Light weight 24 inch wheels for kids bikes

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The standard wheels that came with Lewis’s carrera blast weighed in at 2210g (F985+R1225) which is pretty heavy by 26 inch standards.  Heavy wheels not only contribute to the overall heft of the bike but rotational weight makes it harder to pedal and climb.  Light weight wheels can be built but they are not cheap.  If your kids bike has normal size MTB drop outs 9x100mm for the front and 10x135mm for the rear then you can build your wheels up using standard MTB hubs. I originally though about using Circus Monkey HDW3 hubs as they are not too badly priced (approx £110) and pretty lightweight (F119g, R223g) but their reliability for our Scottish weather is dubious and warranty issues with them being imported made them a no no.  I eventually went for superstar switch evo hubs (rebadged Novatec D881SB front and D882SB).  These hubs well priced £73 for the pair with the F204g & R 296g – note they have increased their prices to £97 for the pair.  I should note that modern quality MTB hubs are for 8,9,10sp cassettes so if you want to use a 7sp cassette you’ll need to put a spacer on before the cassette

superstar switch evo green

Rim choice for 24 inch is pretty limited if you want lightness.  I managed to find a pair of Alex ACE 20 rims (~400g) from the European importer for £30 posted to the UK. Other choices include velocity aeroheat, Alienation Deviant and now stans are making a Crest rim in 24 inch size which is around 305g. The crest rim is the lightest but also the most expensive at ~£65 per rim. When choosing a rim make sure it has an ISO of 507 which will fit standard 24 inch MTB tyres.

I got the wheels built by Al @ wheelcraft using sapim race DB spokes.  Al only charged £50 to do both wheels incl spokes so the total build cost was £150. The wheels weigh in at 1705g (F800g, R905g)  I could have made them lighter using sapim laser spokes but the price increase isn’t worth it.

Wheelcraft built wheel

I put the tyres on tubeless using superstar tape and valves but these are not really a great fit for the rim so will be swapping them out for some gorilla tape and DT swiss valves.  The tyres have gone on but they took their time to seal particularly around the valve area.  I also had to use a ghetto compressor to inflate the tyres as I couldn’t get enough air in using the track pump alone

2 thoughts on “Light weight 24 inch wheels for kids bikes”

  1. Jess

    Hello,

    I’m no expert in bike, but you and other people on the net inspired me to build a front 24″ MTB wheel. Those wheel set in the market are very heavy.
    I stumbled upon these.
    ALIENATION Black Sheep Rim 24″
    ALIENATION Ankle Biter Rim 24″

    They all have lower ERD than 507. Is this a challenge for the wheel builder?

    Reply ↓
    1. Ross Post author

      Hi Jess, sorry it was a misprint. It should be ISO of 507, ERD is for spoke length and doesn’t really matter for tyre size.

      Reply ↓

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