The 24 inch Pello Reyes fills the gap between a great all-aworound bike and a mountain-bike-specific bike, helping your child progress without being overkill for their skill level. Read the review for more reasons we love this “can do anything” bike!
Pello Reyes 24 Inch Overview
RATING: Exceptional
MSRP: $639
BEST FOR: Your average to intermediate rider on a wide range of terrains and distances, especially those who will be tackling increasingly aggressive trails.
SEAT HEIGHT: 25.25″ – 31″
WEIGHT: 21.9 lb. (24 lb. with RST suspension fork)
ADDITIONAL SPECS
GEARS: 9-speed w/ Shimano Trigger Shifter
BRAKES: Mechanical Disc, 140mm rotors front and rear
FRAME: Aluminum Alloy
SUSPENSION FORK: Optional RST F1RST w/ 60mm travel
TIRES: 24×1.95 Kenda Small Block Eight, can take up to 2.1″ tire in rear and 2.225″ in front
PROS:
- Kid-specific “Ride Right” lightweight frame design
- Shimano 9 sp trigger shifter for easily tackling elevation changes
- Versatile Kenda Small Block 8 24 x 1.95 tires for paved or mild dirt trails
- Disc brakes for better stopping power
- High-end Cane Creek headset
- Super responsive steering
- Optional RST F1RST Air fork
CONS:
- A lower low gear would be better for extended climbing
Pello Reyes Review – Results of Our Test Rides
Well-suited for everything from basic mountain biking to longer family rides along paved trails, the Pello Reyes is one magical multi-trick pony. Featuring responsive Tektro mechanical disc-brakes, a lightweight aluminum frame and fork as well an optional air fork, the Reyes is well-thought out for versatile, long-term use.
In fact, you know you’ve got a sweet bike on your hands when mom and dad keep stealing it from the kids! Whether at the bike park or around the neighborhood, the Reyes exceeded our expectations.
Performance
From the moment our kids hopped on the Pello Reyes, they were in love.
The Pello Reyes features a lightweight frame and nine gears for easily tackling hills, grippy tires for confidence on any terrain, disc brakes for better stopping power, and super responsive steering. This precision-crafted bike was built for turning on a dime, stopping on a dime, and dominating every path in between.
Compared to other higher-end 24 inch bikes, the Pello Reyes is unique in that it fills that gap between a great all-around bike and a mountain-bike-specific bike. Pello offers super high-quality designs that will help your child progress their skills and become more confident while not being overwhelming or overkill for their skill level.
Our primary test rider began his journey on the Reyes having never mountain biked in his life. He loved long paved rides with the family on his beloved Reyes with the rigid fork.
But then he got his first taste of single track on a spring break trip to Bentonville. Welcome to the MTB life, kid! On that trip, the rigid fork did just great on beginner mountain bike trails, and was ideal for his skill level at that point.
As his skills and confidence developed in the following month, he began tackling much more aggressive terrain, jumps, and drops. We upgraded the Reyes to the air fork and also to knobbier tires with a bit more bite.
He subsequently shredded blue and black trails all over Bentonville with his upgraded Pello Reyes, and was more in love with this bike than we’d ever seen him before.
Size
With a 6″ seat height range of 25.25 – 31″, the Pello Reyes fits kids with inseams approximately 22 – 29″. Most high-end 24″ bikes are built in this range, with the Pello’s 25″ minimum seat height being on the “smaller” end, while the woom 5, the largest 24″ bike we recommend, has a 26.4″ minimum seat height.
For kids with inseams less than 22″, the geared 20-inch Pello Rover or the single-speed Pello Reddi would be a better choice. Check with our Bike Size Guide for help on measurements.
Lightweight Frame & Optional Suspension
Packed with features, including a lightweight 6061 aluminum frame and fork and Tektro mechanical disc brakes, the standard Pello Reyes weighs in at a mere 21.9 lbs. Our testers were able to dominate hills they had been unable to summit in the past on heavier bikes.
For more aggressive riders, Pello also offers an RST F1RST air fork for an additional $279. If your child is already hitting the trails with no hesitation, the supsnesion fork is a worthy upgrade!
Based on our experience with our own kids, until a child is fully confident on trails, the additional weight a suspension fork adds to a bike often does more harm than good. Learning how to properly maneuver, shift, and brake on the mountain is much easier to accomplish on a lighter-weight bike.
If your young grom is ready for suspension, the Reyes is fully capable as its frame is suspension corrected and the RST F1RST fork (with 60mm on travel) comes installed and fine-tuned to work with the Reyes. If you purchase the Reyes with the suspension fork, the rigid fork is also included to allow for maximum versatility.
For the first year we had the Reyes, we had the rigid fork, which was perfect while our 8-year-old was first learning to ride trails. When he became more serious about mountain biking and began tackling blue trails in Bentonville, we upgraded to the air fork.
Having the option to upgrade later is a HUGE selling point for the Reyes. It makes it one of our favorite 24 inch mountain bikes for serious little groms.
Geometry
Rider’s Body Position
A rider on the Reyes remains relatively upright, even a tad more so than on other bikes like the woom 5 or Guardian 24 inch that you would consider less aggressive. Its upright stance is pretty on par with mountain bikes by Islabikes and Prevelo – the Creig 24 and the Zulu Four.
Whether your rider prefers an upright position or a more leaned forward stance is really up to personal preference and riding style. For beginning mountain bikes riders, however, the somewhat upright position can better help them get up and behind their seat when riding down hills.
Body Position on Pello Reyes vs. woom 5
Bottom Bracket Height and Crank Length
The bottom bracket of the Pello Reyes is set low for great pedal efficiency and also keeps the bike’s center of gravity lower for better control on the trails. Mindful of the additional clearance needed on trails to prevent pedal strike, the Reyes’ bottom bracket it set slightly higher than other brands, such as the woom 5 (shown below).
When we took the Reyes to the bike park, we also took along the woom 5 as a comparison. Both bikes are incredibly crafted and do well on varied terrains. However, for navigating non-flat dirt trails or all-terrain jumps, tight turns on berms, etc., the Reyes is the clear winner.
Our testers still loved the super lightweight woom 5 because it was easy to climb hills, but they did have frequent complaints about the pedals hitting the dirt as they summited hills or took sharp angles against berms.
From floor to bottom of the pedal at its lowest point, the Pello Reyes measures 4.6″ of clearance, while the woom 5 only measures 3.5″. The Pello Alpha Four, a bike designed for aggressive all-terrain riding, measures similarly to the Reyes at 5″.
Wheels and Tires
Designed to be versatile, like the Reyes, the Kenda Small Block 8 24 x 1.95 tires are wide and knobby, but without being too raised to be loud on paved surfaces. With great traction, they are fully capable for basic trail riding, as well as on paved or compact dirt trails. NOTE: The original Reyes came with Kenda K-Rad tires.
Compared to similar bikes like the Prevelo Alpha Four, which has 24 x 1.5 tires, the Reyes’ wider tires make it more mountain ready like other true kids mountain bikes.
Equipped with Alex Tubeless ready rims, the Reyes is also ready to go tubeless which can prevent almost all punctures as well as increase traction. Tubeless tire setups can be run at a lower air pressure, which allows the tire to flex to meet the trail, thereby providing more traction.
When we upgraded to the air fork, we also went tubeless at that point since our biking outings were much less paved, and almost exclusively mountain biking. The stock Kenda Small Block 8s are not tubeless ready, so we also swapped out the tires, opting for an even wider and knobbier tread.
The Reyes can take up to a 24×2.1 tire in the rear and 24×2.225 in the front.
Gearing and Shifting
NOTE: When we tested the Reyes, it had a SRAM X drivetrain and grip shifter. It is now spec’d with a 9 speed Shimano Altus derailleur and Shimano Altus M2000 Rapidfire trigger shifters. While we haven’t tested this set-up on the Reyes, we did test and love it on the larger 27.5″ Pello Roovi.
Trigger shifters work wonders for aggressive riders as they allow for quick shifting without having to adjust your grip on the handlebars. The Shimano triggers are thumb/forefinger, which is a less common system these days.
Shimano triggers require you to shift up by pushing a lever with your thumb and shift down by pulling a lever with your index finger. SRAM trigger shifters require you to shift up and down using two different buttons with your thumb.
For our test riders who switch bikes regularly, some prefer the Shimano style, and others prefer the SRAM. But either system works well and your kid will get used to it quickly.
For your average rider, the nine gears on the Reyes may not be necessary, but for an adventurous kid that’s going to tackle increasingly aggressive trails (or upgrade to the suspension fork for true mountain biking), those nine gears are going to come in handy.
At 140mm, the crank arms are long enough to provide ample torque, but not too long to create pedal strike. Ideally, the perfect crank arm length really depends on the rider’s inseam, but for kids in the 7+ age range, the 140mm crank arm, in combination with the bottom bracket height, is a great fit.
Those nine gears cover a gain ratio of 1.9 – 6.34, a considerably higher range than the Prevelo Zulu mountain bike (1.36-5.94), but a slightly lower range than multi-use Prevelo Alpha Four (2.1 – 6.8) and the woom 5 (2.1 to 6.0).
On the low end, the Reyes’ 1.9 granny gear stands ready to power kids up hills, but is not as ideal as the Zulu for extended mountain bike climbing.
On the high end, the Reyes’ 6.34 gear won’t allow its rider to max out at the same speed as the Prevelo Alpha on long flat rides, but 6.34 is still plenty high for most situations a paved or trail rider is likely to encounter.
During our tests, our testers had no complaints about the gearing of the Reyes. Its wide range within the nine gears worked great at the bike park as well as in the neighborhood.
Many kids transitioning to a 24″ bike are still not entirely proficient with shifting. As a result, we’ve seen many of our testers think they don’t like a bike simply because they aren’t using the gears correctly. Take the time to make sure your child understands why shifting is important, and how it can help them.
We’ve had success with this by having kids ride up and down medium inclines and requiring them to keep their bums on the seat. When they can’t stand up to gain more momentum, they quickly figure out those gears!
Mechanical Disc Brakes
From paved to dirt trails, the ability to stop on a dime is essential for older riders who can ride more aggressively and with more speed. The Reyes’ Tektro mechanical disc brakes with 140mm rotors front and rear, offer vast improvements in stopping power as compared to standard v-brakes, but without the tricky bleeding and adjustments that can come with hydraulic disc brakes.
For the adventurous mountain bike rider, hydraulic disc brakes are king (like those on the Prevelo Zulu), but for the average rider, the increased stopping power of mechanical disc brakes are a welcome upgrade to standard v-brakes.
Cane Creek Headset
Often overlooked, the headset of a bike (the component that attaches the handlebars to the fork), is essential for maintaining top-notch responsiveness on a bike. If a headset comes loose or is not able to keep the alignment on the bike straight, the performance of a bike will suffer.
The Reyes, like all Pello bikes, features a Cane Creek headset. Cane Creek headsets have set the standard for headsets in the bike world for over two decades. They are simply the best and as a result, you will never have to worry about your headset when purchasing a Pello bike.
Saddle
The Reyes’ child-proportioned seat comes from bike saddle manufacturer Cionlli, which has an entire line of junior performance saddles. Padded for comfort, it can also be adjusted forward or back on its rails to dial in a more precise and comfortable body position for your rider. Kids with longer or shorter-than-average torsos benefit most from this feature.
Dropper Post Ready
While many kids on a 24″ bike can’t handle the added complexity of a dropper post, if you do have an advanced grom on your hands, the Reyes has a dropper port so you can easily add an internal dropper seatpost.
Ease of Assembly
Given the high-end components that this bike features, I expected it to be a lot more complicated to assemble than it actually was. Even with disc brakes, it only took about 15 minutes until the Reyes was up and ready to roll.
Comparisons
The Pello Reyes’ uniquely versatile features put it in its own class, but it’s still helpful to compare it to other all-terrain friendly 24″ bikes including the Frog 62, Prevelo Alpha Four and the woom 5.
We love all of these bikes and each has specific strengths, but the Pello Reyes is our favorite pick for developing riders needing maximum versatility while riding on everything from compact dirt single track to paved bike paths.
Pello Reyes’ wide gain ratio, grippy tires, and disc-brake stopping power will dominate the bike park or basic single track, while its comfortable body position and lightweight frame make it a great option for paved family bike rides as well.
woom 5‘s combination of a super lightweight frame, an upright position, grip shifters, and slightly wide tires make it ideal for beginning to intermediate riders on various surfaces.
Prevelo Alpha Four is perfect for your average aggressive rider. With trigger shifters and an aggressive body position, it’s ideal for adventurous young riders – especially those who want to hit the mountain trails.
| Bike | Pello Reyes | woom 5 | Prevelo Alpha Four | |
| MSRP | $639 | $549 | $549 | |
| Weight | 21.9 lb. | 18.1 lb. | 21.2 lb. | |
| Seat Height | 25.25″ – 31″ | 26.4″ – 32.3″ | 25.8″ – 31.2″ | |
| Shifters | 9sp, Trigger | 8sp, Grip | 8sp, Trigger | |
| Gain Ratio | 1.9 – 6.34 | 2.1 – 6.0 | 2.1 to 6.8 |
Pello Reyes Bottom Line
Whether your child is an adventurous rider looking to tackle the mountain or bike parks, or a neighborhood rider looking for a top-notch bike to easily take them from paved trails to pump tracks, the Pello Reyes is an incredibly versatile bike that will quickly build skills and confidence in your rider.
FTC Disclosure: Affiliate links are included in this review. No monetary compensation was provided for this review, however, the reviewed product was supplied by the manufacturer or distributor to help facilitate this review. All opinions and images are that of Two Wheeling Tots LLC. All content and images are copyrighted and should not be used or replicated in any way. View our Terms of Use.
