Indecision re kids bikes

[Justasecondnow]

Have I been swayed by the marketing or do Isla bikes match the hype? (Also looking at hoy bonaly). But mostly won over by the Isla cnoc range for a 4y/o and a 5 y/o. Am prepared to wait for them to come back into stock.

It seems weight and being designed with kids in mind could/should make for a easier bike learning experience? Kids are fantastic but not physically confident - hoping a good light bike and success on that might improve confidence.

Any thoughts welcome, sorry for retread off same old question.

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MNHQ

Absolutely worth it. Stalk second hand ones as they are eye wateringly expensive!

My 12 and 6 year olds got Isla bikes 2 years ago and they really are good. 6 year old can cycle decent distances (25km). Both bikes are still in great condition.

The Bike Club is good at this age. Frog bikes are very similar to Isla bikes. You can trade up as they grow.

Absolutely fantastic bikes. DD learnt on an isla (which was a wonderful bike to learn on) and then had a trek and gone back to isla as they are so light and far better for her as she's not very large.

You’re not wrong! Friends think I’m nuts but I’m not normally a brand person but I can see where money gets you more here... I think!

Amazing super light kids bikes. They are the gold standard I think. We had them in every size for our 2 kids and the additional benefit of them is they keep a high resale value. I still think each of ours sold for about £30-£50 less than we bought them new, so the actual cost per child was just £15-£25!

However, they were the only show in town when my kids were that age, I’d be taking a look at Frog bikes or Hoy bikes too. But the economics of the resale value of the Islabikes would still draw me to them now.

Sorry was replying to sweep then...

We got ones from Halfords which were designed by Bradley Wiggins to the same principles re weight and ergonomics. They were much cheaper. I was all set to buy the Isla bikes but a friend who researches everything to the nth degree told us about the Halfords ones and they've proved themselves so far.

Isla bikes are amazing. Also Moda - they do cyclocross bikes (off road but drop bars). They tend to be cheaper than Isla on the 2nd hand market but they will be well used.

The great thing about both brands is that they use good quality, lightweight components and the frames are designed for children - not just scaled down adult bikes.

We went for the Go Outdoors Wild bikes, it made a big difference to my son when he got one of these having previously been on a cheap bike. They are on the lighter side and he found it much easier. I would definately recommend them. There are alternatives to Isla bikes, they do seem to be the best, but it depends what you are looking out of a bike for a 4/5 year old, is the difference in quality going to make that much difference at that age.

Absolutely worth it. Buy new and you'll sell at almost the same price when outgrown (especially if you keep the box so can post). Buy second-hand and you'll make a profit (the price of new bikes increases year in year and they lose relatively little value second-hand).

If you buy a cheap(ish) Halfords bike, you'll be lucky to get £20 on a selling site when you're done with it.

Here is a list I made on my phone comparing weights of those I was looking at. I've put an average Halfords steel framed bike on each list to compare. All the lightweight bikes have the good child sized components. So where Isla bikes are great, there are definitely others just as good and a lot cheaper and more likely to be in stock.

Balance Bikes
Vitus Nippy 1.9kg
Chico Bullet 1.75kg
Strider 2.4kg
Woom 2.94kg
Isla Rothan 3.1kg
Apollo Halfords 5.10kg

14 inch:
Woom 5kg
Isla cnoc 5.2kg
Black Mountain Pinto 5.7
Squish 5.83kg
Vitus Kids 6.04kg
Frog 6.3kg
Halfords 9.5kg

16inch:
Woom 16 5.4kg
Puky pro 16 5.9kg
Early Rider Belter 16 5.9kg
Isla bike cnoc 6kg
Black mountain skog 16 6.1kg
Frog 16 6.39kg
Vitus kids 16 6.5kg
Ridgeback 16 8.7kg
Halfords 11kg

18 inch:
Puky pro 18 6.3kg
Squish 18 6.96 kg
Apollo Halfords 12.5kg

20 inch:
Islabike 7.5kg
Woom 7.7kg
Vitus kids 8.5kg
Frog 8.75kg
Apollo Halfords 16kg

Love Isla bikes here, they're so light my petite DD was easily able to ride at 3 when all other bikes she tried were just too heavy to lift.

We have had Islabikes for our kids up to age 7; they really are amazingly light and the frame geometry is excellent. Both our kids cycled independently at age 3&4. We always bought second hand and always got out money back on resale.

We then struggled to get a 24, so switched to another brand. Good solid MTB brand, but heavier and not just a children’s brand. These have been also great but the kids would not be able to handle them without first learning on Isla.

Forgot to add the Puky Pro 20 inch which is 7.9kg

We've had Islabike, Hoy and Frog for DS (now 11)

Qt your kids age I'd go for a 2nd hand islabike or buy new and sell for a small loss when they outgrow it - we've done this twice now

DS has a frog currently and (sad to say this as a scot) Hiy was our least favourite.

Islabikes are great. Ds learnt to ride on one in under an hour at 3.

From 7-10 dd raced on Isla bikes - ds at 7 has just started racing on them.

Totally go for Islabikes. Ds had them all the way through, and by buying second hand and selling them, I think we spent less than £100 (and that was buying extra wheels when he had a drop bar bike and wanted road and off road tyres) from 4 to 11 on his bikes (don't ask about what happened when he sized into adult bikes though).
You are also supporting a UK business run by a woman who believed that kids deserved good bikes way before big businesses cottoned on

We have an Islabike balance bike for our toddler and it has been excellent. The difference between it and some of the lighter ones @user64332 posted (thanks for helpful list!) is that it has a brake. I’ve found it really useful to get DS practising braking before moving on to pedals.

We’ve just bought him a Cnoc 14 for his 3rd birthday secondhand. It was 50% of the current price but prices have increased so much recently the seller may actually have made a profit. It’s in excellent condition though - they seem built to last. When he’s bigger and older it might not matter so much but for little kids learning to ride I think they are absolutely worth it.

I got a second hand Wiggins one which is fantastic really light, all childcsize parts. Worlds apart from the Apollo that it replaced.

We are really happy with DS's Islabike, we have the cnoc 16. It was given to us by a friend but will happily pay for a new one in the next size up when the time comes :)

We have always had frog bikes for our kids
Bought a couple and hired through bike club too
Eldest is 9 this year and thinking of a more mainstream option now he’s bigger and can cope with a heavier bike

Try https://thebikeclub.co.uk/?gclid=CjwKCAjw6qqDBhB-EiwACBs6x25mhbuM3TnWtHecfwCXnqdFMjX8ToalLDKtj9MlQv5FRQjBppZHhoCGlsQAvDBwE

Works brilliantly - pay a reasonable monthly amount, upgrade when necessary. If you keep the same bike for a certain amount of time (think it's 2 years) then you own it and can sell it on.

DH did a LOT of research when buying a new one for DDs birthday, we went with a Frog bike and she is very happy with it. They seem to retain their value too so may be able to resell and recoup some cost.

Totally go for Islabikes. They are so well designed fir child proportions, so light, well engineered, well built, robust etc. They hold their value extremely well. We’ve had every size Isla from balance bike to 26”. Some new, mostly second hand, all resold for around 80% of what we paid. Getting ds’s first post-Isla bike last year was a challenge, as he’s been used to such good bikes!