Childs Bike - Advice Please

nezrobiso

Hi all. I'm new to the forum, and have done no mountain biking (good start eh!!). I am a "commuter" with a hybrid bike so do plenty of miles, but my nine year old has expressed an interest in off road stuff. I have an old mountain bike that I can use short term, but what should I look for for him? What is a good starter model that won't break the bank? I have seen plenty of child's Mountain Bikes on line - Muddy Fox, Carrera, Raleigh etc but I don't know whether they are any good or should I be going to a specialist shop.

Thanks for any advice - if he enjoys it I will be probably back in the forum asking for advice on an adult's bike for myself!!!

Neil

pesky_jones

Seeing as he's only nine you hardly need a big brand bike. I'd be looking in the classifieds in the paper

cooldad

Unfortunately most kids bikes are really heavy, often similar weights to adults bikes as they tend to use cheap heavy bits.
Islabikes make kid specific bikes, not the cheapest but useable – worth looking second hand.
http://www.islabikes.co.uk/bike_pages/beinn26.html
I’d avoid anything from toy shops (Muddy Fox are rubbish – not the brand they were 20 years ago) and be wary of front suspension (or any suspension really) as again forks tend to be bargain basement and just add weight.
What sort of budget do you have?

Woodmonkey

We got our 7 year old a carerra blast from halfords, good light bike for the cash, he loves it

ElliesDad

We got a Carerra Luna, the girls equivalent of the Blast mentioned above, off eBay last year for my daughter who is now 7. It was less than a year old, hardly used and only cost £40. RRP at the time was about £170. It's a good bike, not too heavy and she loves it.

Islabikes are the ones to go for though, they may be expensive but I've seen them go for not much less than purchase price on eBay so hold their value well. An Islabike is definitely the next bike I will be getting my daughter.

bompington

+1 for Islabikes. Others getting closer but still nothing that I know of matches the light weight, quality components (properly proportionally sized, easy gears and brakes) not to mention resale value that Islabikes have.

stubs

If you buy a new Islabike they do a trade in deal for when you move up to a larger bike.

zedzed

Islabike cost: £350, resale value: £275 (if you keep it nice!).
Other bikes cost: £150, resale value: £50 (if you're lucky).

So ...if you can afford the initial investment the Islabike is actually "cheaper" (in the long run!).

My LBS sells "Frog" bikes for kids, however, which I think are a relatively new company looking to so a similar thing to IslaBikes. See http://www.frogbikes.com

Bike weight from them for an 8 to 10 yo (Frog 60 mtb) is 11kg (vs. 10.95kg for Isla Creig 24). The Frog is £260, the Isla £350.

Now .. whether the Frog holds it value like the Isla bikes do is another thing - it's pretty new and without a good reputation it could fall into the "Other" bikes category above with lower resale ... but it's perhaps a happy medium between Isla and "toy shop" bike?

p.s. If you don't need the "mtb" kids bike (i.e. only really for some gentle trails/towpaths etc) then the standard bikes from both in equivalent size models are around 9Kg.

HTH

jenysmith

It's really important to buy the right size bike for a child. If their bike's too small, their knees will hit the handlebars, but if it's too big, they won't be able to get on and off easily. This could potentially cause an accident.


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poah

Woodmonkey wrote:

We got our 7 year old a carerra blast from halfords, good light bike for the cash, he loves it

I got our 8 year old then24 inch wheel blast and replaced the brakes with avid elixir 3's although I'd buy m596's now. Great little bike and he's been round the commonwealth XC course at Cathkin on it cycling 90% of the course.