Thanks for all the advice.
I do think we will use it more than 10 or 15 times as we already have got the bikes from last year 4 times this year. I have also looked used and there is not much out there or everything that is goes fast. I agree that suspension and other weight adders are useless.
Looking at Pylon's recomendations I noticed Norco has what appears to be a pretty good kids bike.
http://www.norco.com/bikes/youth/16-...16/sparkle-16/
Aluminum frame so lighter weight than the other kids bikes and no bells and whistles also keeping costs down. Around the $200 mark, and purple (colour being a surprisingly important criteria) Just have to find one in calgary.
I will also chech out thise Lagunas as they seem to be a balance being above walmart quality yet cheaper than the others.