When I say ‘best’ I kinda mean ‘cheapest’. Obviously there are the usual places but they are all pretty pricy but I am a bit nervous about buying from someone I have never heard of nor had recommended.

Cheers.

Carrera from Halfords is probably about as cheap as you’d want to go.

I had been looking at Raleigh – they seem to be the best compromise between price and weight. The current bike we are looking at (Chic 20”) is £220 RRP but I have seen it as low as £160 (or £145 from a very dodgy looking site).

Will have a gander at the Carrera range though cheers.

The new Raleighs look great. From a distance, I thought they were Islabikes – similar design and colours.

eBay

Had three Islabikes from there, they’ve all been in fantastic nick and half the price of new.

Last one I bought, I went to the guys house to collect it, had a good chat about cycling and a look at his own bike collection. Entirely pleasant.

eBay

Had three Islabikes from there, they’ve all been in fantastic nick and half the price of new.

+1. Or reconditioned direct from Islabike.

Right here on stw is a good place to start… Just bought a Frog from a member by posting a wanted ad 🙂

Right here on stw is a good place to start… Just bought a Frog from a member by posting a wanted ad 🙂

Got a Carrera for my daughter for Xmas when they were heavily reduced. Paid £130ish.

As above, I wouldn’t wanna go cheaper – it’s probably on the cusp in terms of weight.

user-removed acknowledging that the OP needs to buy bikes for twins 😆

Does it have to be new? At that sort of money I’d be looking at a 2nd hand Frog or Orbea. It’s the lower end of 2nd Islabike pricing so I wouldn’t bother with those.

+1 for here – the usual 2nd hand islabikes and frogs will be much lighter than anything else in the 20″ wheel range. The oft-stated spiel about islabikes having good resale is true, especially if you buy them 2ndhand in the first place.

They are being bought as ‘main’ Christmas presents (half each from us and grandparents but in the guise of being from Santa) I would like to buy new – especially as finding two similar condition second hand bikes will be difficult and they *do* compare. When they were younger (three YO IIRC) we did buy second hand bikes for Christmas and the first thing E did was to get the baby wipes out and start to clean the ‘dirty bike’.

And just looked – Islabikes are out of budget even when second-hand!!!! At the end of the day, they aren’t to be used for big off road treks, just for leisure riding around the roads near the house/to the playground etc and the occasional summer ride on the local cycle paths.

Thought I just saw an add for Halfords saying something like buy 2 get an extra 15% off on kids bikes – could be useful if I could find it. Will post if I see it again.

I’ve got a couple of frog bikes for sale. 52 and a 55

We’ve had some Ridgeback MX range bikes for ours and have been really happy with them. Islabikes etc are really nice but kids grow too quick, they basically need a new bike every 18months or so and that gets a bit silly.

Youngest has just grown out of one of these: https://www.ridgebackkids.co.uk/boys/dimension-16-silver

Cheers – just found one for 10% thank you 🙂

I’ve got a couple of frog bikes for sale. 52 and a 55

Twins so both need same size but thanks anyway. You must be the last remaining person on this forum to know I have twins 🙂

don’t forget the British cycling 10% too, i’m looking at the wiggin’s 20 Chartres.

😳