Clever component upgrades for kids bikes
Kids are much more trend and fashion-aware than they're given credit for. Parents know that kids love personalisation, especially regarding their bikes.
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Instead of sustaining the expensive investment of trading into a new kids' bike each season, you can invigorate their riding enthusiasm with a much cheaper but equally effective spend: component upgrades. Whether you're a UCI World Cup racer or an 11-year-old passionate about riding, small component changes make a big difference. In terms of functional riding, feeling more on-trend and connected to your bike.
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For far too long kids' bike components were nasty and cheap. But that's changed. Product planners and industrial designers have prioritised quality kids' components, with all the functionality and appeal of adult mountain bike components, but in kids' appropriate sizing.
Component upgrades are a great way to upgrade the riding experience and enhance personalisation without buying a new bike. Best of all, the components on our 'kids upgrade' list are easy to fit in a few minutes without requiring bike mechanic skills.
Colour-matching cockpit
Kids aren't going to feel the difference of an ultra-lightweight stem, with intricate forging techniques, that promise more direct steering feedback when leaning through that rutted singletrack switchback. But they notice colour. A lot. This should be your guiding principle when choosing a stem upgrade for any kids' bike.
2024 funn kids bar blue.jpg, by Liam Mercer
Parents know their children’s favourite colour, so shop around for a stem in that colour to delight the junior riding in your home. Stems are easy to fit. Remember to use a torque wrench to tighten them to the specified rating to prevent loosening or stripping of thread.
Beyond the generosity of colour choices in kids' riding stems, there's also a functional riding benefit, such as swapping out stems as a sizing solution when junior riders get bigger. Managing growth spurts can be very expensive, and with different stem lengths, you can accommodate kids on a single frame for several seasons without upgrading frames.
Spank’s Spoon 2 is a stem often used by dirt jumpers, but its compact proportions are ideal for kids, too. The Spoon 2 is compact, at only 40mm long, and has a low 35mm stack height. That means it’s likely to be comfier for kids, owning to its original design intention for shorter adult riders – and advanced dirt jumpers, who need an ultra-compact cockpit?
Want a stem with a minimalist look without the whole faceplate? Funn’s Nixie stem offers a 31.8mm bore and two lengths – 40- and 50mm. With six colours, you’re sure to find a Nixie that matches your junior rider's frame and cockpit needs.
The Nixie is light, too, but robust. How? It’s made from 3D forged aluminium, which blends the best lightweighting and strength principles. The great thing about a stem like the Nixie? It’s a component upgrade that any kid can keep riding deep into their adult mountain bike ownership.
Raising the bar
What if you want to make an even bigger change to that kids' bike cockpit geometry and colourway? Then it's time to consider a new handlebar. Wider handlebars give riders more control and steering leverage, which is a big win when you are a junior rider and still maturing into your strength – the additional leverage of a wider handlebar is a great way to enhance steering confidence.
2024 funn kids bar red.jpg, by Liam Mercer
How wide is wide enough? It depends on rider size, but it's best to buy a wider bar than you need and trim it down as required.
There are several narrowish handelbars options, with all the build integrity and features of an adult handelbar’s structural engineering, but at the ideal width for kids. Hayes does the Pro Taper handlebar, at 680m of width and 5-degree of upsweep. It’s made from 7050 alloy and weighs 260g.
Funn's SpeedRun Junior handlebar measures 680mm wide and is ideal for all-terrain riding. Balancing the steering dynamics of its 680mm width is the SpeedRun Junior's overall 'bar shape and geometry – which includes 20mm of rise, 5.5-degrees of upsweep and 8-degress of backsweep.
The SpeedRun Junior's ends are smaller than a conventional adult riding handlebar, at only 19mm in diameter, making them ideal for kids' grips. Funn also includes four rubber spacers, if you want to run conventional 22.2mm grip components later on.
Get a grip
A crucial touchpoint for all riders. And one where kids are often done a disservice, with plastic grips that can blister hands and become horribly slippery if they're covered in moisture.
2024 funn kids grips.jpg, by Liam Mercer
A set of kids' specific grips can dramatically improve any junior rider's ride comfort and confidence. There's been a movement to downsize the proven attributes of adult mountain bike grips – superior rubber formulations, better ergonomics – and make them available to junior riders.
Sixpack racing does a kids grip that features the safety of a moulded-in bar plug, to prevent injury risk. The Sixpack racing kids MTB grips feature an asymmetric grip profile pattern, which should be good at shedding dirt and grime, and easy to clean. They measure 26 x 115mm, and should work a treat on handlebars with 19mm ends.
Funn's Hilt JR grips have a similar outer diameter mountain bike grip for kids, at 26m, making them comfier for smaller hands to wrap around and grip. Hilt JR grips are lightweight, at only 72g a pair, and because they have lock-on fastening, you never have to worry about a potentially traumatic grip-slip moment for your junior rider.
The Hilt JR range is available in 11 colours, making colour matching to frame, components and riding apparel easy.
Pedal to the metal
From developing proper pedal stroke, to steering and controlling the bike with their hips, great pedals are a huge enabler for kids. The trouble with most compact flat pedals is their intimidating traction pin patterns.
2024 funn kids pedals.jpg, by Liam Mercer
The ideal kids' bike pedal upgrade combines generous colour options, durability, and a benign traction pin design. You want a compact pedal body with enough grip to evolve those bike skills, without the shin-scrape nightmare of adult-sized and shaped traction pins.
If you invest all your upgrade budget into a single component, pedals from a boutique mountain bike brand are the thing. And Canada’s Chromag makes some of the fanciest kids mountain bike pedals. Their Radar range has a smaller platform for junior riders, but with all the features you’d expect from a boutique brand.
The Chromag Rascal mountain bike pedals have a 70- by 93mm platform, with a low 13-mm side profile. A concave design accommodates 16 traction pins per pedal, delivering all the pedalling comfort and grip required.
But what if shin safety is paramount? Funn's Taipan S has some interesting features in that regard. It’s compact pedal design makes kids faster on the trail or pump track, but with less venom when they slip a pedal. The glass-fibre reinforced thermoplastic body is available in 11 colours, and Funn’s Taipan S internals feature a proper chromoly axle on DU bushings, for excellent durability.
The real win with these Taipan S flats, is their 14 traction pins per pedal body, each with a rounded pin head – offering all the traction but much less shin trauma.
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2 comments
Getting so tired of reading this. Yes, wider means more leverage, but wider also means a bigger movement needed for the same amount of steering, more wind resistance, and often, when people go too wide, un unergonomic posture.
Especially for kids it is easy to go way too wide on the handlebars, and that will hinder them, not help them. It will make steering slow and cumbersome, and the handlebar will get in the way of their knees and body. Don't overdo it.
No mention of the Hayes J-Unit bars also having a reduced diameter and using special grips?