Anybody like to recommend a 20" rigid forks girls bike?

amack

My daughter turns 7 soon and has recently managed to start riding her 14" bike on her own, obviously at 122cm tall she's too big and I'm looking for a good bike to upgrade to. I've looked at Isla bikes and nearly bought her the Beinn 20 large last week. But they didn't have any purple ones in stock and as the new 2013 model is £50 more expensive (but 12% lighter apparently!)than the 2012 model and I live in Northern Ireland (£25 delivery!)it is now too expensive. I know I could buy her a blue Beinn 2012 for £50 less, but if she was left to buy a bike on her own it would be pink with fairies and flowers so a blue,red or black bike is out of the question!

Anyway, can anyone recommend a girls 20" bike with rigid forks thats around £200 to £250? I'm finding it hard to justify over £300 on a kids bike even though she will ride it with her family on trails and cycle paths. Specialized do a hotrock with straight forks called a Street but it only seems to be sold in USA unfortunately, Giant have a model called the Areva which looks quite good but I couldnt find any weight details as my daughter is overly strong the lighter the better!

Sorry for the long winded post but I thought the more detail the better the answers!!

baudman

amack wrote:

...if she was left to buy a bike on her own it would be pink with fairies and flowers so a blue,red or black bike is out of the question!

Thinking outside the box... perhaps she can decorate the blue one to 'own' it. Perhaps an aquatic theme with Ariel the mermaid or Nemo or something? Some blue flowers or somesuch? Of course, she'd need to be on board with that, if it were to work.

Some pix for inspiration?



For what it's worth, my daughter has the Giant Areva of which you speak. Hers is the Street 20, with the 3-speed coaster hub. She loves it, and the gears are great. It's certainly not super-light, but certainly lighter than most - the gears make up for that though. My main gripe - the geo could be a little better and it's a constant adjustment of the saddle to ensure her knees don't come up too high, but she can still touch the ground.

First ride, fresh from Santa

Fitted with Trailgator hitch (front), and guards, rack and slicks from my Dahon. Check out the saddle height - she'll ask for me to adjust it as we're riding (comes with QR) - she likes it as high as she can manage.

How she rides it now, with her heavy school bag in the back. As mentioned above, the 3 speed is great, and many hills, even with her schoolbag, are fine.

amack

thanks baudman, the Giant is top of the list now and I've found a LBS that stocks them so i'll go this week. I'm still thinking I should consider a bike like the Specialized Hotrock with the front suspension I'm not sure if mu daughter will enjoy riding light forest trails. btw the Areva is my daughters favourite at the minute as she likes the pink squiggle on the seat!!

baudman

The squiggle fades sorta quickly I'm afraid. Still there, but not vivid.

Hotrocks are great, but really, solid forks can go most places most of the time, and they're a lot lighter. Thing1 is by no means a daredevil, but it's quite surprising where she's been happy to ride it!

Speedybird

You could also look at Cuda bikes... http://www.cudabikes.co.uk/products.php

We have a 20" Mayhem* for our 7 year old. You would need to check the weight, but a quick google on Amazon shows that you can get last years model for £150. It is a really solid little bike, and lighter than her sisters 20" Marin.

*in all important purple!

Daz555

Have a look at Ridgeback also.

amack

If anyone's interested I got my daughter the pecialized hotrock 20", this years model. The lbs gave 10% of the price of the bike towards accessories so not bad. The new model has a lower top tube making it easier for my daughter to get on and off. Unfortunately Specialized have no pink in stock so she has to wait until the end of October I phoned a few bike shops but no one is stocking that colour the moment so it looks like its a long wait. It's a pity the new islabike was £300 + £25 delivery otherwise I would have gone for it as there non suspension kids bikes are very rare, so thanks to everyone for their input!

amack

I've just found out from my lbs that the Hotrock will not be available from the distributer until the end of October!! I was hoping to get her on some trips before winter set in. I might just cancel and get the Islabike after all, my neighbour ordered the 2013 Cnoc for his daughter this week and it's being delivered next week.