Video: Live the Dream as the Ultimate Grom Riding for Commencal

20 Comments

58 3

wowbagger (Oct 3, 2018 at 10:07)

"Are you young, fearless and in love with riding bikes?"

How about 'middle-aged, scared by gaps i can't reach across and in love with riding bikes'?

mtbikeaddict (Oct 3, 2018 at 10:23)

+1. @COMMENCALbicycles: You open to people older than 16?

a-green FL (Oct 3, 2018 at 14:36)

@wowbagger I neg propped you by accident. :/

You and the PB community may neg prop me for my reckless mouse clicking.... Apologies my good sir

OldRanger (Oct 3, 2018 at 17:42)

The experience Ben had on this team will certainly be one of his most memorable cycling experiences. For any parents and/or young athletes that are out there considering this - go for it, and good luck! I completely endorse the concept, the folks leading it, and the environment they have created. Good times! I hope to see the Jr. Cartel an even bigger force in the community next year.

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Svinyard (Oct 3, 2018 at 10:16)

Hey Commencal, love that you are into the kids scene! It's time to get serious about your bikes and get ahead of the high-end competition. I'd love to see lighter bikes for the climbs (FS around 27lbs 24", Hardtail around 24lbs 24"). Also the gearing needs to be fixed. 7sp with a 32t chainring just sucks for kids that have to go uphill. It needs to be 10 or 11sp (11sp shimano is cheap now) with 30t chainring. Also a glaring issue in kids bikes is cranklength. 152mm is too common for even higher end stuff and sucks. 140mm or 135mm is what kids on a 24" mtb need. There is no advantage to 150+ and its screwy on their bodies/riding position. Makes it hard for smaller kids to fit on your bikes too. Heck I'm 6-4 and am happy on 170 or 175mm. I'd also ditch the plus tires every time except for really loose riding, rotational weight sucks for me and is rediculously poor for a 60lb kid pedaling uphill who isn't a phenom (phenom can ride anything and look good). We've spent the dusty summer going up and down on 20" 2.2 meaty Spawn tires that weigh like 440g and they are nothing short of awesome. 2.3 light tires is where it's at for kids on 24".

Also I LOVE that there are no coil forks like Spesh has done with the garbage Riprock that is a tank with poor components etc. It's anti-kid just a trick to get them to get "suspension" that doesn't even work and weighs 5lbs. Cheers to that. Love your color schemes and looking forward to potentially picking up the new 24" Clash assuming it's got more than 100mm of travel and isn't a tank. Any more details on that and specs will help.

Clarkeh (Oct 3, 2018 at 12:53)

Think that on a 24" wheel the 11 or 12sp derailleur would be dragging the ground in the granny?
Imo they'd be better off with a 24 up front and a 7sp 11-34 cassette - plus it'd bring the cost of the bike down by a few hundred.

Svinyard (Oct 3, 2018 at 14:27)

@Clarkeh: It works great at 11sp, Trailcraft has been doing it for years now and its ultra nice.

cmcrawfo (Oct 3, 2018 at 14:28)

disk brakes on all the little grom stuff would be amazing. There are kids riding green bike park trails on balance bikes, but a major limitation is the fatigue associated with rim brakes.

Very few (if any) companies are putting discs on anything smaller than 20" wheels. If a company could offer discs , it would really make their offerings stand out.

LuisCR (Oct 3, 2018 at 14:44)

Rented a supreme 20 for my 6 yo kid this summer, his first FS. It was awesome, but you're right; cranks arms too long and a bit heavy. Check out the Propain kids bikes. A bit lighter and smart components

Svinyard (Oct 3, 2018 at 15:20)

@cmcrawfo: Yeah my 4yro is getting close to doing more DH oriented trails but the rim brakes and little hands are NOT a good recipe. Finding a 16" fork and frame with disk brake mounts is impossible tho, aside from Flow or Little Shredders with their convertable wheelset. That gets expensive quick but they do convert back to 20"...so I'd just go for that man and call it good. Both those options are excellent for what you are talking about.

washingtonoutdoorfamily (Oct 3, 2018 at 20:59)

We own the Supreme 20". I changed out the brakes and crank arms. The Tektro levers stuck out beyond the bars. Put on a BMX race square taper BB with Answer 115mm crank arms. Slapped on 1x10 drive train. The Kenda tires were crazy heavy, so I bought Maxxis Maxdaddy. I like the frame, but the complete build needs work. My biggest complaint is with the BB. Its an internal bearing for the suspension but the cover is held in place by the BB shell. However, to get 115-135mm crank arms then you gotta run a square taper. Square taper does not flange over the frame to hold the bearing cover in place. So now I have a dust cover over a bearing held on by electrical tape because the dust cover does not attach by snapping into the frame and floating over the bearing. It's the only flaw in the entire bike IMO. Check out my 5 year old shredder at www.instagram.com/washington_outdoor_family

Svinyard (Oct 3, 2018 at 22:25)

@washingtonoutdoorfamily: Would the Spawn direct mount 127s have worked? It's been nice not to have the square taper stuff on Spawns 20" stuff
I know you guys BTW. You were riding that Slayer at Steven's Pass in June at Nw Cup. I was the Dad (Steve) of Wesley who rode the green Spawn hardtail (I was on the blue Instinct). Glad to see you guys riding hard still. If you guys come out to Post Canyon in Hood River let's get the boys out and ride. Dirt will be good starting on FridayRainday. We can shuttle above Binns.

washingtonoutdoorfamily (Oct 4, 2018 at 21:07)

@Svinyard: I looked at Spawns but anything below 135 required square taper. Unless I saw wrong. So I went with straight race bmx setup.

dirtpedaler (Oct 6, 2018 at 18:42)

Appreciate the comments on the kids bikes. Ours has been on the Meta 20 and Supreme 20 for a couple years now and starting to look for his 24 now. He does do some climbing on his Supreme, we have it set up with 9 speed, ditched the Sram brakes for Shimano and he also bent the Alpha cranks so we replaced with Broods. Liked the looks of the 2018 Supreme more than the new 2019 bikes. Lots of options looking good. We're more inclined to get a DH oriented FS bike since he does like to boost and the gnar. At 8 years old and just hitting 48 inches now he has been able to ride my 26 dj bike and also jumped on a xs 27.5 bike the other day which he thought was pretty cool.

fabwizard FL (Oct 5, 2018 at 13:56)

Anyone have any experience with tubeless on 20" wheels. Spawn sells rims and tires and was looking at lacing them up on the OEM wheels on my 5 year olds Vertex 20.

BTW Since the Grom is on the small side had to swap the OEM cranks with a set of 127mm from Spawn, worked great. Also swapped the 50 mm stem for a 35 mm to reduce the reach.

lordchewington (Oct 5, 2018 at 6:35)

That last kid is my new favorite rider.

vincentliu (Oct 3, 2018 at 10:46)

Great video! Good to see companies in the grom programs shaping future shredders!

Fifty50Grip (Oct 4, 2018 at 21:48)

Commencal hit this right on the nail, make all riders remember what fun looks like. Good job.

dhsami (Oct 3, 2018 at 10:44)

Yeah boys this is killer!

ConnorP15 (Oct 3, 2018 at 14:46)

that is so sweet!