I’m looking at bikes for our soon to be 4 year old. She’s confident on her balance bike so something with pedals is the next step.

I’m thinking to get a 16″ wheel model rather than a 14″. She’s right on the lower limit size wise fir one (104cm), but she’ll outgrow the smaller wheel size pretty soon.

I can discount most of the crappy Halfords-style ones. I looked at one instore the other day – my god they’re terrible!

I’ve looked at Islabikes, Frog, and Early Rider. I’m really taken with the ER Belter. They really seem a step up in quality over even the other 2 brands.

So my main question is, are they really that good and are they worth the £100 premium over the Isla and Frog bikes – £350 compared to £250? It seems like a lot for a kids bike, but it’s not much compared to most of the bikes we ride!

And the little PSA – Evans have the ER Belter on sale for £299 currently, which makes the price a bit more palatable!

Hoppy jr had a belter 16 and now has the 20 trail 3s. They’re really well put together, nice and light and (if nothing else) a bit different to the rest. Residuals are pretty strong.

Is it significantly better than an islabike? Probably not too much, but the belt drive does mean it’s fairly maintenance free.

Belt drive and lack of oil is a definite advantage 🙂
I’d also hope that with another one 3 1/2 years younger it’ll do service for her too.

Ours has gone to friends whose lad is a few years younger than hoppy jr. Mechanically no issues and we’d had it getting on 2 years.

Daughter has the 20″ 3-speed one, it is very well made – her previous Islabike was good, but the ER is a definite step up.

My lad and his cousin both have one. Not sure if they are worth the extra tbh as I’ve never seen an isla bike in the flesh, but when the nephew came over here in summer we hired him a bike and within half an hour he was covered in chain oil! So that’s a plus…

Our daughter loves hers. Height wise we were in the same situation and decided to go with the bigger size. This worked out well as to start with she was reluctant to pedal so for the first few months it did not get much use.

Pulled the trigger – let’s hope she likes it!

Only problem I can foresee is that purple is the colour du jour at the moment, I bet she’ll moan about it not being purple!

You can counter that by fitting things like purple grips and stickers :). I’ve countered it by promising we can build a future bike from scratch including a respray.

Tom, 16″ is definitely the way to go. 14″ for me is an odd size because as soon as they then grow at all they should be on a 16″.

Have a look at what pedals it comes with as the best upgrade I made to mk1’s cnoc was some proper kids sized flat pedals. I can send you the model number if you need it.

Have a look at what pedals it comes with as the best upgrade I made to mk1’s cnoc was some proper kids sized flat pedals

Cheers, I think they come with a set of decent child-sized pedals, but I’ll wait and see.

Hoppy jr struggles with the standard ER pedals. We went for some wellgo kc-001s work much better.

Got our eldest an Early Rider 20″ this year, cracking bike, super light compared to some of the alternatives. 3 speed hub and belt drive keep thing clean and simple too. 😀

I think they really are that good.
L’il J loves his .cant say if the bigger wheeled one is better,depends if it fits your daughter.
There was a problem with ours and early rider were very helpful & replaced it.
highly recommended .

Mine went from IB Rothan, to IB C-Noc14, which she never really got on with, jumped on an Early rider belter 16″ and just went, everywhere !!

My son now has the 16″ but has really outgrown it. I
I brought the Belter 20″ trail 3, which she is absolutely flying on. So much further on and much more confidence than her school friends.

I’d say they are definitely worth the money, my only sadness is I`m not in a position to buy a new 20″ one for my Lad now 🙁

So I`m looking at the 20″ Charge cooker instead

I really love Early Rider, they have been so helpful and just a great company to deal with.
Feels like being part of a family.
We had a little balance bike for my 2 year old, quickly progressed to a 14″ ( ‘I want pedals like daddy’) at 3 years, then onto the 16″.
I think it was a good progression between sizes.
She is now 6 and at the upper limit of the 16″.
20″ for Christmas if we can find the money…..

Think we will be moving to the 20″ soon. Have you seen the tricked out hope version. Total overkill but very nice 🙂