To buy 20inch islabike to 4,6 year old?

[Pineconenut]

My son learned to cycle a year ago on a cnoc14’’. It was all going well, but I can see he’s now outgrowing it. His leg inseam measures the required minimum of 47cm for Beinn 20 and I was hoping that this way we could skip the 16 and 18 sizes and go straight for the geared bike that he would use for longer, but the bike does seem like a massive jump from the 14..

You learn on a small bike so you can have your foot flat on the ground if needed, but can then often jump a couple of sizes after that since you only need to be able to reach the ground with your toes once you're a confident cyclist. So I think a 20 sounds fine.

Call Isla bikes and ask their advice, we found them absolutely brilliant advising with appropriate sizes and they make fab bikes if you actually want your kids to enjoy riding as the bikes are light so the little ones are not pushing a tank up a hill. Top company, I actually have their adult bike which I love.

DD went straight from a Cnoc 14 to a Beinn 20. She was absolutely fine.

Now you can't buy new it's worth being aware that there are different size 20 Beinns.

Is he 4 or 6? It's not clear from your post?

Thank you all for the replies. My son is 4 years 7 months, so still a few months before he's 5, though he is fairly tall for his age. The inseam does measure the required 47cm for the Beinn20s, so I keep looking for that one.. Also reassuring to hear that some of you skipped the in-between versions and your kids were fine.

Mine had Beinn 20s from 5yo. On reflection it was perfect for DD1 and too big for DD2

(They want from these to small adult bikes!)

Have you looked at Bike Club? Its Frogs, not Islabikes but they are very similar and means you can have the interim size for a bit.

The size chart is a good guide but it will be secondhand anyway presumably so can't you sit him on it to check?

The Islabike website is really good with respect to working out what size will work best. Personally, I think it is important to ensure that a child can put their feet fully on the ground and so have bought bikes accordingly.

I know that sounds expensive as you have to keep buying bikes, but I have found that Islabikes hold their value and re-sell really well. So we bought DD’s first bike (CNOC 14) for about £200 second hand, then sold it for about the same and bought the next one for her size for about the same. We have done this 3 times so far so basically the first outlay has been the only outlay. She has now had 3 bikes as she has grown for that initial £200 and has never had one that was too big for her.

I think you'd be fine on the small, but the large would be a leap. We had a 16" because we got it from a family member, but my nieces skipped straight from 14 - 20.

My kids started on a Rothan (balance bike). Then moved to Cnoc. I've already bought the Benins, for when they're ready to move to a geared bike.
They're 5.5, and still using the Cnoc.

Can you put the saddle of the Cnoc up to the highest point, to get longer use out of it, and then I think you'd be fine going straight to the 20".

I got the recommendation for Islabikes here on MN, and they're amazing bikes.

It might be tricky to test it out as we'll be buying second hand, though I guess we could just ask the seller to test it out beforehand. I was thinking that if he's really struggling with it, get a smaller one from the bike club for a few months..

I think the problem is that we have the very smallest cnoc14, so even with the saddle at the highest point, he seems a bit curled up with knees nearly touching his elbows when he cycles 😊

Such a shame they stopped making bikes, look like they can still advise tho.

If you contact your local club, they should be able to help too.