Talk to me about Islabikes. Beinn 20 in particular.

[Wallace]

I've seen them recommended so many times on here. Are they worth the money? Would be second-hand.

Ds2 will be five in the summer and really needs a new bike. THe Beinn 20 small frame says 5 plus and the large says 6 plus. Ds2 is about 110cm, what size are your kids and which bike are they riding?

Ds2 has been riding a 16inch bike since he was just three and they usually say age 5-8 but seem very small for that age range?

Thanks

Have just loooked at the size chart on th islabike website and 110 is minimum height for small frame.

I would definitely recommend them. DD (a little below average height for her age) had the beinn 20 small which lasted her from age 5.5 until age 8.5. At the time we had a 2 mile cycle ride to school with a 100m climb on the way home, hence why we wanted a light weight bike with good gears.

She's now gone onto a beinn 24 - we did dither a bit as we now live much closer to school, and generally walk, so it won't get every day use in the same way, will just be for weekend/holiday bike rides. But having looked around at other bikes it seemed like all the reasonable quality bikes (ie not super heavy/clunky) weren't that much cheaper.

TBH they have a very good resale value anyway - we sold dd's old beinn 20 on ebay for not that much less than we paid for it .

If you're worried about sizing give Islabikes a ring, they're very helpful. IIRC there is an inside leg measurement which is also helpful when judging the size bike to buy.

It seems like in general you get a larger wheel size for a given child size with the Islabikes, if that makes sense - when we were looking at options for the next size up bike, we looked at the Specialized Hotrock (lots on ebay), and with those dd was definitely not big enough for the 24" bike, she'd have still been on a 20".

Thanks that is good info.