daughters build - nearly there

Needed a bike for my daughter who has shown an interest in xc racing.

Could have spent a few hundred quid on a new bike but thought a build would be better value for money.

Looked for a small frame , wanted a 13" frame but couldn't seem to find a good (cheap) one. Went for a 14 1/2" timberline not sure what year?

Started building with parts i had. just need to get a better sadle for a young lady and possibly a shorter travel fork as shes up in the air abit, probably still a bit to big but she can just about ride it with seat post fully inserted.

Bike shown with seat post and saddle set for me to test ride.
also need a front mech, better add in wanted!

Thanks to toadoftoadhall for frame.

If anyone has a 13" frame let me know!

Very nice, your daughter should be pleased with this!
I know it is hard to find a 13", I was looking for one for my son, finaly found a 14".
Why do you still want a 13"? This one looks all in proportion.

well she's on tiptoes when off the saddle and a 13" would be perfect

but its also got a 80mm travel z4 fork at the moment, a shorter travel fork might help?

There's a few complete 12.5" GT's floating around on the west side of the pond in mid level aluminum framed bikes right now.

This is a young lady racing in the US on a size 14 Kona - that's 14" c-t seat tube, 11" c-c seat tube, 20 3/4" c-c top tube. It seems to fit her ok at 4-10.

However she does seem to have flipped her stem and the SID has been set at 65mm rather than 80, which seems to support your thinking about the bar height needed for a racing posture - her bars are still a couple of inches higher than her saddle.

That frame doesn't actually look long enough for her in my opinion :?

I think her seatpost must have slipped a bit too ;-)

MikeD":1qm5jtkq said:

I think her seatpost must have slipped a bit too ;-)

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My thoughts exactly! Also note the postion of her femur even with the cranks already started downward. Should probably have shorter crank arms also even with the seat up a couple more centimeters and maybe the saddle scooted back a tad on the rails. The position of her body with her bar at that height gives her less control of the front end.

With small frames you generally see more seat post up out of the frame and commonly for smaller riders see the bars above or at the most level with the saddle. Most of us bigger guys are running our saddles higher than our bars or level to the bars at the lowest for a "race" set up.

Looking good Nemo im sure she will grow pretty fast

development_cycle":u9ocr03b said:

That frame doesn't actually look long enough for her in my opinion :?

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Note though that the bars are barely further forward than the steerer - she must have a very short stem on there and that will be why her hands are so far back from the axle centre. Her proud father said she won a national championship in her age group on that bike, so her posture can't have been holding her back all that much.

Speaking from my own experience with building a bike for a similar height young rider, they are growing so fast at that age that dad is continually wanting to make the bike bigger, but my young rider was always resistant and wanted to keep the saddle a little lower and the stem a little shorter than I would have wished. And there may be something in their youhful wisdom - that short position does enable them to shift their weight about and get out of the saddle more easily, which can be a help when you're still short of sheer power.