Frog Kids Bikes?

[Cyclone1]

Hi Guys,

I've just ordered a Frog 62 for my soon to be 7 year old Son.

They seem to tick all the right boxes and are almost comparable to Islabike offerings but are visually more appealing (up to date). Plus they are priced below Islabikes (which I would have bought had I not been made aware of Frog).

Has anyone else bought a Frog bike and if so what are your thoughts please?

Jules

 

[Cyclone1]

What did you base your opinion on as there is an £80 price difference between the bikes I looked at?

 

[Cyclone1]

Thanks for that.

Totally agree on resale, but only as Frog are still growing their brand stature (doing a good job) and have only been in business for just over a year.

Frog now have Team Sky on board to enhance their own brand strength as well as a sort of validation that their bikes are of a decent quality for the price mark. With this (Team Sky full range) I think their bike sales will rocket and will then be seen as the best alternative to Islabikes, who have had this niche market to themselves as a smaller none mainstream manufacturer.

Will be interesting to see how it all pans out over time.

Jules

 

[Cyclone1]

Agree with the Hoy pricing being too close to Islabikes, plus limited colour options which for kids is a must have. I pretty much ruled them out on that basis. The bikes themselves do appear to be decent though. The Decathlon range is also very good as with the adult bikes they sell.

As a cyclist myself I appreciate that a reasonably lightweight bike is easier to control than a heavy bike for a younger rider. My son has spent the last 2.5 years on a Ridgeback MX16, which has been excellent but weighs a touch over 9kgs, he will be moving up to a Much larger Frog 62 with 24 wheels that is only a touch heavier.

Comparable bikes size wise (and price) from Cube, Ridgeback, Scott etc are all around or more than 12kgs.

Jules

 

[summerdays]

Frog bikes are nice, but Islabikes just have the edge in my opinion. I can't say specifically what the difference is, I've not had two side by side to compare directly. My friend is happy with her daughter's frog bike though, and they are reasonably distinctive. I noticed one near my local Tesco's from a distance and was proved correct that it was a Frog bike, and I can usually spot Islabikes at large distances too (due to colour/frame shape etc). We went down the Islabike route as Frog didn't exist. I think a lot of brands are trying to catch up rather than churning out the stuff they did in the past.

 

[summerdays]

[QUOTE 3295330, member: 45"]I read a post somewhere online recently from a parent whose child had an Islabike. They tried a Frog for half an hour and didn't appear to manage as well.

One of our boys had a small Decathlon bike to learn to ride on. He managed fine, but used to get tired balancing due to the weight and was fairly slow. We got him and Islabike and there was an instant improvement to his riding. Faster and longer, and he just seemed to find it easier.

Mind you, the OP is talking about a 24" wheeled bike, and at that size the gap between bike options starts to narrow significantly.[/QUOTE]
I'm pretty certain her's is the 24", she rides it about a mile and a half to school a couple of times a week, and she must be about year 5 now.

 

[noodle]

aww i thought it was one of these frog bikes

 

[ClichéGuevara]

I thought it was about Peugeot's.

 

[400bhp]

Frog bikes are nice, but Islabikes just have the edge in my opinion. I can't say specifically what the difference is,

Weight. Islabikes 14" is 1 kg lighter than the frog equivalent (or about 15% lighter looking at it a different way). That's worth paying extra for.

 

[summerdays]

Weight. Islabikes 14" is 1 kg lighter than the frog equivalent (or about 15% lighter looking at it a different way). That's worth paying extra for.

It is but the Frog Bikes are still worth considering if you can't stretch to the Islabikes. It's now pretty common to see them, if I commute down the Bristol and Bath path in the morning I probably see 3 or 4 regularly, whereas the Frog ones are where Islabikes were about 5 years ago for how often you see them.

 

[Cyclist33]

Hi Guys,

I've just ordered a Frog 62 for my soon to be 7 year old Son.

They seem to tick all the right boxes and are almost comparable to Islabike offerings but are visually more appealing (up to date). Plus they are priced below Islabikes (which I would have bought had I not been made aware of Frog).

Has anyone else bought a Frog bike and if so what are your thoughts please?

Jules

Ridiculously overpriced. A marketing manager's dream come true!

 

[Cyclone1]

Ridiculously overpriced. A marketing manager's dream come true!

Harsh, but entitled to your opinion.

£270 for a 9.8kg kids bike with decent equipment, well made, good dimensions and compared to Islabikes modern aesthetics, is a good buy given the choice available. For me £270 is more than enough to spend on a kids bike. Islabikes have taken good advantage of a niche for lightweight, well built children's bikes, so it's good to have another company with a similar outlook but better pricemark competing for sales. For info the comparable islabike is 0.9kg lighter but £79 more expensive £349.

Compared to a 13kg lump of a bike from Cube / Scott etc for a higher pricemark then for me it's a no brainer. It's the more mainstream brands as mentioned above who rub their hands at taking £300+ off parents for their offerings.

The only other options are Argos type specials, that again are heavy with sub standard components and not well put together, albeit much cheaper. Or the middle ground at Decathlon.....

Have you viewed a Frog bike or for that matter directly compared it to another child's bike?

 

[Cyclist33]

Harsh, but entitled to your opinion.

£270 for a 9.8kg kids bike with decent equipment, well made, good dimensions and compared to Islabikes modern aesthetics, is a good buy given the choice available. For me £270 is more than enough to spend on a kids bike. Islabikes have taken good advantage of a niche for lightweight, well built children's bikes, so it's good to have another company with a similar outlook but better pricemark competing for sales. For info the comparable islabike is 0.9kg lighter but £79 more expensive £349.

Compared to a 13kg lump of a bike from Cube / Scott etc for a higher pricemark then for me it's a no brainer. It's the more mainstream brands as mentioned above who rub their hands at taking £300+ off parents for their offerings.

The only other options are Argos type specials, that again are heavy with sub standard components and not well put together, albeit much cheaper. Or the middle ground at Decathlon.....

Have you viewed a Frog bike or for that matter directly compared it to another child's bike?

Yes I have, and it was ridiculously overpriced. I got one from Decathlon which was a third the price and equally good, plus it's what he wanted, a police bike, so he rides it willingly instead of "competitive dad" compelling him to.

Put simply, no child needs a bike that expensive. But I suppose if you have the money and are happy to fritter it away in the belief it somehow validates your decision to procreate, good luck!

 

[summerdays]

Given the number of children who now have either a phone or an iPad from a very early age, I would rather see that money spent on a bike, and a well built bike can really make a difference.

I don't have a problem parents buying what they can afford, but if you can give them a tablet or phone then you can give them a decent bike. (Where decent isn't a heavy lump of metal, wrong proportions and poor components).

The other advantage to the more expensive bike is the resale value. When I sold an Islabike I could have made almost what I had paid for it about 3 or 4 years earlier. (Identical one went for that price on eBay whereas I was selling to a relative so didn't ask that amount).

 

[Cyclist33]

Come back on that one when you've had the same number of Decathlon bikes and have resold them so you've some actual and meaningful numbers to report.