What next after Strider 12 balance bike - kids bike experts needed please!

[DanceMonkey19]

My (very nearly) 5 year old has been happily going round on his strider 12 balance bike for last couple of weeks. He is a bit big for it now, but not hugely. I've measured his inside leg (from top of thigh to floor?) and it was 45cm. He's quite slight, and think the reason he's so confident because the strider is so light - 2.9kg. From what I can gather looking online, a good next step seems to be something like a frog bike, which we would probably take the pedals off initially, but that weighs about 7kg,which is quite a bit heavier!

So what would you recommend for his next bike? Ideally I'd like something very lightweight which we could add pedals to at a later date, or remove and re add pedals. Or a slightly bigger very light balance bike, although we'd then be buying twice as he'd need a pedal bike eventually.

Also what size bike and wheels?

Many thanks, I'm completely clueless

Isla bike Cnoc 14 or 16 or the equivalent Frog. My small, slight DD was riding an Islabike at just 4, no issues with the weight. I don't think you'll get a pedal bike lighter than those.

I’d suggest Frog bike, Hoy bike or Isla bike.

If you can afford it, Islabikes are IMO the best and there is a booming second hand market in them so you can resell easily, which makes the price a bit more tolerable. (We worked out each of our Islabikes ‘cost’ us no more than £40 each, as we sold them all on easily once they were outgrown.) Their size guide is here.

16” would seem to be the size for you, the Hoy bike in that size is here. We always went as large as we could, within reason!

Islabike website suggests the 16" bike for that inside leg. It's 5.6kg.There is a thriving secondhand market which is worth looking at, kids outgrow them fairly fast. There is a company that rents out these bikes which might be worth considering because I think you'd need a 20 fairly quickly. thebikeclub.co

He may well manage a bike with pedals now, the transition from being whizzy on a balance bike to riding a pedal bike is surprisingly easy for a lot of kids, mine included.
I am generally quite frugal but kids bikes are definitely worth spending money on. We've had Islabikes and Hoy, both excellent.

Frog. There's a second hand Frog selling group on FB.

Pinnacles are good light bikes too, and less expensive than Frogs or Islas.

Thank you! These bikes are more expensive than I was expecting! I take pp's point about them holding their value though - from what I can see they re-sell for almost new price!