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Today's MD is yesterday's LG, so he'll be just fine. At 6ft tall I'm pretty sure I was riding what would be considered a SM today back when I was younger and did just fine sending sketchy stuff. And to echo statements made above: new bikes are on fire sale right now, with warranties. This is definitely the way to go. In your neck of the woods I highly recommend dealing with Erik's Bikes. They're the largest dealer, made up of core, knowledgeable riders in the Midwest.

Agreed. It's always better to have a bike that's too small vs. too big. Too small is an occasional nuisance, too big is a constant confidence killer.

I'd stick with medium if he's 5'7 and growing. Throwing him on a size large now is just asking for him to have reduced control of the bike and hamstringing his ability to develop bike skills optimally. Also, if he gets to 5 9 or 5 10 or 5 11 he can absolutely still ride the medium. I'm 5 11 and I don't like most modern larges so I end up buying mediums to have a shorter wheelbase and more control. But forcing a kiddo on a large while they're still 5'7 is a disservice to their experience. The fun...

If he is going to hit 5'10" in a year and you want him to be on the same bike then I'd go large. If he were the oldest and you had a medium kid coming along to hand off to then that changes the calculus. But I'd plan for the future, and get him a slightly-too-large bike now. Ultimately your call, but that's how I see it.

You are looking at the right 3 bikes. Right now is a buyers market for outdoor goods, not a sellers market, meaning that relatively speaking, a new bike is better value if you can afford it. Many brands are projecting shortages next year, so if you need to offload it, doing so next year will be much more favorable.

The Specialized Fuse would be good enough for him. The X-Fusion forks are less popular than the more expensive brands, but they actually manufacture the forks for some of those other brands, so they know what they’re doing. All the other parts are good enough. He’ll just need the DMR V12 pedals I mentioned above, as the specialised pedals don’t have any metal pins for grip, lots of brands now make plastic pedals with metal pins which are good and more affordable than their much more expensive metal pedals. Also it would be worth making the tyres tubeless, where you...

I’ll give more general advice. It’s definitely a good option to buy a new whole bike, ideally a full suspension in the sale from a popular mainstream brand like Trek or Specialized. Although a hardtail for the same price with better parts may be more suitable if he’s happy to ride one, this just depends on how smooth the trails he rides are when he’s sat down climbing or it’s flat. He’ll be stood up going downhill, so a hardtail is fine there and will improve his bike control. These will have good enough parts and if your son gains...

Can get a stump jumper evo s2 frame and marzocchi z1 fork for 1300 new thanks to 50 plus percent off clearance deals. Look for used/clearance parts from bike shops and classifieds and you can probably get rest of bike built up for 1500 total. If he doesn’t outgrow it the bits you don’t generally replace he will have very top of the line equipment and regardless he will replace the consumable parts of the bike down the road. If he does outgrow it you will not have an issue recouping the majority of the investment and putting it towards...

Well yes and no, it's more so about your long term goals. You definitely don't want a growing child who progresses quickly to be riding on a 100mm coil hardtail with skewer axles and stuff. But the reality is most of us started out doing exactly that. Punishing a cheap hardtail until we no longer could. The good news is you don't have to! I realize many of the options I highlighted may be out of stock due to popularity... Lemme try to find some options that are actually in stock for a medium-ish size. Cheapest bike I'd get (size...

I really don’t think a used bike is a good way to go unless you guys know what you’re looking at. Used bikes can be a great deal but also require knowledge to fix things. And in that price range and that type of bike there will be a lot that maybe need wheel truing (or replacement), tires, brake pads, drivetrain, etc. sure you can find good bikes, you can also find overpriced, clapped out deathtraps and spit shined turds. just get a new bike, and then everything will work and you got a shop helping you out if needed...

a more succinct way to say this is looking for lightly used 'last year model' hardtails is much preferrable to buying an old 26 inch free ride bike that is not suitable and maybe not safe without the right knowledge just because its 950 bucks. ultimately i dont think anybody has been pushing them towards that, though we do see many new members get swayed by big suspension bikes from 20 years ago for the cool factor. a lil part of me wants to buy every clapped out kona stinky i can find, but i know im not gonna do...

It sounds like you two are aiming for a suspension bike for the trails and that's fine. But there's a lot of merit to lots of hard tail riding to really learn bike skills. So keep an eye out for a clapped out dirt jump bike for riding street and playing around with dirt jumps. And it's lots of fun bombing short singletracks.There are lots available for less than $1000 new which should be dirt cheap used.

For around a grand i would probably look at a used trail bike rather than new. You could get a new hard tail for around that but i think it would be a better use of money to look for a used full suspension cause it would give him more to grow into and if you go to any colorado bike parks you might want full suspension. I dont know whats on marketplace or pinkbike in your area but maybe a used specialized status 140 or something like that. For his height he might be more comfortable on mullet or...

Oh, this is my specialty. I make data sheets and written guides about buying a bike. Your best bet is finding a Giant Fathom, Trek Roscoe, or Specialized Fuse secondhand. I've even seen that base Fuse with the coil for under 1k on their website. If you're REALLY struggling to find anything you can always fall back on the Poseidon Norton as a bottom of the barrel stock build that you can basically upgrade frame up long term. The wheels and drivetrain are more solid than I thought however so yeah you're basically just looking at fork, brakes, dropper and...