My daughter has had a balance bike ( Wooden Easyrider thing) since she was just under 2 and is pretty confident on it. For Christmas, I’d like to get her a pedal bike to progress onto.

What can anyone recommend? The only criteria are that I don’t want it to be too horribly gender specific, good quality and not too expensive…

…I’ve just found a similar earlier post…

I think it’s down to one of these..:

Islabike CNOC 16

Ridgeback MX16

Thoughts/recommendations either way? Anything else I should look at?

Bene absolutely delighted with the Isla 14 my lad has. He did 13K on it (along a riverside path to the local pumptrack and back) no problem.

Own a CNOC, fantastic piece of kit. Have serviced a MX16 for local kids club, not even close in terms of quality.

Main thing for me is the brakes, CNOC has tiny levers which are perfect for little hands. MX are a lot bigger and harder to use.

secondhand islabike, you’ll recoup most of your outlay when you come to sell on

Cnoc16.

The more recent version weighs under 6kgs.
Price is irrelevant when your kids can lift their own bikes up a raised kerb or a step without any help.

Cnoc 14 is s great little bike. I happen to have one I no longer need thanks to santa coming soon. Just not got round to advertising it yet.

Isla bikes – 7005 series alumminium, Kenda tyres etc – really quite light!

Here is little one and sisters big one. Cannot recommend them enough fantastic for kids

Isla if you can afford it
IME the 16 is sthe shortest lived as it lacks gears so is limiting and gears only start at 20 “
I think I got a specialized rockhopper or some such from ebay for about £30 which was brilliant and passed on.

IME you get back pretty much what you pay on any decent second hand bike but the isla outlay is much more substantial.

Ridgebacks are fine as I have the 20 ” one but its less than 50% the price of Isla and you get what you pay for

What he said. My little one went from 14 to 20 no problem

If you can wait till after Xmas we’ll have a Ridgeback MX16 going spare, but LittleMissMC doesn’t know that yet…. 8)

We did a similar thing and bought an MX16. However, on arrival it was clear the bike was way bigger than we were led to believe when looking at the size charts. Ended up getting a Cnoc 14 as an interim and even though he now fits the Ridgeback he much prefers the Cnoc.

Short version – get the Cnoc, and maybe even the 14 over the 16 unless she’s tall for age.

My daughter, now 5, loves her cnoc 16 which was handed down from her brother, everything about them written on here is spot on, and the resale value makes them decent value. However, one of her friends has an early rider, a belt driven very lightweight bike, it is by far the best kids bike I’ve seen, they aren’t cheap, but again they will hold their value extremely well I should imagine.

Cnoc. My just 4 year old has been riding a 14 since the spring and is absolutely flying. Great bikes and well worth the money IMO.

He’ll be getting a 16 next spring as his little brother is almost ready to move up from his Rothan.

My boys not long had the 14. He loves it.. not quite flying yet but he seems to be getting on well with it now he hws a freewheel..
Picked ours up cheap from Gumtree but still in v good nick!

Btw whats the going rate for a cnoc 14. Its some chips on paint as to be expected but still works perfectly. Need to make room for santas next delivery 🙂

Thanks everyone – seems pretty definitive! The only question now is Cnoc 14 or 16? She’s 4.5 yrs, but I’m thinking the 14 would be easier to handle for her to start with and could be handed down to her younger brother (18months) sooner..

Seems like £130 or so is the going rate for the 14 or 16 second hand. Anyone got one in purple they’d like to shift before Xmas?

She won’t care what it is as long as it can have streamers put on the handlebars and a doll’s seat fitted!

I have the mx16 for my lad, he loves iut. Very well built too.

Frog bikes definitely worth a look.

http://www.drovercycles.co.uk/room-under-the-christmas-tree-for-a-frog-bike-3-frog-reviews-we-love/%5B*%5D

Mines available if you get stuck