Dawes Espoir 26 v Isla Bike Luath 26

I bought a smaller model Islabike for my daughter, then aged 6, and was really delighted with both the bike and the service I had from the company. THe bikes themselves are the best children's bikes I have seen, and I shopped around quite a bit since I wanted my daughter to have a bike that was not only safe but genuinely a pleasure to ride - and hopefully to start her on a lifelong enjoyment of cycling. She loves it.

They are essentially grown-up bikes scaled down to children's sizes and gave a genuinely quality feel to them, and run extremely smoothly. My daughter was delighted by the difference she felt, straight way, from the bog-standard kids bike on which she had been learning.

Again, I can't speak to the Dawes, but I do know the Islabikes was -and still is - great. I hope this helps.

+1 for Isla: I don't know anything about the Dawes, and I don't know the Luath personally (my daughter has a Beinn 24) but what I do know is that someone has put a lot into the design and especially sourcing of components, which I presume holds for the Luath as well. Things like cranks that are proportional to the rider, brakes that small kids can actually reach and pull hard enough to stop, that kind of thing.
There's also a rather unusual thing for a children's bike - it's lighter than an adult bike.

hammerite wrote:

The thing that puts me off the Luath 26, is the gearing. Single ring at the front, if this bike is to be suitable for Jnr still in 18-24 months time I'd imagine he'd want to use his gears a little more (both because he can, and also so he can be more competitive).

Islabikes website wrote:

You will have noticed that single chainrings and wide ratio blocks have been selected for most of our bikes. We have observed that children struggle to understand how to use multiple chainrings effectively, and usually end up using only one ring. The arrival on the market of very wide ratio cassettes has allowed us to specify a single ring and still provide an appropriate range of gears, giving your child something they will find easier to operate with the added advantage of being lighter and lower maintenance.

After watching Bompette on hers I'm inclined to agree - she usually comes up our road (carrying school bag), a nice little 300m at about 12%, in top gear.
She's had it since last christmas and the gears have worked smoothly both times she's changed them.

I would agree with everything already said about the Islabikes. Both my daughters have them. 10 year old has the Luath 26 and the 8 year old the Luath 24 and they love them . The gearing is fine.

One important point not yet mentioned is that they have excellent re-sale value and go really quickly (60-70% of new price is not unusual!). I would guess the Dawes would depreciate much greater.

Gary.

Another +1 for the Islabike.

I coach at a youth cycling club and we have a stock of club bikes - all Islabikes. They take everything thats thrown at them and keep coming back for more!

I agree that for young children the concept of multiple chainring can be mind-boggling - its hard enough to get them to understand the concept of changing gear on the cassette let alone having another chainring to worry about!

One member has got her own Dawes but it seems to be significantly heavier than the Islabike which as mentioned previously can be significant for a young child