The Flow Groms review the 2025 Giant Faith

A couple of months ago Giant relaunched the Faith as a brand new full suspension kids bike. Giant has offered kids mountain bikes in the past, but nothing quite as premium as this. Based on the adult-sized Stance, the Faith features a high quality alloy frame construction with a single pivot suspension design. It’s available in two versions based around different wheelsizes. The larger option gets a mullet setup with a 27.5in front and 26in rear wheel. The smaller option that we’ve been testing employs 24in wheels front and rear.

Regardless of wheelsize, both Faith models are equipped with Giant’s brand new Crest air-sprung fork and shock. These have been specifically designed for lighter weight riders, which is also the case for the adjustable-travel dropper post. Combined with tubeless Maxxis tyres, hydraulic disc brakes and a 1×10 drivetrain, it certainly looks ready to tackle some proper mountain biking!

You can check out all the specs and prices in our Giant Faith first look article. Here we’ll be handing over to Flow’s Dave Musgrove, whose groms have been ripping around on the Faith 24 over the past couple of months. Judging by the photos, we think they’ve enjoyed it!

2025 Giant Faith 24

• Frame | ALUXX SL Alloy, FlexPoint Suspension Design, 130mm Travel
• Fork | Giant Crest TR Elite Lite, FloTune Lite Damper, 140mm Travel
• Shock | Giant Crest FloTrac Lite, 165x45mm
• Wheels | Giant TRA, Alloy Rims, 30mm Inner Width
• Tyres | Maxxis Minion DHF 24×2.4in Front & Minion DHR II 24×2.3in Rear
• Drivetrain | MicroSHIFT Advent X 1×10 w/30T Prowheel Crankset & 11-48T Cassette
• Brakes | Tektro HD-J285 w/180mm Front & 160mm Rear Rotors
• Bar | Giant Contact TR, 20mm Rise, 680mm Width
• Stem | Giant Contact, 40mm Length
• Seatpost | Giant Switch AT Lite, 100mm Travel
• RRP | $3,599 AUD

Testing the 2025 Giant Faith

Kids are highly adaptable. After just a few pedal strokes, many young riders can figure out how to handle almost any reasonably-sized bike. A few laps on the pump track, and you might be convinced they’re good to go. But if your grommet is rewatching Brandon Semenuk edits and debating with their mates whether that trail was light or dark blue, they’re likely ready for a bike that truly fits them. The right size can make all the difference, improving both their ability and safety.

The challenge is that if you expect a bike to last them three to four years, their needs will change drastically over that time. To test how the Giant Faith 24 handles the start and middle of this age range, we let a “nearly 8” year-old and a “9-and-a-half” year-old put the Faith 24 through its paces across everything from pump tracks and jump parks to cross country slogs and stoke-inducing shuttles at Barrington Bike Park.

Sizing, Ergonomics & Growing Pains

Our 9-year-old tester adapted quickly to the generous 700mm bar width and stock stack height, preferring the extra leverage and control compared to his regular 660mm cockpit. On the other hand, the 7-year-old tester, while confident on the bike, looked like Dakotah Norton testing out 850mm bars. Cutting down bars on a kids bike can feel risky, especially when you wonder if they’ll outgrow them as quickly as their soccer boots. Thankfully, the Giant bars offer plenty of space to slide controls inboard if you’re bold enough to cut them down. Instead of cutting, we opted for a simple bar swap with a set of 660mm bars we already had, which provided a better fit for the younger tester.

One standout feature is Giant’s Contact Switch AT Lite dropper post, which grows with your child. The stock 100mm drop was perfect for the 9-year-old, but the 7-year-old needed the saddle lower. Giant provides spacers (5, 10, and 15mm) that can be installed tool-free to fine-tune the drop down to as short as 70mm. With 20mm of spacers installed, the saddle height was perfect for the 7-year-old, and when growth spurts come, the post has 85mm of adjustment range to accommodate.

While the cushioned saddle is well-sized for smaller riders, its 57mm stack height can limit the available drop. Some downhill saddles offer similar sized butt real estate with up to 15mm lower stack height, which could free up more drop and improve fit for younger riders.

The dropper’s low spring pressure made it easy for both testers to compress, though we occasionally had to give it a secondary bounce to pop up from the lowest position. Backing off the seatpost collar helped resolve this, but the issue returned when applying sufficient clamping force to prevent the post from twisting, even after cleaning out the greased seat tube and applying assembly friction paste. Once the post was raised slightly out of the seat tube, this issue disappeared.

Cockpit Comfort

While kids-specific 19mm diameter bars are becoming more common, we found that once kids outgrow their 20in bikes, a regular 22.2mm bar and relatively thin grips work well. Giant’s Tactal Pro Lite grips are a great addition to the Faith 24, offering a 27mm diameter with a knurled pattern for a secure grasp. The grips provide added comfort with raised blocks under the palm and a rectangular waffle underside for little fingertips to lock in.

Brakes

The Tektro J285 disc brakes have a kids-specific lever design and work well here once you dial in the lever reach for small hands. After a quick adjustment using a 2mm Allen key, our testers had no trouble using two-finger braking confidently. The 180mm rotor up front and 160mm in the rear offered balanced and sufficient stopping power, evident from the frequency of epic skids during testing.

It’s worth noting that disc brakes on kids’ bikes can take some time to bed in due to their lightweight bodies and lower braking forces. Asking the bike store for help or doing a few parent hill repeats to generate enough heat and material transfer will ensure the rotors and pads are properly bedded in, giving your child reliable braking from their first ride.

Drivetrain

The microSHIFT AdventX Trail Trigger shifter functions much like the Pro version but without the silicon thumb pad. No gear indicator encourages kids to focus on the trail ahead and allows the shifter to be positioned inboard or outboard of the brake lever. Inboard worked well for our 9-year-old tester however, the 7-year-old needed to adjust his grip to reach the triggers. After repositioning the shifter clamp between the brake lever and grip lock ring, everything worked smoothly, though further adjustments may be needed as he grows.

The AdventX drivetrain on the Faith 24 features an 11-48T cassette paired with a 30T chainring spun by well proportioned 140mm forged 2-piece cranks, offering a broad range of gears for technical climbs and fast descents. Both testers made full use of the range without needing more on steeper terrain. The narrow-wide chainring and ISCG-05 mounted chain guide combined with the AdventX derailleur’s ratchet-and-pawl clutch kept the chain secure throughout our rides.

However, after some dusty laps at Barrington, shifting became sticky for the 7-year-old. Cleaning and lubricating the cable helped but didn’t fully resolve the friction caused by the tight S-bend in the housing between the chainstay and derailleur.

Suspension & Setup

With big players like Fox and RockShox seemingly overlooking the younger generation of riders, the market for 24in kids-specific suspension forks has largely been dominated by second-tier brands like Suntour, X-Fusion, and Manitou. Recognising the growing demand and opportunity for improvement, Giant has stepped up by expanding its Crest suspension line to include an all new 24in Crest TR Elite Lite fork and Crest FloTrac Lite rear shock.

The Crest Lite components aren’t just downsized versions of adult suspension – they’re fully engineered for lightweight riders (26-46kg for the 24in model and 35-62kg for the 27.5in fork). On paper, these units offer all the performance features you’d expect on a $4,000 AUD mountain bike: token-adjustable self-equalising dual air springs, intuitive open/firm two-position compression adjusters, and a meaningful range of rebound damping, complete with tactile and audible adjusters reminiscent of RockShox.

However, setting up suspension for riders as light as 26kg involves more than just reducing air pressure or using thinner oil. The challenge is reducing friction throughout the damper, air spring, bushings, and seals, as any resistance can hinder the fork’s performance, especially when the rider weighs less than many eMTBs. Giant claims to have targeted these friction points and have engineered and tuned the Crest FloTrac Lite rear shock to work specifically with the Faith frame kinematic, producing a suspension system that genuinely works for lightweight riders.

What further sets the Crest Lite suspension apart is its unified setup guide. With recommendations for 25% sag at both the fork and rear shock, Giant provides a detailed chart on the fork leg that covers both the fork and rear shock, offering air pressure and rebound settings for different rider weights in 6kg increments. The chart even includes clear instructions on adjusting rebound. We followed these guidelines for our 26kg and 30kg testers, and the result was spot-on – you can confidently set and forget, knowing your child will have a great experience. We did speed up the fork rebound slightly, leaning toward dad’s preferences, and appreciated that the fork still had faster rebound clicks available, which isn’t always the case with some big-name adult forks.

One downside we noticed was some initial stiction in the fork after the bike had been parked for a while. The first compression would feel almost locked out, but after the first hit, the buttery smooth action returned for the rest of the ride. Although it didn’t affect performance during the ride, it was a consistent issue when starting off.

Aside from the breakaway stiction, Giant has developed a suspension package that outperforms anything we’ve tested for riders of this weight. We were so impressed with the overall performance that we didn’t feel the need to experiment with the air volume tokens to make the air spring more progressive. However, it’s another well-considered feature that allows for fine-tuning as your child grows in both weight and skill.

Wheels & Tyres

The TRA WheelSystem on the Faith 24 is impressive, with 30mm internal width rims featuring hollow 5mm wide hookless walls that did the job of avoiding pinch flats even at low pressures. The 72T freehub added an extra layer of fun with its buzzing sound, keeping our riders stoked on every descent. The icing on the wheelset cake is definitely the tubeless Maxxis Minion DHF/DHR II tyres. The EXO casing and dual compound is perfect for young shredders, offering durability and grip without excessive weight.

Frame & Protection

The frame on the Faith 24 is lightweight and well-built, featuring slender seat stays that act as a flex pivot and a hydroformed top tube that maximises standover clearance. Chain-slap protection is solid, running along the entire chainstay and inside the seat stay. However, the downtube protection could be better, as it’s limited to clear stickers which can be replaced or changed to a different graphics style. Despite this, the frame feels durable enough to handle whatever abuse young riders throw at it.

Modular cable guides (single, double, and left or right-rear brake compatible) with large downtube openings provide neat cable routing around the headtube, making maintenance straightforward. Foam cable noodles inside the frame prevent rattling, while routing above the main pivot and chainring is tidy and hassle-free. The UDH rear end also allows for a future SRAM Transmission AXS upgrade from Santa, though be aware that cage and ground clearance issues might arise.

Pivot hardware is clearly marked with torque recommendations, which is helpful during maintenance. However, we did experience the rocker pivot bolt loosening and causing creaking during testing which was quickly resolved by retightening to the torque specs.

Geometry & Handling

The stock set up on the Faith 24 is ideally suited for riders around 9 to 10 years old, offering a great balance of reach, stack, dropper post length, and travel. While our 7-year-old tester managed well once we shortened the dropper post and narrowed the handlebar, a shorter stem could further help younger or smaller riders feel more comfortable with the generous frame reach. Both testers exuded confidence on fast or steep trails with the relatively slack 64.5° head angle but didn’t notice any slow steering on twisty climbs. Overall, Giant has nailed the Faith 24’s geometry, making it a highly capable bike that can handle everything from cross country trail rides to high-speed jumps and technical rock gardens.

Flow’s Verdict

The Giant Faith 24 is a thoughtfully designed kids’ mountain bike that excels in delivering performance for young shredders. With smart features like the adaptable Contact Switch AT Lite dropper post and Crest Lite suspension specifically developed for smaller riders, this bike offers a plush, responsive ride across a variety of terrains. While the derailleur cable routing and occasionally sticky dropper post present some minor limitations, the overall build, including the sturdy frame, consistent brakes, and reliable drivetrain, is well-suited to growing riders. From pump tracks to technical trails, the Faith 24 is built to inspire confidence and keep up with your child’s progression as they tackle bigger adventures.