Good bikes for children

[ufkacbln]

There is a German bike that I think has an excellent idea.

It is a training bike:

But you can then add pedals and chainset to the stub

The advantage being a longer life for the bike, and also the child starts to pedal on a bike they are familiar with

 

[mike55]

I am thinking to buy one bicycle for my friend son. I think,this thread does help me a lot to make my decision.

 

[Biglad82]

The islabike range are exceptional quality and look fantastic. Nephew has one now. But do I really want to be spending £249.99 on a bike for a 5 year old. "Yes" off course I do but I certainly can't afford to.

 

[TwoInTow]

Islabikes are really, really worth the money if you can possibly afford it.

But do I really want to be spending £249.99 on a bike for a 5 year old. "Yes" off course I do but I certainly can't afford to.

If you can't stretch to it, then that's that. But if you can invest upfront (not everyone can), then the re-sale value is so good that you're not really spending £250. You actually end up spending, say, £80 - £100 for the life of the bike (2 years?), which is about £1/week. I think of this kind of thing as like a very good rental deal, because you will sell it, and you will get a high price for it at the end. If you bought a £80 - £100 bike you'd be lucky to get £20 for it at the end.

 

[BirdOnnaBike]

My 10 and 11 year olds both have Ridgeback MXs, which they love. Got the 11 year old's second hand from the Bike Rescue in York - fettled up but only paid £50 for it. He liked it so much we got the little un a new one, the same bike but latest model. They think nothing of doing 20 plus miles in a day, so the bikes must be pretty comfortable for them, too.

 

[Herr-B]

Islabikes do seem good but I can't afford a new one for the little darling, buy t'Ebay only ever seems to have them in or near London! Does nobody up north have them?

From dog and bone, using Tapatalk2.

 

[alpgirl]

My 10 year old son has a Kona Hula 24" wheel mountain bike. It is excellent. It comes with semi slicks, so not too bad on road. Has suspension forks that actually work. I take him regularly to Llandegla to do the blue run. We have had Specializeds in the past, but not overly impressed. Had an issue with a bottom bracket which went quite quickly. Specialized's after sales service was non-existent. We had the bottom bracket replaced. When we sold it on Ebay, we got more than we paid for it new! So Specializeds must have a good resale value! Our 4 year old currently has a 12" Specialised Hotrock which I got secondhand from Ebay. It seems to be one of the only 12" 'proper' bike (i.e. not a toy or a balance bike) on the market. He learnt to ride on it (never used stabilisers provided). Didn't like the back pedal brake, as seemed to slow down the pedalling action, so my husband replaced the back wheel with one from an old bike. Seemed to solve the problem. Not overly impressed, and certainly would not pay the RRP for it, but it is probably not designed for long rides even though he has done 10km rides on it! He is getting a bit big for it now, and as he rides so well will probably look at getting an Isla Bike Cnoc 14.

 

[jiggerypokery]

I bought The Boy an Apollo for Halfords, now don't get me wrong, the fit, components and wheels are just right and it will grow with him for the next few years given the ability to adjust the seat post, stem and bars etc. What I can't get over is how heavy the frame is!

On a size to weight ration the frame is massively over engineered, the tubing must be scaffolding, and if I scaled up the frame to fit me I'm sure it would crush me in a fall!

Surely low cost tubing can also be thin walled so as to reduce weight or is weight directly proportional to cost and I'm missing something in the manufacturing process?

 

[Globalti]

Yes, low cost tubing is malleable and prone to denting so has to be thick walled and thus heavy. Expensive tubing is expensive because the steel is alloyed with more costly elements like chromium and molybdenum, which make it stronger and more resilient so it can be made with thinner walls, thus lighter.

 

[SpareSprocket]

My 7 year old has got a Specialized Hot Rock which we bought off eBay third hand (not sure what year it is but it's blue). Can't fault it at all. It's got brakes that work (unlike some other kids bikes we've looked at in the past) and an easy to use GripShift changer for the rear gears. The suspension forks have about 3/4" of semi-controlled movement to them. I say semi-controlled because there is some resistance as you get further into the travel - some kids suspension forks are literally just springs and are more like pogo-sticks.

As it's an aluminium frame the weight is pretty reasonable too. Certainly not an issue for him: he's completed a 20 mile flatish ride on it and a 12 mile lumpier one. Only downside is that the rear cassette choice has left the lowest geat still quite high - but I'm not sure if it's the original rear cassette or not to be honest. In the Spring when we take him offroad on more ambitious rides we'll probably swap it to something slightly lower.

 

[3narf]

I just bought my elder son a Carrera Blast 24" wheeler. They seemed like good value and I managed to find one on ebay less than 10 miles away. It's got mechanical discs, SRAM gears and a Suntour fork which seems to work OK. 1/2 hours fiddling in the garage means the brakes work great and I can now get all the gears.

My 6-yr-old daughter has a Tony Hawk BMX. Not a basket or doll carrier in sight!

No2 son has a Concept Mobby and a balance bike (which he won't ride). The Mobby seemed like a good idea when I bought it for my elder son when he was 3, but the useless motocross-style seat had to be replaced for a normal one for it to be rideable. Beware bikes made to look like motorbikes as they're not really viable.

Note my wife's HardRock Sport in the background. £300 in 1991! I don't think they're much more than that now, with suspension & everything! It still has the same tyres it came with...

 

[3narf]

Islabikes do seem good but I can't afford a new one for the little darling, buy t'Ebay only ever seems to have them in or near London! Does nobody up north have them?

I noticed that. People up north are a bit too tight savvy to spend an extra £100 for 'philosophy.'

 

[cbs]

My son, who is just 8, has a Trek MT60, which looks like a generic kids MTB, but has a lot of features such as smaller grips, kids brake levers, adjustable stem (height and reach), two pedal positions on the cranks, dual chainguard and so on. He got it just after a trip to Center Parcs where he had a hire bike that was nominally the same size. The difference is remarkable - the hire bike he really didn't like, he couldn't get up the slightest hill and if it started going a bit faster he felt unsafe and had to brake. Got him on the trek and he was away, standing up on the pedals, pedalling it up hills, racing along the downhills, fantastic!

It does have an aluminium frame, but it is quite heavy, although that doesn't seem to worry him. It also wasn't that expensive really - more than you might pay for an Apollo, but worth it IMO.

Colin

 

[domtyler]

Hi, I am looking into buying an Isla bike (Beinn 20 Small) for my eldest who is coming up to 7. Did other people who have gone down the Isla bikes route go to their showroom to get the child fitted or just rely on taking good measurements and making the match on their sizing chart?

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Hi, I am looking into buying an Isla bike (Beinn 20 Small) for my eldest who is coming up to 7. Did other people who have gone down the Isla bikes route go to their showroom to get the child fitted or just rely on taking good measurements and making the match on their sizing chart?

Measure and size chart, worked OK 3 times so far.