Bike for 5 years old

ugo.santalucia

My nephew is 5 years old, weighs 25 Kg and he is 1 m 22 cm tall, which is roughly 4 foot tall

Any advice for a bike? He still uses stabilisers, but we hope to remove them soon. I only have budget for one bicycle, so we will have to skip the balance bike step

Thanks

Shaun67

Both my kids have had Specialized Hotrocks in 12", 16" 20" & 24" wheel and loved them, plus when outgrown they
sell without a problem for good money on fleebay.....

ugo.santalucia

Shaun67 wrote:

Both my kids have had Specialized Hotrocks in 12", 16" 20" & 24" wheel and loved them, plus when outgrown they
sell without a problem for good money on fleebay.....

Which size would you recommend?

Shaun67

My little girl has just gone 6 and is aroud 114cm and rides a 2012 Specialized Hotrock 20, it's a girls frame and is a
little difference from the 2013 bike. My son is 8 and around 130cm and rides a Giant XCT jnr 24. Both kids started out on balance bike around 18 months old and could ride at about 3 and have never had stabilisers. I would go for a 20" bike from one of the big manufactures, it will be aluminium and nice and light and easier for him to ride and you will sell it on with no problem for a good price when he moves up. Hope this has helped.

ugo.santalucia

Shaun67 wrote:

My little girl has just gone 6 and is aroud 114cm and rides a 2012 Specialized Hotrock 20, it's a girls frame and is a
little difference from the 2013 bike. My son is 8 and around 130cm and rides a Giant XCT jnr 24. Both kids started out on balance bike around 18 months old and could ride at about 3 and have never had stabilisers. I would go for a 20" bike from one of the big manufactures, it will be aluminium and nice and light and easier for him to ride and you will sell it on with no problem for a good price when he moves up. Hope this has helped.

Very much, thank you!

oxoman

Ugo. the Hotrocks are a very good bike as are Islabike's if you can afford them. Be wary of cheaper brands with forks though as they tend to be heavy. Just for info my 7yr old son's got a Giant MTX 125 and it weighs in at 11.5kg with stand.

ugo.santalucia

oxoman wrote:

Ugo. the Hotrocks are a very good bike as are Islabike's if you can afford them. Be wary of cheaper brands with forks though as they tend to be heavy. Just for info my 7yr old son's got a Giant MTX 125 and it weighs in at 11.5kg with stand.

I like the Islabike... it makes sense without the shocks and 7.8 Kg is a very reasonable weight. Still think gears are unnecessary, but they all come with them, so be it...

nicklouse

ugo.santalucia wrote:

oxoman wrote:

Ugo. the Hotrocks are a very good bike as are Islabike's if you can afford them. Be wary of cheaper brands with forks though as they tend to be heavy. Just for info my 7yr old son's got a Giant MTX 125 and it weighs in at 11.5kg with stand.

I like the Islabike... it makes sense without the shocks and 7.8 Kg is a very reasonable weight. Still think gears are unnecessary, but they all come with them, so be it...

strip them off and make it SS.

then when it comes time to resell it refit rather than replace and the value should still be good.

oxoman

As nicklouse say's strip the gear's off and save for later, also reduces the weight. My 7 yr old still struggles with changing gears mainly because he hasn't got the wrist strength to twist the shifter even when it was new and well lubed he struggled. I am currently looking out for a road bike for him and whichever he gets i will probably put paddle shift as easier for him. Islabike's are easy to sell on and have good resale price. Just be careful which you get as they do different frame sizes and if your Nephew grows quick he might soon grow out of it. The mainstream manufacturers tend to do one size per model, and frame size hen changes with wheel size. Also regarding your Nephew is he riding on grass or solid ground, i found that both my son's struggled to learn to ride and get off stabilisers as i wrongly tried them on grass thinking if they fell it wouldn't hurt. Good idea but wrong, put them on solid ground and within 15 minutes stabilisers came off. Both now ride on quiet roads with me all the time if not on trails. All the best in choosing a bike and getting the lad off stabilisers.

native son

Islabike without a doubt.
My son has just moved to a beinn 20. He loves riding it and at 6 finds the gear change easy and realy improves his enjoyment. Speed and distance he can ride.
As for the cost his first islabike a cnoc 16 which he has had for 2 years and rode a lot cost virtually nothing. Bought for around 180. Just got 175 plus 20 postage on e bay.

native son

Islabike without a doubt.
My son has just moved to a beinn 20. He loves riding it and at 6 finds the gear change easy and realy improves his enjoyment. Speed and distance he can ride.
As for the cost his first islabike a cnoc 16 which he has had for 2 years and rode a lot cost virtually nothing. Bought for around 180. Just got 175 plus 20 postage on e bay.

johnboy183

Again the Islabike. My 6 yr old is 123cm approx and 22kg. He has no problems with the beinn24, in fact we had to raise the seat slightly. Will keep its money and should last a couple of years. Gear change is no problem.

Mike Healey

As for the stabilisers, read the teaching your kids to ride thread.

Stabilisers are the instrument of the devil

richhawkins

Hi, I have a 5 year old myself and have been looking for a bike for some time. I have found this site www.theminibmx.com but im not sure these are what I need? are these for older kids?

baudman

richhawkins wrote:

Hi, I have a 5 year old myself and have been looking for a bike for some time. I have found this site http://www.theminibmx.com but im not sure these are what I need?

As we say in Australia, which most unfortunately seems to have virulently spread across the globe...

"Yeah... nah...."

richhawkins wrote:

are these for older kids?

I think nothing more than someone trying to create a market where currently there is none. I'm sure a sector of society would find them a bit of fun.

I'd encourage you to look at some of the other suggestions made by people in this, and similar threads. Many of them begin with 'I', but there's other options too.

juggling mum

I would suggest looking at the Islabikes as a starting point. We have used them from the 16" Cnoc through to 26" luath and creig. They have a brilliant resale value and are built to fit small children. My son used his 20" beinn on the local bmx track, off road (cyclocross and mountain biking) and for road riding. One of the things we noticed with the other kids road bikes often mentioned here is that small details such as crank length and riding position do not really compare to that offered by islabike. Bikes need scaling in all dimensions, not just the obvious ones. Our children race and over 3/4 of the bikes for the younger children are islabikes as nothing else really compares.

Haughjd

Yet another vote for Islabike. If you want your 5yr old to love cycling as much as you do

joelsim

My son is on his 3rd bike, starting on a balance bike, he then wanted a spiderman bike as they do at 3, that didn't last long, as it was censored , but I then got him a Specialized Hotrock 16" which will need replacing soon due to growth. He is 5 3/4 and 114cm tall, so a 20" is definitely the one to go for.

On the Hotrock it was an excellent bike for him, never had stabilisers on any bike, if I had a gripe about it the brake lever is too big for his hands, even now, but luckily it has a pedal brake so it's never been an issue. Moving to a 20" with gears he won't have this luxury so I'll be getting him an Islabike Beinn next year due to having smaller brake levers. Seems a bit of an oversight on the part of many manufacturers to be honest.

yaya

For my son's 5th birthday last august I decided to go against the mainstream and picked up a Haro BMX bike with 16" wheels. I rode BMX when I was a kid and feel that they're better for gaining confidence and better nike handling.
No gears, a seat that can be low enough for them to be able to touch the ground and you can throw them from a cliff and they won't break
They're very heavy, yes, but it adds to their ability to just go through pretty much everything

Not that there's a big difference in geometry and handling between a REAL BMX and a BMX lookalike. I can ride his bike without any problems and I'm 93Kg!

My daughter is 7 and she rides a Land Rover 24" with beers, forks etc. They are quite solid with an alloy frame a decent Shimano/ Sram drive train & brakes but if I try to do on them what I do with my son's bike they will fall apart!

I wish there was a kids bike with 22" wheels and 3-5 gears and alloy frame...

baudman

yaya wrote:

My daughter is 7 and she rides a Land Rover 24" with beers, forks etc...

Jeez... you start them early over there!?

yaya wrote:

I wish there was a kids bike with 22" wheels and 3-5 gears and alloy frame...

http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-gb/bik ... 886/56942/ - 24" but low(ish) saddle height. In Aust we could previously get a 'Street' model that had internal hub gear and solid forks. That's now branded a 'Veer' here, as of this year. Perhaps ask at your local Giant LBS? My 7yo is currently on the (older) 20" version. Rapidly growing, however, so replacement due soon(ish).