[Closed] Junior hoy bikes

dontknow about the hoy, but the carrera blast @ approx £180 is a hell of alot of bike for the money

[url= http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_729003_langId_-1_categoryId_165607 ]carrera blast[/url]

Alu frame which means its not heavy, which is half the battle for a kid

I have to agree with the hustler, the Blast is an incredible bike for the money. Bought my son one..

8kg (or less? need to check) helps on the hills. Shorter cranks than most and no sus fork means a lower BB and lower rider.

Blast is great value - LittleMissMC has the flowery Luna version.

Always plenty on eBay as well, paid £75 for hers, the guy had just put new grips and Michelin Diablo tyres on it as well, not a scratch on the frame, was a bargain.

I'll get to hallfords over the weekend to check it out, thanks. Also heading to glentress at the weekend so might hire him a "gear bike" to try first. We're at a stand off : get me a gear bike and I'll peddle up hills vs peddle up hills and ii'll get you a bike with gears! Annoyingly I've just replaced brakes on his old single gear Apollo.

With islabikes at least you know you can sell for 70-80% of the original price.
Hoy not as proven in that regard yet.

Blast looks all wrong to me.

[url= http://www.decathlon.co.uk/rr-52-jr-kids-bike-black-id_8238713.html ]Decathlon, £169.99.[/url] It has suspension forks though, unfortunately..

The chainstays on that Blast are half the lengh of the bike!
The Islabike is far more of a proper shape.

This may help:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/kids-bike-sizing-and-isla-bikes-and-alternatives

Are Hoy gunning for Islabikes? The price/weight, etc seems to suggest that.

Reckon so but I guess the issue is that they won't have the resale values at this point.

The Islabike is far more of a proper shape.

Bikes don't always look 'proper' when scaling up for down...

Not gunning for Islabikes, just a shared aim in the same market. Islabikes do a lot of things with kids bikes that make sense to me, ie ditching the sus forks, so it's natural that we'll have products more similar to each other than some other children's bikes.

Are you Chris Hoy? 😉

Ha! ) I work on the bikes for Hoy with Evans. As you were..

I thought as much, I remember you mentioning a line of decent kids bikes that you were designing for Evans last year.
With the simple fact that you don't have to go to Ludlow to touch a brand new one, there may be a larger share of this corner of the market going to Hoy than you are prepared to admit on a forum. Not that it's anyone's intention.

Thanks for all replies. I've tried ridgeback mx20 and it seemed pretty good - lighter than I expected to. He's quite tall for 7.5 so might only get a year on it. Could be worth waiting until Santa, unless I can get 2nd hand and sell on again.

Interested as I'm looking at buying a new bike for my 6 year old (currently on Isla Bikes Cnoc)...
The Hoy I can see at £270 is the 20 inch one. Isla Bikes Beinn 20 costs £299 so only £29 difference I think ? £350 buys either the 24 or 26 version of the Beinn and the Hoy in 24 is £329...so again only a £29 difference....so little in it really.

I'm looking for a bike with gears for my 6 1/2 year old daughter. At the moment its bettwen the Islabike Beinn 20, Frog 55 and Hoy Bonaly 20. All of them are fairly light. I know that everyone raves about the Islabikes but does anyone have any experience of the Frog ot Hoy? Any other suggestions?

I've been looking at a Cnoc 16 for my 3 yr old.

Had to pop into an lbs this weekend and took him with he, not realising they stock Frog bikes. Sat him on a Frog 48 and was very impressed with it. Well made, decent components etc.

The residual value is the only thing in Islabikes favour that I can see. And as said, not being able to actually see one easily is a PITA. buying a Frog from a lbs that I can then take it back to easily if needed does count for a lot.

Just looked the Hoy 16" wheel bike up, Christ! It's even more than the Isla!

Does look good though. Shame it's not available in red. Lol, it being red is VERY important when you're 3.

I've tried ridgeback mx20 and it seemed pretty good - lighter than I expected to.

That [i]might[/i] have been designed by the same chap that's doing the Hoy bikes 😉

In case anyone is interested I went for a 2nd hand ridgeback mx20. Really wanted to go hoy as it looked and felt good in store, but as I think he'll only get 1.5 summers out of it I couldn't justify it (nothing to do with me wanting to upgrade to a full sue xc) . Selling on is always an option, but kids crash into things. I take the view that with bikes I spend what I'm prepared to lose, if I get anything back it's a bonus.

Good choice - the ridgebacks are great bikes.

We have bought a few Islabikes in the last few years. I think some of the competitors have a lot to offer but the thing that swayed me again to Islabikes was the residuals. Sold a Cnoc 16 that my daughter had four years ago and passed on to my son two years ago for nearly £140... Think I only paid £150 or £160.

The bike was well used but looked after but what else gives you four years service for between £12-£22?

My 7 yr old son had a MX16 and now has the MX20.

Both great bikes and he regularly does 8 - 14 miles with me including some longish climbs over Cannock Chase. The one climb is 2 miles in length, Strava '7 Springs to Trig Point'

My daughter has the MX24 but to be honest I don't think this is as good so will be building my son a 24" bike using the Carrera as a base bike.

My lad is the same age. Got him a frog 55 (I think) 20" wheel and once he'd got used to the gears he wants to go everywhere on it. Easily does 10 mile rides down the canal. Seems very well built and light. They also sell them in bike shops so you can go and look at them unlike isla

Frog bikes.
http://www.frogbikes.com/
Really nice!