What disc brakes for kids build?

[ishaw]

So the gringo I recently built for my 9 year old has turned out a touch large, so I've sourced a smaller frame to build a better fitting bike around (13 inch specialised hard rock).

It's a disc only frame so the build will have to change to accommodate this.

My question is, which disc brakes from stash will be best suited to a small handed rider?

The gringo came out nice and light, probably the lightest build I've done (1x drive train and rigid forks along with crossmax wheels and a smattering of carbon really helped), so along with hand size, weight is a consideration.

I have the following brakes lurking in the garage, would any of these work?

Magura MTS
Magura MT2
Shimano deore
Avid elixir r

I could go crazier and go formula t1, dram xo or magura mt6 or even hope, but it's a kids bike after all, but in saying that, due to stash limitations it will probably be getting 32mm sid or reba forks, xt, xtr, x9 or xo gearing and possibly decent wheels (hope/cc 717s, mavic crosstrails or crossmax sl as that's all I have spare).

Or should I sell up the decent parts and buy something more befitting a kids bike?

What do we think retrobike sages?

 

[RickTheUncivil]

Re:

I'm planning something similar, but intend to ditch the original hydro idea in favour of cable for simplicity and value. Avid BB7 are light and work well, dead easy to set up and a canny bid on the bay gets a full set for £20-30, maybe less if you are lucky. Also being cable means much wider choice of levers to suit the smaller hands.

That's my logic anyway

 

[mdvineng]

BB7's are very good for this, I did this for my grandkids bikes.

 

[Timoth27]

Re:

Go with what you have, My lad’s genesis caribou (he’s 5) is running hope mono minis with floating rotors just because I had them.

 

[ishaw]

Re:

Cheers. Hoping something I have will suit. Leaning towards deore as I have an xtr shifter that will slot on to the I-spec mount. He's going to have a better specced bike than me at this rate.

 

[KHot Fan]

Nothing wrong with that. Especially if it keeps his stoke up on the bike. What a good dad!

 

[drcarlos]

Deore M615's are great brakes (current top budget caliper, that happily competes with brakes costing 2x the price) and a used set are around £40. I would have no issues putting them on a kids bike with 160mm discs (their weight doesn't really require more).

 

[ishaw]

Re:

Thanks. I think deore might be the best option. I may need to shorten the hose, not bled shimano brakes for a while, anything special about it? Last bled m97x brakes which I don't recall being tricky. Famous last words of course.