Peak performance: Nukeproof Cub Scout 24 Race youth mountain bike review

If you want a demonstration of how mountain bikes have improved over the past 20 years, the best place to look is at the kit available to kids these days, like this Nukeproof Cub Scout 24 Race.

Growing up in the 1980s and 90s when the sport was in relative infancy, I bent frames and snapped forks like they were made of dry spaghetti. It was an era defined by useless rim brakes and soggy suspension – if you were lucky enough to have any at all.

Compare those bike-shaped objects to 2023’s Nukeproof Cub Scout 24 and you might as well be talking about a different sport. In fact, it’s reductive to even call this a child’s bike – it’s a scaled down version of an adult’s hardtail, and a really good adult hardtail at that.

Is the Nukeproof Cub Scout 24 any good?

Answering that question meant recruiting the help of a junior shredder in the form of my nine-year-old son. Up to this point he’s had various balance bikes and is currently riding a fully rigid Vitus 20, which has been brilliant, but is now too small.

We ride a wide range of trails including cross-country loops, push-up bike parks, pump tracks, skate parks and the local BMX track. He’s a confident blue-grade rider and I’ve got him down a flowy red before, but roots and rocks are a bit of a no-no because his small, unsuspended wheels get hung up on them.

We’re testing the Race spec, which is lighter than the Sport (11.09kg vs 11.89kg) and comes with a much fancier build, and you can read more about this in the specification panel.

His current bike is a few kilos lighter but is also smaller, and doesn’t have suspension, disc brakes or 24-inch wheels. I reckon the burlier-built Nukeproof’s heft is quite impressive.

Did it need assembling?

It arrived 99% built (we just needed to rotate the bars and attach the pedals) and comes with all the stuff you need to ride on the road (reflectors, bell and rear-wheel dork disc) in a box. Which means you don’t need to immediately remove it – already a huge tick.

Even sat in the living room, the Cub Scout 24 looks fast. It’s an absolute monster truck, an impression not hurt by the wide 2.4” Maxxis Minion DHF tyres.

The frame is built to stand up to abuse, with tidy welds and deep, lustrous paint. The brakes and gears are also routed externally, which is great for maintenance and even better if something needs replacing quickly - during a race weekend, for example.

It’s fair to say my son was suitably stoked to get riding. And since this test commenced in the school summer holidays, that’s exactly what we did.

What’s the Nukeproof Scout 24 like on the trail?

Epic, in a word. Do you remember the first time you rode a bike where everything just worked? The gears didn’t skip, the suspension was smooth and recovered quickly, and the brakes stopped you in half the distance you thought they would?

Because I am quite ancient that’s a relatively recent memory for me, so I’m quite jealous of the fact my son is already there before facial hair.

That to one side, the Cub Scout starts with the solid foundation of a really good frame, with progressive angles and a low standover height for more confidence riding down perilous tech.

I’ve seen the benefit of this while we’re riding – he now leans hard into turns because he’s got space below him to move the bike around, wide 640mm bars for better leverage, and tyres with aggressive side knobs that bite hard into dirt.

Does the Nukeproof Cub Scout 24 have a dropper post?

This spec does – a Brand-X Ascend seat post – an absolute must on any mountain bike these days, but still something of a luxury for kids. It enables you to move the seat up and down by 70mm at the push of a lever.

It’s a great component too (my wife has the 100mm version on her hardtail) and means you can get into the perfect position for pedalling, and then drop the seat right out of the way when descending. My son loves it – in fact it’s his favourite part of the bike.

The seat itself is from Nukeproof, as are the wheel hubs, handlebars, lock on grips, stem and headset, and as a rule they make pretty good finishing kit (I have Nukeproof bars on my bike). Everything else is from a big brand with a name you’ll recognise, but scaled down to child-friendly size.

Chief among these are the Clarkes brake levers which have smaller blades for smaller hands (and I’ve spoken about how important this is in my Frog 47 review) and he can easily pull them with one finger. These are connected to child-specific hydraulic calipers too, with 160mm discs front and back.

That’s a set of pretty punchy stoppers and once the pads had been bedded in (which I did, mainly because I wanted a go on it) I was surprised at how well they slowed the bike even with a 100kg adult on board. Nothing wrecks confidence like like weak, spongy brakes so it’s great to find a set with such linear and predictable power here.

What about the suspension?

Again, another area where you’ll recognise the components from larger bikes, especially the Manitou Machete fork, which has exactly the same matte black and silver colourway as the adult Mezzer Pro. Just be aware the reverse arch is supposed to look like that, although several people have told me I've put the forks on backwards.

I could spend all day talking about the fork because it’s a proper bit of kit, but I’ll spare you the waffle and cut it down to the pertinent points. There are three things that make it really special – the tapered steerer rather than a standard straight tube, the 100mm of travel and the sheer adjustability.

The first is pretty unusual on a kids’ bike and basically means the steerer tube flares out towards the bottom to increase the stiffness of the bike’s front end. The second is more common but still more than you’d expect – 80mm is more prevalent.

Finally, the adjustment on this fork is pretty wild for a youth set up – not only can you dial up the compression (how hard it is to squash the fork down) but also the rebound too – that’s how quickly it springs back again after taking a hit.

The result is a fork that can be really tailored to all riders and rides of all shapes and sizes. At the smooth pump track we could lock it out so it didn’t compress at all, and then on a bumpy uplift day at Bikepark Wales, open it up fully to make the most of the long travel.

There’s one final point and this one is quite nerdy – the fork leg isn’t threaded, normally you push the axle through the wheel and screw it into the opposite side. This works well until you get it wrong and strip the threads on the fork leg, which can be an expensive mistake. On the Manitou there’s a hex screw than fixes into the axle instead, so if it all goes wrong you just need to replace this part. Clever stuff.

Are the gears big enough for days out in the hills?

There’s a huge 11-42T range on the cassette driven by a precise and reliable Box Four eight-speed mech. This also has a clutch, and the 32T chainring has a narrow-wide profile (this combination means you have to really try hard to get the chain to drop off) and altogether the set up is almost identical to what you’d find on an adult’s bike.

We didn't have anything like this range in the old days and the excuse was that having fewer gears made your legs stronger – it doesn’t, it just makes your kids annoyed and hate climbing, and you risk the bike becoming a dust-collector in the garage.

Having a big climbing gear means I no longer have to tow my son up hills anymore, and in fact there are times when I struggle to keep up. Thankfully Nukeproof also has a good selection of eMTBs to solve that problem.

We’ve not had a missed gear or dropped chain yet, which is remarkable, given the beating we’ve given the bike.

Any downsides?

The dropper post lever is a plain metal surface and can be slippery in the wet when you’re wearing gloves. I’d attached an adhesive rubber patch to my wife’s, and did the same to the Cub Scout.

You will also need an allen key to remove the rear axle (the folding lever type are rare these days) which makes fixing a puncture on the trail slightly more complicated. Or a lot more complicated if you’re not carrying a multitool, but really you should be carrying a multitool.

Finally, and this one is probably quite personal, but a child’s bike is often their go-to method of transportation. They shouldn’t have to worry about someone running off with it if they leave it outside the shops, and they should be free to accidentally drop it down the side of tabletop jump. That’s how we all learn.

That becomes complicated when their bike costs £1,200. In our situation it’s quite likely we’ll find a beaten up £50 daily rider for my son that he can take to school or the park, keeping the Cub Scout for trail riding only. Not a huge issue, but certainly a consideration.

Verdict

The Nukeproof Cub Scout 24 Race is a pretty serious bit of kit and that’s reflected in the price - there is a slightly cheaper build and even that would be a dream bike for a young rider.

That model does miss out on the dropper post, and by the time you’ve added one to it, the saving over the Race bike would be pretty minimal. I mentioned this earlier but whatever level of rider you are and where ever you ride, a dropper post is a huge upgrade.

If you ride a lot with your kids and want something built to last, which isn’t going to hold their skills and development back, the Cub Scout 24 Race is super easy to recommend. If you want to bring them along to races then it's an even bigger no-brainer.

All I’d suggest is getting hold of one when they’re only just big enough for it, and getting as much riding done while it still fits as possible. But if they’re anything like mine, they’ll want to be on it every day anyway.

Who tested it?

My son and I have been riding together since August on all sorts of surfaces and weathers, including pump tracks, cross country trails, push-up bike parks and the odd uplft day too.

How the product was tested

We rode with the Nukeproof and his old bike back-to-back a couple of times to being with in order to pick out the big differences. Since then I've been nagging him for feedback at the end of every ride and his contribution so far has been "it's good". Which is about the highest praise he gives, so that's worth a lot.

Adam Binnie is the Affiliate Operations Editor and reviewer for WhatsTheBest, specialising in bikes, fitness, cars, parenting and cooking.

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