotrock that had no intention of allowing the bracket to be eased or hammered into place. 30 minutes with the dremel smoothed out the lip and allowed the adaptors to be rammed into place.
The standard bars were heavy steel and had too much of a rise for a 4 year old. An FSA Afterburner bar with 15mm rise was cut down to 450mm and paired with a Kore Cubix 50mm stem which clamped straight on. The standard grips were put back on and they even left enough space for the obligatory red bell that was a non-negotiable.
A YBN MK747 Cool chain in red was the finishing touch (had to install a single half link to get a perfect fit) and a pair of lightweight VP856 pedals were a last minute addition.
Financially it probably didn't make sense to do the modifications but with the exception of a BYK (which she really didn't like) there were minimal other options to get a decent light weight 16" bike. Minor plans for the future will be to replace the steel seatpost and seat and possibly get a 68x107/110 bottom bracket as the 113mm seems a little too 'wide'.
The rear wheel with coaster brake was the first to go and this was replaced with an Alex Rims Z1000 wheel and a standard Dicta 16T screw on freewheel. The front brake was worse than useless so this was ditched completely and the Tektro 926Al mini V brake kit with a 316A lever were ordered for the rear. The evolution adaptors were the only way to secure the v brakes and it took a little smoothing of the chain side adaptor to get them to fit snugly. The chainstay side is oval but the adaptors are not so 10 minutes of work with the dremel took off enough aluminium to match the shaping.
The one piece crank was too short at 89mm and had to be changed so I took the opportunity to swap it to a 3 piece crank. It was difficult to get something around 102mm and the shipping costs from the usual places such as Spawn were prohibitive. Frog Bikes in the UK came to the rescue and provided Prowheel branded 102mm alloy cranks with a 32T steel ring and double plastic chainguard. I had to remove the inner chainguard to get enough clearance from the frame but it slotted on nicely to the Shimano UN55 68x113 bottom bracket. The most difficult part of the crank conversion was getting the Truvativ bottom bracket adaptor into place. There was a significant 'lip' inside the hotrock that had no intention of allowing the bracket to be eased or hammered into place. 30 minutes with the dremel smoothed out the lip and allowed the adaptors to be rammed into place.
The standard bars were heavy steel and had too much of a rise for a 4 year old. An FSA Afterburner bar with 15mm rise was cut down to 450mm and paired with a Kore Cubix 50mm stem which clamped straight on. The standard grips were put back on and they even left enough space for the obligatory red bell that was a non-negotiable.
A YBN MK747 Cool chain in red was the finishing touch (had to install a single half link to get a perfect fit) and a pair of lightweight VP856 pedals were a last minute addition.
Financially it probably didn't make sense to do the modifications but with the exception of a BYK (which she really didn't like) there were minimal other options to get a decent light weight 16" bike. Minor plans for the future will be to replace the steel seatpost and seat and possibly get a 68x107/110 bottom bracket as the 113mm seems a little too 'wide'.
