so look at a new bike for my 5.5 year old, suitable bikes are the Isla Beinn 20 Large or Frog 55

He has an Isla balance bike, then we tried the Frog 48, to be honest no issues with any.

I opted with the Frog 48 after hearing good reviews against the Isla and the price for his first main pedal.

He went straight from balance to pedal with no issues, no stabilizers.

The thing that I am debating about most of all between the 2 choices us the gears.

Isla has grip shift

Frog as thumb leavers

Any advise? Personally I used grip shift on a specialized adults bike years ago and I like this compared to the thumb leavers, but for kids whats best?

I have no opinion on the Frog but my daughter (age 6) gets on with the gripshift just fine on her Beinn.

I was looking at these for my daughter, who’s 5 early next year, but now I’m leaning towards the Specialized Riprock 20.

does the specialized still have a coaster brake on these?

The Riprock has discs and plus tyres – it looks fun!

My kids have got Frog’s so a vote for them from me. Not the only game in town, but great bikes easily stand upto any other option in terms of price and quality.

In fact my younger daughter has grown out of her 55 so I’ll need to get her onto a bigger one, so if you finally decide on a Frog then give me a shout. Hers is in very good nick – only minor signs of normal wear and tear and in Purple!

Hey would have to be in Red, but thanks anyway.

My frog 48 has been great but just trying to decide on the better gears.

Had a look at the Specialized Riprock 20 looks too much extras for 5.5year old suspension fork, front disks, maybe next one up after this

Vitus 20?

to be honest I am between the Isla and the Frog, just as I have had them before and they have done the job. With the resell value and the fact his little brother will get use, and they use them most weekends to cycle when out with dog I dont mind the costs.

Its the two different gears I am trying to gauge which is best

Ok, 6 y/o has duck to watered the thumb shifters. Vitus came up very similar to the frog so we went with that. It has to do 3 kids, so resale is out the window… it will have had a hammering!

my daughter struggled with the gripshift on the frog so as I’m passing it down to her brother I’ve fitted a 7 spd trigger shifter instead – I’ll see how he fares with that and report back.

We’ve got Isla, Frog and Specialized kids bikes – the Isla probably has the edge in nice-ness but the Frog is also a very good kids bike. The spec is also a nice bike but yes, too much unnecessary stuff and I would ditch the sprung fork if I could, already converted it to 1x as the chainset weighed a ton and kids don’t really need triples.

It’s boringly often quoted about resale value on Isla bikes but that’s because its true, we might even make a small profit on ours since it was bought 2nd hand at a good price.

Both of my two struggled with gripshift so maybe see if he can use gripshift before you make a decision (take him into halfords and let him try a few bikes maybe).

Hey

Yeah the resale thing is in a lot of posts, but is equally true of Frog. I paid £200 for my frog 48 just before it was hiked up to £250 and they are selling for £180 2nd hand so even if I get £150 its only cost me £50 for a great bike over 18 months

I have read mixed reviews on the gripshift but does seem to be a lot of people saying thumb shifter is better or altered their Isla, makes me wonder why Isla done this

not sure I would get to see an Isla with gripshift before xmas as there online, but woudl be great, might ask around his school

I wish Islabikes made a more MTB 20″ bike – I know I’d lose less money if I bought another Isla but I think my daughter will have a lot more fun with more grip and better bump absorption from the 2.8″ tyres on the Specialized. But that’s because the best places for safe riding around us have lots of fairly techy rooty twisty singletrack, which isn’t the case everywhere!

Had to make a similar decision recently. After having two Isla bikes already I decided the Beinn was ridiculously priced, so started looking at the Frog … which looks a good bike, I then came across the Vitus 20 which has a near identical spec to the Frog but was far, far cheaper.

In the end I went for the Vitus and think it was the best decision. Great bike for the money, spend some of the money I’d saved from buying the Frog and bought some SKS mudguards and changed the bar to a light alloy flat bar, changed the loose ball headset for a FSA sealed bearing one. And I reckon I still saved over £100.

Just looked and the Vitus is now down to £149!! I thought it was already a bargain when I got it for £180.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/vitus-twenty-kids-bike/

yeah the Isla MTB dont start until 24″ but at £799 thats a lot of money, I’d defo opt for a frog or specialized at this stage for sure

But for this age just now defo between the frog 55 and beinn 20

On the shifter front I’ve fitted 7spd rapid fire to both my kids bikes. Shifters cost under a tenner each. Replaced grip shift on one and a broken integrated shimano brake thimbshifter on the other.

Jnr FD is on a Frog 55

I’ve changed the bars from the flat narrow ones to ful on risers. It’s transformed how he rides the bike. It’s also got proper off road tyres too.

He will have out grown it early spring I think !

In the same position, my boy’s well out grown his Cnoc 14.

Isla and Frog, are on list of posentials, i’ll add the wiggle bit too.

Going to try a few for size this weekend. Has any had a wiggins bike, looks good value?

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/kids-bikes/wiggins-chartres-junior-bike-20-wheel

As other have said – Frog and Isla are both nice bikes, but you do notice the price difference in the details. They’re only little things but they do add up – like the nipples on our Frog Road 55 rusting, compared to shiny many-year-old nipples on our Islabikes. If you’re going to get picky then the geometry is better on the Islas too – the back end is a bit long on the Frog in comparison – and the Frog is nearly a kilo heavier. That’s what an extra 80 quid does for you.

Orbea look interesting as an alternative – disks and 9speed for the same price as the Beinn 20, plus better off-road tyres from the off: https://www.orbea.com/gb-en/bicycles/mx-20-team-disc-18

Got two islabikes beinn 20s forsake in Manc. 90 quid ono for t5he cheap one. 200 for the other

so whats the general opinion on the gears, suppose it comes down the the child, i don’t think he will have trouble changing the gears on the grip shift as seems to be a issue with some kids but who knows, just looking for general opinion

Isla grip shift

Frog thumb leavers

razorrazoo do you have isla and changed the gears is that what you mean?

Given that Jonathan has been brave and honest enough to go against the STW Frog owners norm and admit some deficiencies of his family’s Frog against an Isla, I will do the same…

Gripshifts on Islas are a thing of evil. My younger son has a nightmare with them. (his brother had no problem at all.)

Written as purchaser of no less than 5 new islabikes and 1 second hand one.

No idea why they persist in using them

we’ve 2 Frog 55’s, one trigger and one the previous year model when they were still using gripshift. Both kids struggled for a while to get enough strength to change down, either by trigger or gripshift, (changing up with the spring was easy), but now my son uses his trigger shifter fine, and my daughter uses her gripshift fine. You’re probably over thinking it to be honest

I agree this is a little overthinking but its more to get an idea of what is better overall.

To be honest I doubt he will get the hang of gears or even use them for another 6 months either way

As others have said, a rapidfire shifter is only a few quid so it’s easy to convert. Might need new grips as well

I changed the 7spd gripshift on our old Beinn 20 to XT 9spd triggers (obviously that also involved buidling a new wheel!). An improvement, but still a fairly stiff shift for little hands.

Now the gripshift on the Pro Series Beinn we’ve had on test is a different kettle of fish altogether – that a 10spd GX shift running on a 9spd block and it’s one of the nicest lightest shifting setups you could find – the rider has had no problems shifting and he’s finally properly anticipating changes and moving up and down gears freely. You get what you way for I guess. I’ve not had a play with the recent spec shifters on the normal Beinns though – they may be better now (most stuff is!)

Either way cheap derailleurs can have stiff springs, and cheap shifters can have a lot of friction. I’ve seen both grip and triggers be difficulty for small hands to work, so I don’t think either is a magic bullet. Without significant upgrades the best you can do is optimise the cabling to be as low friction as possible. I used tail ends of Gore cable kits for ages, but I seem to have run out of those now!

I’ve got 2 Frog 55 bikes, fitted with shimano revoshift (light operation) one red the other Children in Need spotty both very good condition, fitted with stands from new so both bikes virtually spotless. Located west of Glasgow if interested

I do like specialized bikes for myself and having a look about after the recommendation of the riprock 20…what about the hotrock 20?

Cant seem to find any weight info on the hotrock 20 tho?

Not sure if you get the Trek Superfly 20 over in the UK.

We had an Isla scoot, then cnoc14 before but being in the US, the Isla cost more than the Trek and looked less racy. Similar on spec also with a gripshift.

Bought another Isla for the 2yo and the cnoc is waiting for him.

Biggest problem is letting a kid out on an expensive bike even down the road to a mates house. And bike-tag is the game of the devil, everyone else on Wal-Mart bmx. All I can see is the shiny rear mech living dangerously.

Anyone any experience with the Specialized hotrock range?

Also read a post about the orbea mx20 look good also nothing about weight tho

Weight was always low with the Isla and frog which is great for his age

He cycles mostly on bumpy paths where we take the dog

I’ve been looking today and I am going to rule out a specialized at this stage, I am going to go with either of the 3 below, the 2 original ones I mentioned and a new one in the mix HOY Bonaly 20

Slightly confused on something the Frog is 20″ wheels 11″ frame same as Isla, Hoy says 20″ wheels and 20″ frame?

HOY Bonaly 20

ISLA Bienn 20

FROG 55

Can look at the Hoy in Evenscycle, the Frog in Edinburgh bike co-op although have a frog 48 already, so just need to source someone with the Isla locally to have a look at it

Took the boy to Evans today Tried the hoy and pinnacle, then went to halfords to have a go on the Wiggins.

Wiggins won the day as it was red (ISH) and Santa’s tight;)

My 5 year old grandson has a Frog 52 and got on fine with the trigger shifters from the start, no problems at all.

Can anyone explain the frame sizes frog and Isla 11” hot 20” but these bikes are all in the same category?

Not me, I’ve just looked at there size guide, my boy is right at the bottom so I was 50/50 if a 20 was going to be too big for him but all 3 he tried today he could put his feet ( well toes) on the ground which made up my mine that 20 is right. The Wiggins was acutall a bit smaller than the other too.
Good luck, my advice is go try a few out.

Frog 55 means inside leg 55cm

Sorry what I mean is why are the frog and Isla 11” frame and the hoy 20” when these are comparable bikes 20” wheels

I know the 55 is the inside leg

razorrazoo do you have isla and changed the gears is that what you mean?

Yep, just changed the shifter. Done it on a frog 52 (they used to have grip shift before frog changed to thumbshifters) and also on a cube 24 which had a combined brake/shifter which broke. Both 7spd.