Looking for a bike for my 10 year old son

Ok ok so I'm being a bit lazy I'm just looking for some advice on buying my 10 year old son a MTB fo his birthday. I've managed to get him interested in Triathlons and his old bike is a bit small. Every one else seem to have wheels twice as big lol. Any advice would be great.

St if any help looked in here a few months back and they seem to be helpful. bike shop Question is how much can you spend and is there a decathalon nearby because bet they will be the best bet to start off with unless you want to spend a lot of money your son will grow out off in a few years time.

Specialized sell their Hotrock range in varying sizes from 12" to 24" wheels.

Hotrock is good, currently going through second son. Can be prone to throw the chain, gears a bit suspect.

Felt Q24 for the older one hasn't missed a beat and has got a mountain winch gear on it!

Jr Schmunks (aged 12) has this one

For triathlon by far the best bike is an IslaBike Luath 26 (or if they are a very big 10 year old an IslaBike 700 small). These are very expensive bikes (£400-£500) but retain their value so in a couple of years you will get at least 75% of the purchase price back when you sell. Having said that I got lucky and got one for £75 because it needed work - which turned out to be a sticky cable and a 10 minute job. My son has one and has done the local cyclocross league on it - you get a lot of young triathletes doing cross too. His twin sister has an old Kona Jake2-4 (similar but probably more aged 8-11 so getting a bit small) and she does the cyclocross and triathlon on that - stick some slick tyres on them and they are planning on doing a local track league and some road (closed circuit) racing this summer. I know some people will think oh they are just kids they don't want a drop bar racing type bike but honestly for everything except proper single track mountainbiking these bikes are better - and I got mine a couple of cheap 2nd hand MTBs for that anyway! It does depend on how much you are into it I know - but if he is going to do it as a sport then it's worth it as on a heavy MTB riding on grass it's hard work. Have a look at the pictures on here via the forum - the kids races have about 80-100 kids every even now http://ndcxl.org.uk/ and our club kids training nights have 30plus kids even in Winter - depending on where you are if there's a similar set up they love it.

Decathlon do a Rockrider for £99..came out best in test for bikes under £200 in a mag the other month..bought one for my bro who's 11 and not had any issues with it....sturdy piece of kit IMO

Thanks Guys I've been looking on most sites now. Still narrowed down to five bikes. Dawes phantom, Raleigh zero G, Barrosa Daker, Jamis x24 and Carrera blast .schmunkee there's three bikes on that web page which one?

Do check out the Islabikes though, they are highly thought of...

Little bit to pricey for him this time, it's not his main sport (yet?? ) so don't want to spend big yet ( football Tennis Judo Swimming basketball and bit of Rugby is what he does more) I'm just want him to have a taste.

I reckon they'll all be much of a muchness at a given price point - I'd look for the lightest or the one that looks best - if the Carrera Blast is still bright green I quite like that but then I'm not 10 so who knows?

Lol popsider it's still Bright Green

Sorted went for the Carrera Blast

Nice - I nearly got one of them for mine but got him a second hand Scott in the end.

Another advocate pf islabikes, the luath 26 + cx tyres is the way to go, there's a waiting list (had to compromise with oldest son and get him a decathlon triban recently) but it's worth it. I am not in favour of the large clunky mountain bikes for kids as they're too heavy for some of them to control, which makes it dangerous and frankly can put children off.

Htc24 I agree that's why got him Carrera Blast only 13kg so not very heavy for MTB.