Islabikes Rothan
Price: £74.99
From: Islabikes 01746 710835 www.islabikes.co.uk
Tested: Time flies when you’re having fun
When you find that nearly everyone you meet is doing a double-take at your new purchase you know it’s either because you’ve bought something quite stupid, or you’ve chosen one of those products that attracts attention for all the right reasons.
The Islabikes’ Rothan fits securely into the latter category. Making a tiny pedal-less bike for toddlers isn’t a new idea, but the Rothan is a particularly well thought through and executed example. It’s light (7005 T6), strong (grown men who should know better have ridden it down hills), has small bars and grips, a comfy saddle, decent light wheels with Presta-valved tubes and, most of all, it looks like a proper bike. This is very important for a bike-obsessed two-year-old and the main reason for those double takes; “There’s a child riding a bike… hold on, he’s tiny! That bike’s tiny! And there are no stabilisers!”
It took a very short time for everything to ‘click’ and this bike has been ridden solo very enthusiastically from 2nd birthday onwards. Now we just run to keep up with instructions on slowing down. Saddle height adjustment is important for the sprouting toddler. It needs to be high enough to not be cramped but low enough to get a nice long pushing stride. The Rothan’s saddle has an impressive range and one of the reasons we chose it over its competitors.
One of the disadvantages of getting good two-wheeled stability early is that the keen young rider does discover equipment limits fairly quickly but will still be too small for the next step with pedals and levers. A brake might be nice now and some knobblier rubber might have saved a few recent tumbles on loose surfaces but 12in wheels will always have their grip limits and the standard easy rolling cut slicks certainly seem to take the effort out of pushing along.
Overall: The Rothan gives little people the simple joy of just riding a bike.
Jonny Bateman
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My boy’s had one since he was 1 and a half and he’s just turning 3 now. They’re brilliant and such good quality, his sisters getting it next. Well worth the money…
My son graduated to a proper bike at 4 and a 1/2 without any of the usual running behind and catching malarkey as a direct result of our Rothan i believe. Two weeks later he did 3 1/2 miles last Sunday and his 3 yr old sister is now scooting everywhere on it. Now have 4 Islabikes between the two babies. Very probably the best bike purchase i’ve ever made.
Price on website shows £99.99 + p&p. Nearly had a fit, bought my boy one a month ago at this price and thought they’d been reduced! Stunning quality and attention to detail.
Forgot to mention, the Rothan comes with a brake as standard now or, ours did. There is also a steering limiter on it which stops the front wheel tucking under which is also a nice feature.
This is another old review from the archive with the old price (last summer I think). Are you lot running short of new things to review?
I wouldn’t recommend wearing sandals when like-a-biking as my kids both drag their toes on the ground to slow down!
Dylan likes wearing sandals and bare feet with his. He also seems to like other peoples ankles as he runs into them at 10 miles and hour after they walk in front of him as he goes full pelt. Anyway after three children ours is still going strong. Dylan even does big downhills on his (For him anyway) and wheelies though maybe I should not have shown him the Danny mac. video as he has started to drag the bike to the top of walls now and tries to jump off. Nooooooo stop.
Regarding the price difference – I opted for the Ridgeback Scoot for my daughter instead. It’s a very similar bike but about £80 rather than £100.
The only thing the Scoot appears to be lacking from the Rothan is the steering limiter. I’ve been very impressed with it, she loves it and thinks it’s funny to see dad messing about on it too 🙂
These are such a good product, our 3 yr old loves his (now customised with skull and crossbones stickers – pirate stylee). It’s time for him to move up to a pedal bike and I’m definitely going Islabikes for that too.
ps: I wouldn’t ride it if you weigh over 20kgs – I broke the saddle on my younguns showing off! (replaced by Islabikes for a fiver) – I weigh 73kgs
My son got an RB Scoot (aka Adventure Zooom) for his 2nd birthday and absolutely loved it. It’s great down at the park where they’ll put kids twice their age to shame.
He also had a trike which he learned to pedal on, and a month or so before his 3rd birthday he put the balance and pedalling together, transferring over to a ‘real’ bike without stabilisers.
At 3 yrs 2 months he’s always beggin gto go out for rides, and can quite easily do 3 miles, which will usually incorporate a bit of off-road.
Thoroughly recommend balance bikes in general. Saw a Rothan a while back which looked good, so going with one of those or the Ridgeback would be a toal winner for anyone wanting to give their kids a head-start in learning to ride.
Ok own up time, how many of you mums and dads have tried riding your little one’s Rothan?
And how many of you were encouraged by said little one?
Parents – so easily led astray.
My hand’s up, IGM!
So, if you hadn’t guessed, is mine and I’ll add one for my wife.
my little gals just turned 2 and I was looking at getting the likeabike but now me thinks this would be better value
turneround – balance bikes are subtly different shapes. The Scoot is slightly longer than the Rothan for example. If possible let said lass have a sit on a few. Islabike are going to some of the cycle shows if that helps at all (I’ll be at York in June looking for my son’s next bike)
Islabikes are the berries.
Ridden my boy’s Rothan and also just demonstrated pedaling to him on his new Cnoc. These are proper bikes, just scaled down. (The Cnoc even has V-brakes!)