My daughter is nearly 5 and for the last 1.5 years has been riding a Frog 48. Its generally ridden on hard surfaces though of late we’ve been riding tow paths near where we live. She’ll happily ride 4 miles to a park and then back along the canal.

Its getting to the stage where we feel she needs gears so a new bike is in order.

I’m all for getting another Frog (52 or 55) though at the weekend we saw a Specialised Hotrock 20. This comes with a front suspension fork, the Frog is rigid fork as is the corresponding Isla bike.

Is the fork on the Specialised (SR Suntour) worth having?

Also, i cant see a weight figure for the Specialised. The Frog 52 is 8.75Kg and i’m thinking the weight is more of an issue than having a front fork that may not be very good?

The Frog is 8 speed, which might initially overwhelm her, but she’s quick to learn and enjoys cycling so don’t think it will put her off.

So, do i stick with the Frog brand or try the Specialised? I think there’s a decent trade in on the Frog which is another bonus.

I would recommend the frog my son had his 52 for 2 years but now with his younger brother who just completed a 26 mile ride around goodwood on it. I feel a lot of this had to do with the low weight and the geometry which is better than the specilized.

friends bought there son the specilized, it is heavier I don’t feel that for adds anything other than weight. Also there son has lost confidence coming from his Isla 16 inch bike while mine has gained in confidence moving on to the frog.

Frog also has better resell value

My 9 year old is on a bigger, rigid Frog. Noticeably lighter than even well species HT equivalents, but she does find the ride bumpy riding green/blue routes.

Also finding the Frog is quite stretched as she has grown into it properly, will be looking for something else sooner than we’d hoped.

Belter.

Check the reach on the two bikes.

Went through the same decision and my daughter was all legs and short torso so looked/felt stretched on the specialised so went with the Frog (second one).

Very happy with it.

Stick with the Frog, the Spesh is very heavy by comparison and in common with almost all kids bikes the fork is ridiculously oversprung.

How tall is your daughter? The only 20″ wheel, geared bike with a suitable stand over height for my 5 year old was an islabike 20 small.

The issue with buying anything at that age is that they grow out of it so quickly, and actually don’t complain about the quality at all!

I bought a Frog 62 for one of my sons because he is very diminutive, and is likely to stay very short for a long time. He also has inherent muscle weaknesses so weight of the bike was an issue, so it makes sense for us to buy him a lightweight kids bike that may last 3 or 4 years. But for the rest of my kids its decathlon bikes FTW. Cheap, reliable, generally well enough put together but heavy, effectively disposable but possible to hand down between the family. The kids don’t seem to care too much!

Just found out that there’s a local’ish bike shop that have both Frog bikes in store that she can try. So we will be heading there one weekend. I’ll ditch the idea of the Specialised as it only interested me due to the front fork.

Belter.

£500 😯

My son just 6 has a frog 55. It took him about 3 weeks to work the gears out. I still have to remind him at time though.

I don’t know why though, but kids do appear to look more comfortable on Isla bikes.