[Surfpoodi]

I bit the bullet and bought a Lil Shredder for my little guy, who is now 5. A bit silly, since I did a Hot Rock build last year, but Brian at Lil Shredder had a used WB fork, and got us a great price on the frame. And I gotta say, the new bike is pretty amazing.

Here are the specs...

White Brothers fork
Circus Monkey hubs, 28h
Alienation Deviant rims, blue spokes
XT 9 spd rear der, XT cassette, chain, XTR shifter
Deore disc brakes, older Stan's Ti discs
Take-off seat/post from a Like A Bike Jumper
No name light 50mm blue stem
Light flat Al bars
Maxxis Snyper 2.2 front, Kenda SM8 rear, light tubes
Sinz Expert cranks and BB
Rennal 35 tooth front
No chainguide (for now... no drops yet)
Aest pedals

Total weight is about 20.6 lbs.

Yeah, it was a lot for a kid's bike, but we are riding real trails together, and honestly, that it is pretty cool to get to share that kind of thing with a 5 year old.

And watching the little guy ride on the thing is amazing, improving run to run. Here is a picture from today's ride.

 

[Vxc961]

Awesome! I'm jealous...of you and your son. I have to agree with your philosophy though, and that bike looks sweeeeeet! I'm now on the lookout for a lil shredder myself!

 

[Surfpoodi]

Awesome! I'm jealous...of you and your son. I have to agree with your philosophy though, and that bike looks sweeeeeet! I'm now on the lookout for a lil shredder myself!

Well, if you are anything like me, maybe legitimize the purchase by figuring you are saving money on bike parts for yourself, since you will spend all your time looking for parts for the Shredder! Think of the Enve wheels I didn't buy. Saving money left and right.

 

[XJaredX]

I am eagerly awaiting our Spawn Banshee to arrive for my just turned 4 year old to replace his Hotrock 12, but I definitely have my eye on these for the future! By marital decree, I am not allowed to buy any more bikes for myself for about 4 1/2 more years (but who's counting?) but I interpreted that as "but kids bike purchases are fine"

 

[XJaredX]

Also, I like how that looks way more proportionate than seeing really short people on 29ers

 

[evandy]

I am eagerly awaiting our Spawn Banshee to arrive for my just turned 4 year old to replace his Hotrock 12

So you did get over-tempted by Spawn, I see! What's the lead-time on orders from Spawn these days? I'm seriously considering a Gremlin for my 3.5yo to replace the too-big 12" Schwinn that grandma got her for CHristmas. We have a 2yo coming along behind, so should get plenty of use from the Gremlin if I go that way.

 

[albertdc]

Sweet!
Sorry if I missed it or should know, but what size (diameter) wheels are those? How much growth potential is in that bike - in other words, how old do you figure he'll get before you go to the next size up...and will that likely be a 26" wheel bike by then?

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[XJaredX]

So you did get over-tempted by Spawn, I see! What's the lead-time on orders from Spawn these days? I'm seriously considering a Gremlin for my 3.5yo to replace the too-big 12" Schwinn that grandma got her for CHristmas. We have a 2yo coming along behind, so should get plenty of use from the Gremlin if I go that way.

Order placed the 20th, shipped the 21st, hit the U.S. border on the 22nd in Washington somewhere, now just waiting to get here- I lost tracking info once it hit the border, I'm in PA

 

[Surfpoodi]

Sweet!
Sorry if I missed it or should know, but what size (diameter) wheels are those? How much growth potential is in that bike - in other words, how old do you figure he'll get before you go to the next size up...and will that likely be a 26" wheel bike by then?

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Wheel size is 20". The bike is set up to accommodate 16" or 20" wheels, but we went straight to the 20" for our 5 year old. Interesting question about how long it will work. I know that both Jackson and Finn (sponsored riders) are on these and they are 8 and 10. I actually don't know if Finn has moved up in size yet, but he was riding the Shredder at 9.

We are running a 50mm stem. Will go to 70mm when 6, then maybe 80 or 90mm at 7. When 8..... Who knows.... Probably depends on how Bo grows, and rides.

Honestly, I like fiddling with bikes, so I bet I'll pick up some 24" frame and build it up when I think he will fit. And IMO bigger wheels are a big advantage..... I love my 650b bike, won't go back to 26" unless some new technological marvel comes out giving an advantage to small wheels.

 

[Surfpoodi]

One other thing to add....

Remember the first time you rode a nice FS mt. bike? I do. Went from a Trek 8500 to a Santa Cruz Heckler. Changed my riding and entire outlook on the sport.

I've seen the same thing in Bo with this bike. His (modified) Hot Rock was nice, and we rode a lot, but he is seriously jazzed on riding his new bike.

And that helps me legitimize the cost... He has more fun = me have more fun = more riding = happier family

 

[Notaskitrail]

I checked out the prices on the Lil Shredder web site. Whew!

 

[XJaredX]

I checked out the prices on the Lil Shredder web site. Whew!

Yeah, but a lot of kid's sports are freaking expensive. My coworker sinks tons of money into competitive cheerleading for his 10 year old daughter, for example.

I just spent $450 without blinking for a nice bike for my 4 year old, because he loooooves biking with me and his skill level justified it over a cheaper bike. If he is serious into mtbing when he is 10-11, I'd gladly spend $2,500 on a bike for him.

That, plus I reckon these things will hold their value nicely. It's not often that one of these will pop up used I imagine, so that's a good thing for the seller.

 

[northernblades]

Never realised so many people have won the loto.
Or that so many people... nevermind nothing nice to say here.

I wish I were filthy stinking rich.
My bike was only 2K I bought a used fuel EX9 I still hear about it regularly.
there is a big differnce bettwwen I jsut spend 450$ on a bike for my 4 year old.
and I just spent $2500. I can not figure out if you folks are that rich.... or that poor.

On debt do us part, people making 80k a year, spending over 200k a year and wondering what is happening.

 

[Surfpoodi]

Never realised so many people have won the loto.
Or that so many people... nevermind nothing nice to say here.

I wish I were filthy stinking rich.
My bike was only 2K I bought a used fuel EX9 I still hear about it regularly.
there is a big differnce bettwwen I jsut spend 450$ on a bike for my 4 year old.
and I just spent $2500. I can not figure out if you folks are that rich.... or that poor.

.

Well dude, I spent the $2,000 on a bike for my kid instead of myself. We call make choices.

 

[XJaredX]

I don't understand the questioning his spending his money- firstly, no, you don't know how much he makes, but that aside, there are kids out there that fully justify a $2,000 bike at age 8 or whatever. This could be the impetus for this kid to perhaps someday be a world champion enduro racer or something when he gets older, who knows. And like I said, that is easily what you'd spend on a lot of other child sports, like hockey for example.

Like, if my son is hardcore into biking when he is old enough for a Lil Shredder, I would totally buy one, if that is his passion, and I am very much middle class.

 

[Cary]

Never realised so many people have won the loto.
Or that so many people... nevermind nothing nice to say here.

I wish I were filthy stinking rich.
My bike was only 2K I bought a used fuel EX9 I still hear about it regularly.
there is a big differnce bettwwen I jsut spend 450$ on a bike for my 4 year old.
and I just spent $2500. I can not figure out if you folks are that rich.... or that poor.

On debt do us part, people making 80k a year, spending over 200k a year and wondering what is happening.

Or we make choices. It really isn't how much you make,but how you elect to spend it. I'm fortunate, I make really good money and can afford to buy lots of bikes, including the Santa Cruz Nickel for my 9 year old and the new hardtail I just built him. Everything is paid in cash, I have no credit cards and I live in a very nice neighborhood in a house that has significant equity (mortgage is 10% of my average monthly gross). Many of my friends and colleagues drive $50k cars, I choose to drive used cars and paid $4400 for the last one. In many cases it is a matter of where you choose to spend your money. In my case, my son loves to ride and all he wants to do this summer is go to Northstar and Downieville as much as possible. The time spent together is priceless.

 

[XJaredX]

The other thing I don't get is I usually don't see comments like that when people post pics of their $12,000 S-Works or whatever bikes.

 

[BullSCit]

I agree with CDMC, XJaredX and Surfpoodi, and you can't put a price-tag on your kid's happiness. We bike probably 4-5 times a week during the summer. We moved where we live (Park City, UT), so our kids could have access to everything that my wife and I didn't have when we were kids. We make good money between us both, but even if we didn't, we would have scraped together enough to get them the bikes they have. It's all about choices and sacrifice. And it would be cool if my daughter or son become world champs (they hear it from strangers at least once a ride), but I'm just happy that they love doing it, and aren't TV zombies like others. So for my daughter's $400 bike, she has ridden it maybe 200 times now, and will probably get another 100 times on it before she is too big for it. Then my son will probably get another 300 times on it, and then we will pass it down to my brother, whose son will hopefully get another 300 rides on it. So now we are down to less than 50 cents a ride cost. If she had a heavy POS Mongoose or something, maybe I would save a bunch of money, but I'd have to beg her to ride, instead of her begging me. It's all about decisions, and I gladly too will pay the $2500 in a couple of years if it will mean getting to spend as much quality time as I do with my kids as I do now. Don't hate, celebrate.

 

[FreeHeelFreeRide]

Great looking bike Surfpoodi- very cool you are willing to support your kids passion. We all make choices and if you and your family are into bikes and biking I agree it is totally worth making sacrifices in other areas to give kids the best equipment possible... Especially if they learn to treat it well, utilize it fully and respect the trade offs made in order to make it possible. Enjoy your time riding with your little guy and thanks for sharing the photos and build info. Let us know how the bike holds up/works out for him.

 

[Surfpoodi]

Thanks all for the support. I had no idea that a $2,000 bike made me a 1%er. For the record, I'm not. We do fine, but my car is worth less than Northerblades' bike. It is all about choices.

My family spends most of our disposable income on bikes. And thankfully my wife and I still have industry connections from our racing days, which helps. Riding is just our thing. That is why I shared the build with other folks who are (hopefully) equally crazy about biking with their kids.

And honestly, I figure with a resale of around $1,000 we will be looking at a net cost of $1,000 for a bike for 3+ years. Is that crazy expensive? I don't know. Certainly not when compared to those $10k carbon wonderbikes I see on the trail every weekend. And no, I don't have one of those.