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Cannondale 24" race 21 speed

43K views 138 replies 26 participants last post by  Steve-XtC 
#1 ·
#21 ·
Hey guys,

So I ended up getting the Cannondale for my son's birthday present. I've decided to keep it stock as long as possible. Maybe he'll grow into the 26" XS sooner than later. We'll see.

So first ride out Saturday. Very interesting. I took him out to Duthie Hill Park near my house. It's a man-made bike park that has XC to DH trails. Lots of practice areas for all range of skill levels.

So couple of notes.

I have to check the air pressure in the forks. On the trail, it didn't move for him. So it may be set with too much preload. He was pretty much riding a rigid fork. Mind you, my son is small at 10y/o. 53" and 62#.

Lots of pedal strikes. I don't know if I need to get shorter crankset or flatter pedals or what. Obviously he's gotta learn how to time his pedal strokes eventually. But there is not much ground clearance with his pedal in the down position. This makes cresting a rocky bump or slight leans as he climbs very challenging with the number of pedal strikes.

The pedal strikes bother him more than anything. But after the ride, he asked me when the next time we were going to ride again. Hopefully sooner than later.
 
#3 ·
Looks to be a nice bike. I'm looking for something similar. I might have to go check this out. For some reason, I think I blew it off thinking the fork was probably sprung too stiff like on the Spec Hotrocks.

I've been looking into the Scott Scale JR 24 (SCOTT Scale JR 24 Bike - SCOTT Sports)

It seems to be similar, but for me, it may come down to the quality of the fork.

I was trying to find specs on the RST fork on the 'Dale but no luck.
 
#4 ·
Reading the comments in a few other threads re the RST F1rst air (do a search) I think its supposed to be pretty good, the only other bike I belevie this fork comes on is the Scott Scale RC which is double the price of the Cannondale and not available in Australia.
Decent forks are few and far between with kids bikes and it seems very difficult to buy aftermarket. My sons forks on his 20" hotrock offer basically no suspension, adds more than couple of kg's in weight and after 18 months the bushes in them are so worn out there is more travel front to back than up and down...
 
#5 ·
Home Page has or had 20 and 24 inch air forks for sale. Put one on my son's Marin.

At $550 it's right in between the Marin Disc and Specialized Disk 24 inch bikes.

If my son had liked the color I would have gone with one of the non disc specialized for $430 or $380 depending on if you 1x or 2x gearing and added the air shock and disc.
 
#6 ·
I'm gonna take a look at that Cannondale today at a LBS. I looked at a Giant XCT. Not too bad. The fork is actually softer than the one that comes on Hotrocks and Trek bikes.

TAlking with the shop guy, it looks like the Scott Scale JR comes with cassette hub instead of freewhee (like on the Giant) also it has bolted triple ring instead of rivetted (like on the Giant.) The Giant is 27# without pedals (as weighed on the shop scale.)

But at $420, is about $100 cheaper than the JR.

So do I pay $100 more to be able to use cassette cogs and the option to swap a bashguard for the big ring?

Looks like the Dale is right inline with the JR. So I might be tempted to go that route if the fork is really compliant.
 
#7 ·
I personally think the bolted rings are important. When I put the shorten cranks on my son's bike with real chain rings, he noticed a huge improvement when trying to up shift the front.

All the cranks I've seen on kids bikes have shitty rings which makes the front upshift hard on smaller, weaker hands.
 
#10 ·
I wasn't able to make it into my LBS this weekend.

I just got off the phone with them to see if they have in stock. They do.

So I'm gonna see if I can stop by this evening.

But initially, compared to the Scott Scale JR 24", some key differences are:

Rivetted chainrings vs bolt
freewheel hub vs cassette
air adjustable fork vs softly "sprung" coil fork

Also factoring in that my local LBS carries the 'Dale. While I have to go out of my way to order the Scott from another bike shop much farther away.

I've abandoned trying to get a featherweight bike. I think I am going to focus more on gears that make sense and shifters that would work smoothly. And probably most key is a fork that would actually work for my boy with his weight and the trails we will be riding on (roots, rocks, wet, singletrack)
 
#11 ·
I picked up the same cannondale for my 8 year old son. With the weather he hasn't ridden it too much but says he loves it so far. When I compressed the fork I noticed that the rebound was really slow coming back up. I did not see a rebound adjuster anywhere but didn't look too hard. Other than that the bike seems really nice.
 
#13 ·
Hi, is there a rebound adjuster on the bottom of the right fork leg?

Reading this thread

http://forums.mtbr.com/families-riding-kids/rst-f1rst-air-24-a-755600-4.html

and post #100 has a close up image of a rebound adjuster on the RST F1RST Air 24 however I cant see one on the image on the cannondale website, maybe cannondale have gone for a cheaper version of the fork with no adjustable rebound, hope not...
 
#15 ·
I took a look at the Cannondale today. Only for a short time.

The action on the fork is much nicer than anything else I've felt on kids bike. Actually has damping. It's air adjust for weight. The fork that comes on the 'dale doesn't have the rebound knob. Or maybe it fell off? But wasn't there.

It seems to have a friendlier standover than the Spec' XC bike. But the Spec looks to have a slightly nicer drivetrain.

Weighed both bikes with plastic platform pedals.

'Dale = 25.7#
XC = 27.01#

Now the XC did have an aluminum kickstand on it and wheel reflectors. But I was pleasantly surprised at the weight of the 'Dale.

This might be a good bike right out of the box. And possibly have a good platform for some upgrades. I might try my hand at building wheels again with my buddy's old XT hubs from his Ibis Alibi. That and my spare X9 RD could help shave some weight.

But just wondering what kind of crankset options there are without breaking the bank.
 
#17 ·
I took a look at the Cannondale today. Only for a short time.

The action on the fork is much nicer than anything else I've felt on kids bike. Actually has damping. It's air adjust for weight. The fork that comes on the 'dale doesn't have the rebound knob. Or maybe it fell off? But wasn't there.

It seems to have a friendlier standover than the Spec' XC bike. But the Spec looks to have a slightly nicer drivetrain.

Weighed both bikes with plastic platform pedals.

'Dale = 25.7#
XC = 27.01#

Now the XC did have an aluminum kickstand on it and wheel reflectors. But I was pleasantly surprised at the weight of the 'Dale.

This might be a good bike right out of the box. And possibly have a good platform for some upgrades. I might try my hand at building wheels again with my buddy's old XT hubs from his Ibis Alibi. That and my spare X9 RD could help shave some weight.

But just wondering what kind of crankset options there are without breaking the bank.
I got these for my son and had him shorten the ones that came on my daughters Shred 2.0
SRAM S600 MTB crankarms Shortened

Really quality work.
 
#20 ·
Yeah, the fork on the Race looked pretty basic with only lock-out adjustment. Still, the action on the fork felt pretty good.

I saw some thread about setting up the fork. Someone was recommending 25% sag. I don't know if I agree with that. I tried that on my own Sektor Fork on a hardtail. But maybe that's my own riding style. The larger sag makes the fork mushy when I'm out of the saddle which is about 50% of the time. Also, I prefer to bounce off of roots and rocks a little more to help me clear a group of obstacles rather than soaking each one individually.

Now I will say that it allows the front wheel to track better on bumpy surfaces especially in a turn. And maybe for an inexperienced rider that is better. So we'll see. At least it is a setting that you can play around with.
 
#25 ·
So I don't know much about BB other than Shimano hollowtech. But looks like the 'Dale comes with square taper BB with Suntour alloy 152mm cranks. (no spec info on BCD).

But I read in another Orbea build thread of OP picking up Sinz 145mm cranks. I looked online and Amazon lists them for $45. Then I suppose I'd have to pick up a couple chainrings and a bash?

I guess I don't need to care about BCD of OEM crankset since I have to buy new rings anyway (the OEM rings are pinned.)

Does this sound right?

Also...(apologies) my son's old Redline Proline Mini has 145mm square taper crankset. Can I just pull the cranks off of it and swap 'em onto the Canndale?
 
#27 ·
Also...(apologies) my son's old Redline Proline Mini has 145mm square taper crankset. Can I just pull the cranks off of it and swap 'em onto the Canndale?
It looks like the redline probably came setup as a singlespeed? Square taper crank should easily interchange but can the redline crank accomidate additional chainrings or are you willing to give up front shifting? a 152mm crank does not sound terribly long for a 24" wheeled bike. How big/old is your kid, might help to determine crank length. If the pedals are really wide and clunky, some slimmer pedals could be a good upgrade to also help reduce ground-stikes.
 
#26 ·
Oh, about the fork. Yeah, it didn't move much. My son would have done better to ride a rigid fork. When I got home, I checked the air pressure and it was set at 40psi. The chart calls for 20-40 kg at 30-40psi. I guess my son is 28kg. So maybe I'll try the 30psi setting. Although it seems more like he can't blow past the initial stiction in the fork.

I can only hope it'll break in over time and that my son will get a little bigger and ride more aggressively soon...
 
#29 ·
Redline cranks probably would be a good change for time being and would loose some weight and complexity. Might just want to leave the front derailler locked in place over the chainring as a chain-guard but you could remove the cables and shifter. After he grows a bit and aquires more confidence with shifting, you can always go back to a longer double or triple crank.
Agree that providing kids with gearing choice only appropirate for bombing down a hill at 30+ mph is not a great idea!
 
#30 ·
Hi guys, I'm looking at this bike for my 8 y/o daughter. I saw on here and heard from one shop that it comes in two sizes (?) The C-dale site's geo link is dead so I can't look there. Their specs page doesn't mention it. Is it true? And if so, does the TT get longer by much going from a M to L? I did see 310mm and 340mm an online store's site, I'm guessing those numbers are the seatpost's? Thanks.

BTW the shock is super plush feeling compared to the spring one's on Scott, etc.
 
#35 ·
Hi guys, I'm looking at this bike for my 8 y/o daughter. I saw on here and heard from one shop that it comes in two sizes (?) The C-dale site's geo link is dead so I can't look there. Their specs page doesn't mention it. Is it true? And if so, does the TT get longer by much going from a M to L? I did see 310mm and 340mm an online store's site, I'm guessing those numbers are the seatpost's? Thanks.

BTW the shock is super plush feeling compared to the spring one's on Scott, etc.
The geometry link works for me using both US and Canada as countries. And yes it comes in 2 sizes. Medium is a 12.2 seat tube length and large is a 13.4 seat tube length. I took a screenshot of the geo page for you below:

Bicycle frame Green Text White Line


And this PDF from Cannondale's site has a bit of info on supposed inseams which I'm uncertain are totally accurate. ;) http://media.cannondale.com/media/catalogues/14_c_CUSA_Bike_Catalog_KIDS.pdf
 
#33 ·
Hey Guys, I'm picking one of these up for my daughter this weekend. I'll be changing the stock 14-28 7 speed Freewheel to a 13-32 IRD that is currently on her 20" bike and eventually I'll change the cranks out to some Lasco 152mm 104/64 bcd cranks.

Lasco Crankset

IRD Free wheel

eventually I'm be lacing some disc hubs to the rims so I can put a 9 speed, maybe 10 speed set up on the bike along with disc brakes. We live in Colorado and ride in the mountains so she needs as much gearing and braking as possible.

Last weekend in Buffalo Creek...I can't wait to get her out there on bigger wheels!

P1000938
 
#39 ·
Hey Guys, I'm picking one of these up for my daughter this weekend. I'll be changing the stock 14-28 7 speed Freewheel to a 13-32 IRD that is currently on her 20" bike and eventually I'll change the cranks out to some Lasco 152mm 104/64 bcd cranks.

Lasco Crankset

IRD Free wheel

eventually I'm be lacing some disc hubs to the rims so I can put a 9 speed, maybe 10 speed set up on the bike along with disc brakes. We live in Colorado and ride in the mountains so she needs as much gearing and braking as possible.

Last weekend in Buffalo Creek...I can't wait to get her out there on bigger wheels!

She's going to love it. Bought one for my daughter about 3 weeks ago. Already have carbon bars and LX shifters. Picking up some BB7s this weekend and have Novatec hubs on order
 
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