Bike for a 9 year old boy

[Alcdrew]

I've been looking for a bike for my son, with a budget of about £200 but there seem to be a big hole in the bike market. I'm looking for something that will be used for him to bike to school on and lesuirly family bike rides at the weekend. The best in budget I can find so far is the Trek MT220, anyone know anything about this bike? As I have seen the girls version and thought it felt heavy, but I suppose boy been boy it will be riden hard so the weight might be a nessecary evil, what do you think?

All riding will be done on bike paths, with maybe a tiny bit of very quiet roads.
If it makes any differance, as a guide to usage, we currently ride.
Me: Trek 7.5fx
Wife: Specialized Hardrock XC with Schwalbe city tyres
Son: Some cheap horible toys r us thing..... Sorry, I know I shouldn't of.

Any of advice on anything else I could look at?

 

[Tim Bennet.]

Try Decathlon. They now have stores in quite a few parts of the country and they always seem to have proper kids bikes.

We looked at a 15 speed, drop bar, kids racing bike with 20 inch wheels that was perfect for that age. It was 65 quid, but they had a 50 percent discount sale running.

 

[slow down]

Really depends whether you want a road or MTB type bike. Both my seven and ten year old have Specialized Hotrocks and Decathlon 7.0 Road bikes. The Spesh were £200 and £180, so fit within your budget and when I looked last year, I thought this was the best of the bunch by a long way - I picked up the seven year old's road bike two weeks ago for a bargain £33. Not sure whether they've discontinued it now though.

 

[starseven]

My son has a Ridgeback 24" wheel bike its lasted a couple of years , he seems to like it, and with exception of a bit of wheel trueing and brake adjusting has been very sturdy. Some of his friends have similar bikes made by GT both are all alu, have twist grip gears and are relativly light.

 

[Alcdrew]

Really depends whether you want a road or MTB type bike.QUOTE]

Idealy I want a hybrid. But they don't seem to exist, so I recok an MTB wih some more roady type tyres.

 

[ufkacbln]

Slightly above your price range, but of extremely good reputation are Islabikes

Both MTB:

and "Road"

 

[ghitchen]

My son has a Ridgeback MX24 which has proved reliable and is light. It does everything from getting him to school to the red route at Glentress. I would happily recommend it.

 

[alfablue]

Islabikes is the way to go!

 

[yellow v2]

Another vote for Islabikes, bought a beinn 26 for my 9 year old son and he loves it.

 

[bulldicker]

two of my boys have a kona hula and they think they are great. the reason i got them is they are the only 24" wheeled bikes i could find that didnt have the gripshift gear changing system as they both found it difficult to change gear with wet or gloved hands, the thumb shifters are a vast improvment for them

 

[Big Bren]

I got a Spesh Hotrock for my 8 yr old a few weeks back and can highly recommend it; the bike walks the line between quality (my benchmark) and looking cool (his benchmark) very ably, and is quite clearly a very well made machine. He's used it so far for everything from bombing up and down our street to a full on 12 mile forest trek, and it's performed very well.

Bren

 

[Globalti]

Yet another vote for Islabikes. See my other post - just bought one and it's excellent.

 

[bonj2]

You shouldn't make a child have a drop handlebar road bike, that's just cruel.
It should be a decision they take themselves.

 

[Arch]

Who said anyone was making any kid do anything? Plenty of kids want proper road bikes with drop bars. Just because you couldn't get on with them, doesn't mean everyone has to be the same.

 

[Big Bren]

Mere weeks after getting the Specialized MTB, my son is mithering me for a road bike. This is not indicative of dissatisfaction with the Spesh btw - he wants both.

Bloody kids today - don't know they're born etc etc.

Bren