Hellion 20 (MY24/25)

best bike ever

In the few months of owning this bike my kid (just turned six) has progressed so much. He was riding the seeker 16x which is a great bike. The Hellion has taken him to the next level. His confidence and ability to ride more difficult trails has exploded. He is now able to ride much longer and farther. He is so proud of his bike and loves riding it every day. He says that he doesn't like toys anymore...just his bike.

Our sons have been riding nothing else than Early riders since they can ride, our 5 year old switched from the seeker x16 to the Hellion 20 as we’re doing more and more gravity!
He’s enjoying the bike and it’s way nicer in reality than in pictures !

Nous avons offert le Hellion 20 à notre fils Gaël Dao 5 ans et demi et il est aux anges. Ce vélo à vraiment un look particulier et on le distingue vite des autres. Gaël Dao est toujours en phase d'apprentissage, mais c'est facile et il n'a aucun problème pour changer les vitesses. Le seul bémol est que je ne trouve pas de protection pour le système des vitesses que je pourrais fixer à la roue arrière droite. Bref, tip top !
Bravo EarlyRider 👏 👏 👏

Very nice built, light, good geometry. My 6 years old sone loving it!

Upgrading from 16” wheels to 20” wheels allowed our 5 year old to progress overnight, rolled over sections of trail he walked just the week before. The geometry and low stand over gave him confidence, another great build from early rider.

I was surprised how quickly he figured out the thumb shifters, downshifting up hills he normally walked. The bike required minor indexing to get the rear derailleur shifting smooth which is expected for a new bike.

100% recommend

My Son is super happy, by far the best bike for kids.

Ive bought every wheel size starting from the balance bike, top quality and components

Nice

Great look and quality ... my son is super happy :-)

OK quality, last year bike from the same series Hellion 20 was better quality

Awesome bike my son loves and is ripping the trails with it.

Hreat bike with premium gears that my other sons can inherit in time.

Excellent bikes, excellent service. Came quickly and the bike is amazing, can’t really ask for much more!

Very good Bike with standard components, My girl makes quick progress on it

The bike is great. We upgraded from a seeker 16 and our little one could immediate get going with the bike and we were riding trails just one day after the bike arrived.

Only downside is the price which however seems justified for what you get.
Also the assembly instructions didn’t quite match with what had to be done. For instance I had to mount and adjust the front disc brake calliper which wasn’t mentioned in the instructions at all. Not a problem if you are used to Mountainbikes which most buyers of this bike will be. But still a little oversight in the instructions

What can we say: the best bike we ever had its price worth every penny

All told, this is a seriously nice bike for such a young rider. Our little guy was on a Seeker 16 for a couple years, and he'd both grown enough and progressed enough that bigger wheels were warranted. We've currently got it converted to a singlespeed so he can get used to the new bike before we add shifting into the mix. The sliding dropouts made the conversion super easy, and were ultimately the main reason we stuck with Early Rider instead of giving more consideration to other options. Had there been an option to add a reasonably priced, suspension-corrected aluminum fork in addition to the suspension fork, I'd have probably jumped on that as well since this bike, while crazy light for a kids bike, represents a pretty substantial increase in weight from the Seeker 16. The RST fork works well, my kindergartner is heavy enough to actually have it work like a suspension fork and not a pogo stick or a heavy rigid fork (which, honestly, I wasn't entirely expecting it to achieve and have been pleasantly surprised by), but he would likely benefit more from having a lighter bike to pick up and haul uphill than he will from having the travel, at least for now.

The tires included with the bike are not tubeless-ready, but they were hooked into the rim well enough that I felt safe in converting the wheels to tubeless and hoping they'd seal. A couple passes of tubeless tape (stock config has old-school rubber rim strips), a couple valves, and a couple ounces of sealant later and we're in business, with these non-tubeless tires holding air better than some of my tubeless tires. The rims are pinned and sleeved as opposed to welded, so there was some minor air and sealant escaping initially from the joint, but they sealed up just fine after a few seconds and likely wouldn't have leaked at all if I'd used 27mm tape instead of 25mm tape. My only other minor complaint is the less-than-ideal routing for the derailleur housing. It enters on the drive side and creates a kind of awkward bend. It shifted fine in the stand before I removed the derailleur and shifter, but I have some concerns for the long term. Since the internal routing doesn't use a full-length guide through the frame, I may just route the rear brake hose through the drive side and the derailleur housing through the NDS opening once we throw the gears back on. I've had much bigger complaints on much more expensive big boy bikes, so for the only "issues" to be the path the housing takes while still working just fine and a minor tubeless setup issue that I was at least partially responsible for, the Hellion is doing pretty great so far and I expect it will serve our kid well for the next few years. Much as I'd love to luck out and get him onto a 26" or 27.5" bike with a tiny frame for his next rig so I can stretch the next bike out for a couple more years, we'll probably be back for a Hellion 24 sometime in the next few years!