Bought this for my 10 year old and he loves it. I changed the grip-shifter to Shimano Altus trigger shifter and added Shimano MT200 hydraulic brakes. To fix the chain dropping issue, I installed a Narrow-Wide front chainring. I also swapped out the wide tires and installed more modest sized Ground Control Sport, 24x2.35

We stepped up to this from the Hotrock. There are many good points: 1. It has a real adjustable shock that is already paying off on rough complex single track 2. The grip shift is worlds better than on the Hotrock. It is smooth and amazingly easy to shift. 3. The transition to disc brakes (albeit cable-based) is making long rough downhills much better I am not completely sold on the super fat tires yet, but other than weight, they don't seem to be causing an issue. The one challenge is that the chain constantly jumps off of the front chain ring in bouncy technical terrain. I am going to pick up a better chain retainer and see how that goes. I may also consider some kind of tensioner if that doesn't work.

I use this bike in wet/muddy conditions, and it works great! I bought it used, came with a bend hanger, and a rusty chain but other than that it works great! Super great bike for beginner!