my eldest is starting to look a bit perched on his islabike cnoc 16″.
any recommendations for a 20″ bike?

Halfords, Carrerra Blast (IIRC), cracking little bike. Only a pound or so off the weight of an Isla Beinn 20. About £160 I think. Only reason my lad had an Islabike is because one came up S/H. Would happily save the extra £100 towards his next bike.

Islabikes are good though.

cheers will go have a look at that one.
EDIT: thats reet nice that, and £60 off atm…think i’ll get one.
cheers thats just saved me about a ton 😀

Just picked up a 24″ Carrerra & 16″ Carrerra from Halfords for the kids. Both look really nice bikes and they have a sale on at the moment.

got the 20″ carrera blast today, first ride on it through local trails today, it looks a good bike and I like it and would recommend it.

picked it up boxed assembled it, things i noticed

wheels not true
stem came fitted upsude down
brake lever could be a tad smaller, my boy struggled to reach them, so i’ll put on his old islabike levers.
gears not indexed (they said it would be) no biggy though.

all in all though its a cracking little bike for the money.

Just got my son a felt QR20 from whinstanleys, £199.20 hes just come off a isla cnoc 16, he loves this new felt.Had him out up kentmere today on it for a first blast out ,seems to handle well.plus its not as heavy as i thought it would be..def worth a look.

I got a carrera blast a couple of years ago for my lad. As you say for the price saving over an Isla bike I think it’s great. The fork isn’t up to much. Don’t know about the newer one’s but his had a weird widget on the front brake cable to limit it’s power. The only thing I’ve had to do is remove it.