Felt BMX's

turbodiesel

My 9 year old is asking for a new BMX for XMAS.....

2 years ago we bought him this which has served him well.

He now trying to do bunny hops/wheelies and has asked me several times to bring him down to the concrete bowl in Bushy Park.

So with that type of riding in mind we popped into eurocycles to see what they have on offer. Thay have a few quid off "Felt" bmx's.

We were looking at the Felt Vault for 280 and Calibre for 180.

He likes the vault because of the 25t front chainring which will give him a lot of clearance. I prefered the calibre because of the aluminium frame which seemed about 5lbs lighter to me.

So I was thinking of buying the calibre and changing the front and rear chainsets. Both are 3 piece forged so it looks simple crank leg off and swap for the front chainset (Am i right?) and i am assuming the rear freewheel will be the usual left hand threaded screw on that i used to repair/exchange 25 years ago when i repaired my own BMX's.

Can anyone confirm that the chainsets should be changeable for a home diy'r and what are your thoughts on the choice of bikes......280 really is up at the top of my budget.....

C3PO

I have a 24" Felt BMX that I use for fluting around the park with my 10 year old on his MTB - its great!
I know Eurocycles on the Long Mile Road have incredible value at the moment on Felt Calibres - €150!!

http://www.eurocycles.ie/FELT_CALIBRE_PRO_20-dq-_Orange/4822_p.aspx

turbodiesel

RPL1 wrote: »

I have a 24" Felt BMX that I use for fluting around the park with my 10 year old on his MTB - its great!
I know Eurocycles on the Long Mile Road have incredible value at the moment on Felt Calibres - €150!!

http://www.eurocycles.ie/FELT_CALIBRE_PRO_20-dq-_Orange/4822_p.aspx

Thanks for that, I meant to say €150 for the calibre in the first post. I think it looks excellent, but the young lad has been fixated on smaller front chainsets since last year.....

So i am hoping someone can tell me if the chainsets are available and easy enough to change..... See Santa is supposed to be bringing it (I know...I'm lucky to have a 9yr old stil believing in santa) so I'll have to buy the chainsets and do the change in plenty of time

rob1891

The cog at the back is different on the freestyle/jump bikes like the Vault. They take a 9 tooth 'driver' where as the Calibre has a traditional 16 tooth freewheel. The wheels are not compatible with each-other (afaik), so if you put a tiny crank on the Calibre you won't be able to fix the gearing at the wheel, the bike will be messed up.

The Calibre is a race bike for tracks like Rathoath. Maybe your kid would be interested in racing? The freestyle/jump bikes are so heavy (to handle abuse), it might be off putting for a 9 year old ... not sure what I'd do.

turbodiesel

rob1891 wrote: »

The cog at the back is different on the freestyle/jump bikes like the Vault. They take a 9 tooth 'driver' where as the Calibre has a traditional 16 tooth freewheel. The wheels are not compatible with each-other (afaik), so if you put a tiny crank on the Calibre you won't be able to fix the gearing at the wheel, the bike will be messed up.

The Calibre is a race bike for tracks like Rathoath. Maybe your kid would be interested in racing? The freestyle/jump bikes are so heavy (to handle abuse), it might be off putting for a 9 year old ... not sure what I'd do.

Thanks for that info on the rear wheel. That'ss what i was afraid of. SO i'd have to buy a new rear wheel/rim to sort out the rear end.....

For his age/build i'd much prefer the the calibre as it's light. 95% of the time he's just riding it around the street.

turbodiesel

turbodiesel wrote: »

Thanks for that info on the rear wheel. That'ss what i was afraid of. SO i'd have to buy a new rear wheel/rim to sort out the rear end.....

For his age/build i'd much prefer the the calibre as it's light. 95% of the time he's just riding it around the street.

Ended up buying a We the people "arcade" from the cycle inn in tallaght. The 9 yr old and his 11 yr older sis are doing there first BMX race in Cherry Orchard this Friday. Knowing my luck he'll get the racing buzz and we'll be looking for 2 lightweight bikes.....:rolleyes:

http://bmxpursuits.ie/

turbodiesel

turbodiesel wrote: »

Ended up buying a We the people "arcade" from the cycle inn in tallaght. The 9 yr old and his 11 yr older sis are doing there first BMX race in Cherry Orchard this Friday. Knowing my luck he'll get the racing buzz and we'll be looking for 2 lightweight bikes.....:rolleyes:

http://bmxpursuits.ie/

Just to follow up on this thread.

Both have taken to racing and are really enjoying it.

At first we rented bikes for the first 4 or 5 races in Cherry Orchard and then managed to buy some races bikes 2nd hand from the owner of the track that were less then 6 months old.

For the 10 yr old - http://eurocycles.com/ie/product/felt/sector-expert

For the 11 yr old - http://www.bikestore.ie/bmx-summer-sale/haro-pro-2012-bmx-bike-2563.html


Once that was done we took in the last 4 rounds of the National Championship with my daughter coming 3rd overall in the girls 11-14 class.

For anyone that wants to try racing pop up to Ratoath or Cherry Orchard .

Cherry Orchard is a tenner a go for a try it out session of 60 - 90 mins with hire bikes available to suit every age group right up to adults for a fiver a session. I heard the had the army motorcycle outriders and the air corps in recently and I've seen groups of MTB and ROAD BIKE riders at sessions too.

Ratoath will let your kids try the track once for free and then after that membership is fantastic value at €32(Junior) €37(Senior) for the year.

Come and and join in. New tracks to open soon in Tullamore/Naas/Dundalk......