So after waiting several months for Canyon to get the bike in stock and ship it, it finally arrived today.
It's looks an absolute beast, a real trail weapon, especially for a kids bike.
One slight annoying issue - they cabled up the brakes the wrong way around - the right hand lever does the rear brake. Despite this safety notice being clipped to the brake levers
Canyon were helpful - I logged onto their website live chat and they said they will cover the cost of taking it to a local bike shop to get the cables switched around.
Planning to visit some decent Wales and Scotland trail centres this year
Here's the comparison to his old Orange Zest 24.
The Orange was a decent bike, great gearing and has been 100% reliable. The only negative was the front fork - it really wasn't suited to a small rider (7-10 years old). Where the lighter rider weight meant it was difficult setting it up - practically 5-8 PSI to enable compression but that meant rebound wasn't as effective.