Lightweight bike to last

larkim

Son has probably reached his max growth now, and is particularly short at about 5ft0. He's outgrown his Frog 62 which we're ebaying.

He will never be a gnarly trails rider, but riding along with family is where he'll be at (learning disabilities etc) and lightweight is good.

The Hoy Bonaly https://www.evanscycles.com/hoy-bonaly- ... e-EV306435 at 10.2kg looks like a nice shiny option, but obviously at his height small frames and women's frames come into view. But 10.2kg looks very, very hard to get close to with front sus usually penalising things heavily at that sort of price point.

Is £440 for a rigid fork but light going to be overkill (bearing in mind I'm hoping to get £200 back on the Frog resale or so), or is there anything else 1x and light which might fit the bill?

Frog do a slightly cheaper similar size rigid at £370 https://www.frogbikes.com/lightweight-k ... og-78.aspx but it looks less MTB-ey and that might dampen its appeal.

Their front sus bikes look good, but i'm struggling to justify the extra £150 as in all honesty it won't be ridden particularly hard. Sometimes buying a bike is about fitting in with your family...

The Rookie

Looking at that spec I simply do not believe its a 10.2 kg bike, I know the effort i put in to get my hardtail (16" frame and 26" wheel) to circa 10Kg and that's simply not there. I'd put it at about 12.5Kg at best. That said its a decent spec for the price, and probably about the lightest you'll get at that p[rice as well. Maybe fill the frame and tyres with helium......

larkim

The Rookie wrote:

Looking at that spec I simply do not believe its a 10.2 kg bike, I know the effort i put in to get my hardtail (16" frame and 26" wheel) to circa 10Kg and that's simply not there. I'd put it at about 12.5Kg at best. That said its a decent spec for the price, and probably about the lightest you'll get at that p[rice as well. Maybe fill the frame and tyres with helium......

Yep, 10.2kg does look impressive for the size / scale. Surely you're not saying that Evans and Hoy would have it wrong? ;-)

Frog weigh theirs at 10.0kg, but theirs looks a bit less weighty in any event.

The Rookie

Have it wrong, yes, lie, no....I'd refer to Hanlon's razor.

Just as an example the tyres and tubes will weigh about 800g more than the ones (tubeless) I had on my Carrera. The crankset at least 200g more, seatpost 100g more, bars at least 150g more. The only thing on the Hoy lighter will be the forks and Headset. The maths just doesn't add up.

sniper68

Hoy also claim 8.69kg for their 24" wheeled Meadowmill.My mates lad had one and it was actually 8.7kg

larkim

Drat them and their 0.01kg marketing guff ;-)

No good reason why they should get one right and other wrong I suppose, it would just be nice to get it validated. I've posted over at STW to see if anyone there has any direct experience.

steve_sordy

I've just looked at the records I kept on my Grandson's Hoy Bonaly 24. OK it was a 24" wheeler, not the 26" that the OP is reporting but it only weighed 9.2kg. I would be willing to believe that the next size up might weigh another kilo (2.2 lbs for those that think in in £sd). The bike is a cracking bike, his younger sister is using it now.

larkim

That's great, thanks - the 24in non-disc is marketed at 8.6kg and the disc version is 10.kg, so assuming your grandson had the non-disc version then maybe we're looking at 11kg real world weight for the 26er. Still pretty light for the cash though.

steve_sordy

My grandson's bike was the non disc, but I'd removed the Small Block 8 tyres and fitted some bigger nobblies. And I'd fitted some lock-on grips instead of the slide on ones. I didn't weigh the bike before those changes, only afterwards.

sniper68

steve_sordy wrote:

My grandson's bike was the non disc, but I'd removed the Small Block 8 tyres and fitted some bigger nobblies. And I'd fitted some lock-on grips instead of the slide on ones. I didn't weigh the bike before those changes, only afterwards.

Depending on tyres that could explain the 0.6kg(1.2lb) extra when you weighed your grandsons bike.Years ago I put some Bontrager Big Earl tyres on my Enduro.They were over 800g each...or 1.6kg a pair.That's 3.5lbs!!!

larkim

Popped into Halfords and they have the Wiggins brand bikes, there's a kids 26er there too which is badged as 11kg. Mech disc brakes though, but a good £100 cheaper...

sniper68

larkim wrote:

Popped into Halfords and they have the Wiggins brand bikes, there's a kids 26er there too which is badged as 11kg. Mech disc brakes though, but a good £100 cheaper...

My son had a Wiggins Rouen650 Road bike as a stop gap between his 24" Frog67 and his current Battaglin 700c.TBF they're not bad.A tad heavier than Frog/Islabikes etc but they are much cheaper.He liked the Red/White/Blue Theme 8) I sold it for the same as I paid for it as I got it heavily discounted with vouchers(35% off).
I think the Hoy and Wiggins bikes are there to fill a gap as not everyone wants to pay Frog/Islabikes prices.

steve_sordy

Sniper68 wrote:

..............
I think the Hoy and Wiggins bikes are there to fill a gap as not everyone wants to pay Frog/Islabikes prices.

I agree with that. I can't speak for the quality of Frog or Wiggins bikes, but the Hoy Bonaly 24 was every bit as high quality as the Islabike equivalent. In fact I preferred the Hoy bike as it was trigger shift not twist grip and the range on the cassette was bigger. When I bought one it was £70 cheaper than the Islabike too. Prior to that I was a confirmed Islabike fan for my grandkids.

sniper68

steve_sordy wrote:

Sniper68 wrote:

..............
I think the Hoy and Wiggins bikes are there to fill a gap as not everyone wants to pay Frog/Islabikes prices.

I agree with that. I can't speak for the quality of Frog or Wiggins bikes, but the Hoy Bonaly 24 was every bit as high quality as the Islabike equivalent. In fact I preferred the Hoy bike as it was trigger shift not twist grip and the range on the cassette was bigger. When I bought one it was £70 cheaper than the Islabike too. Prior to that I was a confirmed Islabike fan for my grandkids.

If you're not a badge snob then both Hoy and Wiggins are very good bikes.They're not as well established as Frog and Isla but IMO offer better spec for your money.
Both my sons bikes are now XS adult bikes so we had much more choice 8)

larkim

I popped into an Evans yesterday and they had a 26er Pinnacle rated at 11.5kg, but sadly no 26er Hoy, but they did have a 24er disc Hoy in stock and the difference in weight is incredible.

The Pinnacle is a bit shorter than the Hoy, so I've convinced myself to try the Hoy. Put off the Wiggins simply on the mech discs which I always hated and the 3x setup which in my circumstances doesn't help to simplify things enough for the young man who will be riding it.

Found a 5% off code though, so £441 for the Hoy. A bit pricier than I'd like, but if I get £150-£200 back on the Frog then it's a mitigated spend!

larkim

Sniper68 wrote:

steve_sordy wrote:

Sniper68 wrote:

..............
I think the Hoy and Wiggins bikes are there to fill a gap as not everyone wants to pay Frog/Islabikes prices.

I agree with that. I can't speak for the quality of Frog or Wiggins bikes, but the Hoy Bonaly 24 was every bit as high quality as the Islabike equivalent. In fact I preferred the Hoy bike as it was trigger shift not twist grip and the range on the cassette was bigger. When I bought one it was £70 cheaper than the Islabike too. Prior to that I was a confirmed Islabike fan for my grandkids.

If you're not a badge snob then both Hoy and Wiggins are very good bikes.They're not as well established as Frog and Isla but IMO offer better spec for your money.
Both my sons bikes are now XS adult bikes so we had much more choice 8)

I would have happily gone down an XS adult bike, but the weight / price penalty was too much. I think Hoy have hit the nail on the head with presenting a bike that looks like a MTB rather than a hybrid, but bravely foregoing the front sus which just about every kid will instinctively want.

18 months ago I'd have probably got a Trott MTB 1 instead, but sadly that flew off the shelves.

steve_sordy

larkim wrote:

............ I think Hoy have hit the nail on the head with presenting a bike that looks like a MTB rather than a hybrid, but bravely foregoing the front sus which just about every kid will instinctively want.

..........

Don't worry about the lack of sprung forks, if your son is anything like my grandson, he will have rubber arms and legs. The lack of a suspension fork did not slow him down in any way.

larkim

As an adult, I 100% agree. I've been there as the naive parent in the past, buying a brand name bike with a fork which (albeit a lot better than the sort of thing you find on an Apollo BSO) was neither use nor ornament. But trying to persuade a young teenager that they don't need a fork, despite everyone else having one, is more tricky!

Fortunately in this case, I am self appointed head of specification - so I get to pick, and I think this teenager can be properly persuaded!

cycleclinic

its the rigid fork where the weight is saved on the hoy,

the weakspot in the spec are the hubs, no name ball bearing hubs. i.e the sealing will be crap. depending on how much the bike gets used will depend on how much of a weakspot the hubs will be.

One of the reason I forked out more for a orange zest (athough for me in the trade it was not much more) was the wheels. The hubs are novatec D771/D772 i.e reasonable cartridge bearing hubs. The loose ball bearing hub in here previous islabike where going a bit ropey after 1.5 years use from a 5/6year old.

The Orange zest 24" for reference with a suspension fork and SRAM NX 1x11 is 11kg but an awsome bike for a 7 year old (she's a bit a tall).

sparquin

larkim wrote:

Is £440 for a rigid fork but light going to be overkill?

I'd go with a rigid fork first, and then hold out the prospect of a suspension fork as a future upgrade when skills justify and budget allows. It turns out that that's more or less what I did with my son's bike - we built it up rigid (a couple of years ago)to save both grams and pounds, and he's getting a suspension fork to upgrade it some time soon.

One advantage of doing this is you get to choose a decent, light-ish fork, rather than being stuck with the 'Any Old Iron' variety that often goes on children's bikes.

larkim

Picked up the bike today and put it on the scales - 10.2kg as described all loaded up. Front wheel incl tyre, QR axel and disc weighed 1.9kg, no idea if that is light or not!

steve_sordy

Your son is a very lucky boy! My grandson was always the envy of his mates when they realised how light his bike was.

Get some helicopter tape on the underside of the downtube, the outer faces of the fork and the stays. Swap the tyres out asap for something chunkier (£10-12 each).

When you come to sell, put the tyres back on. You will get a very high resale value. Islabikes are always in demand.

PS: Tell him not to leave the bike lying about or it will go walkies.

larkim

He's unlikely to be out of our sight anyway, but it's not the most subtle of bikes.

Heli tape ordered, that's a good shout.

The Rookie

larkim wrote:

Picked up the bike today and put it on the scales - 10.2kg as described all loaded up. Front wheel incl tyre, QR axel and disc weighed 1.9kg, no idea if that is light or not!

I'm amazed!

And yes that's pretty good, around 2.3 is common at that price point (1kg wheel, 225g tube, 50g QR, 12g disc bolts, 140g disc and about 850g for a wired tyre.)