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PreCaliber 24 Girls (courtesy of Gary Fisher)

What's the best mountain bike for a eight-year-old girl? I want a front suspension to help me beat my dad on the trails.

— Gwendolyn Nace
Snellville, Georgia

gear girl answer

Fisher isn't kidding when they say that their 20- and 24-inch PreCaliber (20", $320; 24", $360; fisherbikes.com) models give "rock star status to little rippers." Unlike a lot of kid mountain bikes, the PreCaliber is specifically designed for girls who want to ride off road. Fisher built it using the same Gold Series aluminum frame technology they use in adult bikes, and both the 20- and 24-inch versions come with 50-ml. travel forks and SRAM 3.0 components. All this geeky technospeak means that this black and pearl-blue bike will provide you with hours of fun and durable off-road riding.

Do you have a question of your
own?

One thing: If you're pretty serious about mountain biking, don't let your parents talk you into a bigger bike that you can "grow into" three years from now. Mountain biking can be pretty intimidating and if you buy a bike that's too big, it might make you less confident, which will give you a disadvantage when trying to smoke your dad.



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Stephanie Pearson: The Gear Girl
When it comes to gear, contributing editor Stephanie Pearson lives by one rule: What you own, owns you. That's why the skier, hiker, biker, runner, canoe paddler, and sometimes yogini is on an eternal quest to find gear and clothing that will enhance her life rather than make her a slave to dysfunctional stuff. During her seven-year stint as a travel editor at Outside, Pearson received three honorable mentions in The Best American Travel Writing series for stories on Guatemala, New Zealand, and Bhutan. Now that she's no longer in the office at Outside HQ in Santa Fe, Pearson hopes to be on the road more and is always in search of functional and aesthetically pleasing gear that's easy to use or clothing that's elegant to wear. Pearson is based in northern Minnesota and Santa Fe. Her latest adventure was on the fringe of the Amazon Basin in Brazil.