Check out ten year old Harry Barret’s custom J-Tech suspension Scott Spark.

Watch the video then read the story below.

http://mpora.com/videos/tltEIBL7x

Harry’s dad Bono takes up the story.

Words and photos: Bono Barrett.

Harry has been riding DH since he was 5, he is now 10 but still quite small. He lives for DH and rides every weekend on the Pearce Cycles uplift, and opens the track prior to their races. As he is so small we had to get him a bike that could stand the abuse he gives them and as there is nothing out there to buy in 20″ wheels that will do DH.

So with Harry so keen on DH and having two older brothers that race, we had to do something.

Jim at J-Tech suspension had seen Harry riding for a while and was on the case to make a shock and forks for him. The call came from J-Tech and Jim now had a way of making custom forks from a set of Marz single crown shivers, the rest of the build fell into place.

I bought a pair of forks from eBay and a set of 888 clamps to go over the top, J-Tech shortened the travel from 120mm to 90mm on the forks to balance up the rear shock which is a Stratos TR1 that was also shortened and the remote reservoir added, a custom spring was made to balance the suspension for the tiny 4 1/2 stone Harry.

The forks and shock was fitted to a new Scott Spark Jr Frame and Pearce Cycles of Ludlow took over the rest of the build. Dave Radcliffe at Pearce Cycles did all the spanner work and built up two new Sunn Ringle 36 hole 20″ BMX rims. A Hope Pro II hub on the front and a Deore Hub on the back, this was a technical issue as the rear triangle is not the standard width.

A set of Deore xc brakes were fitted with a 140mm rear rotor and 160 mm up front. The Scott does not have a rear brake mounts welded to the frame so a custom brake conversion kit was fitted.

The chain device was “borrowed” from Harry’s brother Andrew and customized to fit by Dave, with Bono making the alu bash guard out of an old saucepan base.

The BB was changed and the crank arms replaced with shorter ones for ground clearance. The mech is a short cage Shimano Sora road mech with an 8-speed Olivio push push shifter and an 8-speed cassette.

Finally we finished off with a custom cut Invisiframe protection film.

Words from Harry ” My new bike is awesome and much better now Jim has made me some suspension. It means I can jump more better now.” ” Can I go and ride it now?”

He’s a boy of few words all he wants to do is ride.

Have you built up a bike for your young ripper? Then send an ebeam to Billy