20inch bike advice

cyclistmum
cyclistmum Posts: 5
edited July 2008 in Family & kids cycling forum
Hello,
I am a cyclist and both my boys 6 and 4 can ride bikes. 6year old has grown out of his 14inch bike and I want to buy him a 20inch bike. There are too many on the market.
Questions:
1-Is it Ok to go from 14inch to 20inch
2-How many years can I expect to get out of it
3-What points should I look for -suspension, no suspension, number of gears et
4-What would be a good price range to pay
5-Any popular bikes or bikes for kids you could recommend please

Thank you very much.

Cyclistmum

Comments

  • Cyrenne
    Cyrenne Posts: 184
    your eldest may be ok for a 24". My boy same age, did that leap last April.
    We went the www.islabikes.com route and they're fantastic.
  • RufusA
    RufusA Posts: 500
    If it's any help my 6YO daughter went from a 14inch to a 20inch without any problems.

    Took about an hour practice on a wide flat area to get used to the much larger bike size, different geometry, but not finds it much easier to ride than her 14". She still struggles a little with the "starts" if she hasn't practiced in a while, and picking the bike up / pushing it isn't the easiest for he.

    I chose a bike with an ALU frame and plenty of adjustment, that way I can bring the saddle down low and the bars towards her to begin with, and then extend as time goes on.

    A good bike will have loads of adjustment so you could easily get it to last until they were 8 years old. However if they have a younger sibling, you can probably time it so that you pass the bike on in 2 years, and move your oldest up to a 24"/26" bike.

    As to what to look for, suspension rarely works well in smaller bikes (IMHO). Gears aren't that important when they are 6, but might be worth it for when they get older. Keep it simple though, any more than 7 gears is overkill!

    There are a number of bikes that would fit the bill, would recommend going for something good quality, rather than cheap and heavy. If buying new then the cheapest in the list below is the EBC one at around £120. Most of the others are £150-200!

    Bikes that have been recommended to me:

    Islabikes Beinn 20
    Trek MT..
    Edinburgh Coop Revolution Sky 20
    Marin Hidden Canyon
    Specialized HotRock
    etc.

    For my daughter I couldn't justify spending that sort of money, so managed to pick up a second hand Trek MT60. There are plenty of bikes available on eBay, forums and local adverts that have been little used, and with a little TLC you can get a good bike for circa £50.

    HTH - Rufus.

Categories