[Closed] what "proper" bike for a 4 yr old

just got a Frog 48 for my 4yr old. Pretty similar to Islabikes but cheaper.

Theres facebook pages for used islabikes and frog bikes

one advantage of the frog bikes (well if you're after a new one that is) is that they sell through bike shops so can easily go have a look at them / try for size

Little Miss CFH has an Early Rider Belter and it's a belter! Really light, well made and all 'proper' componentry. Belt drive is clean and maintenance free, too.

Nice looking bike as well, neutral colours for resell etc.

Islabike - expensive but good resale value
Frog - can try them out in the shop
Hoy - similar to Frog
Wiggins - weird backwards fork

IMHO opinion it is worth spending a bit to get them a decent lightish bike so that they can realistically do rides with you rather than a cheap heavy steel lump that they just go up and down the drive on.

Heart said Early Rider Belter, head said Frog.
Went for the Frog via Merlin Cycles, really happy with it, rather light and well made. Came with two sets of tyres and a few extras (reflectors, guards and touch-up pen).

early rider belter, cant get him off it!

Frog 48, this is my 4yr old on his, proper bike, little brake levers, 2 sets of tyres & tubes. It's his 3rd after a tadpole and a 43

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Wee man got a belter for his 4th birthday and he's been happily hooning about on it ever since.

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Did the whole of the Monsal trail (downhill direction!) a few weeks back. Fruit shoot in the back pocket and off he went.

I can't recommend the Isla Cnoc 16 enough, my wee lad had so much fun on his, and because it was so light, he was able to ride it for miles and miles. Theyre expensive, but hold their value pretty well, the daughter of another STWer is now riding it and hopefully enjoying it just as much.

Replaced it with a 20" Commencal, which is nice enough, but it's noticable how light and well designed the brakes on the Isla were for small hands, versus the commencal ones which are uch harder on hsi hands. Little details like that.

frog bikes are on sale at the moment and seem to have good resale value when the nippers grow out of it

Worth pointing out on the VFM thing that whilst other bikes might be cheaper to buy initially, I've now sold 3 Islabikes, 2 of which were bought new, one s/h and I think in total they cost me about £60. Very good value if your cashflow can cope. I'd recommend buying one s/h (and no, I'm not selling one at the moment!) - if you get your timing right and look after it you can sell for the same as you paid for it and plenty of availability. Good s/h market for Frogs as well, but I don't think they hold their value quite so well - IMHO that's one of the biggest selling points for Islabikes compared to the rest.

Lots of choice in quality kids bikes now though (Isla were pretty much the only players when we got our first), most of which have been mentioned.

At 4 yrs old, my youngest went straight from a balance bike to an early rider belter, and picked up pedalling no problem. No need for stabilisers at all. Whilst they are a bit dearer, you should get good residual value, as it will only be a year or so, and he will be ready for 20in wheels. He's just 5 now, and can manage his elder brothers 20in belter, but would probably struggle a bit off road, so will probably leave getting him one until Christmas, or next Easter.

I wanted the Frog as it is basically the same as the Islabike, however a Frog is £200 new and sell for £100 on eBay. Islabikes cost £260 new and sell on eBay for as much as £220 +£30 delivery for a 3 year old bike. Go figure.

On that basis alone we bought a brand new Islabike.

Much as I'm sure she'd be fine on an £80 special we basically went straight from a balance bike to the Cnoc 16 without stabilisers and she was fine on the first ride. I think the lighter weight of the bike and the better geomoetry (lower crossbar for sure) all added up to make the transition to pedalling much, much easier.

Islabikes. I had two bikes side by side;_mx16 Ridgeback and islabikes, his face and comments about the two were starkly obvious. Would you like to ride a pig heavy dog of a bike in your spare time?

Fruit shoot in the back pocket and off he went.

That will be all the E numbers keeping him going 😀

Jnr FD had a Ridgebak MX16, and now has a Frog 55 at just 6. He was always big for his age though.

I have to say though kids look more comfortable on an Isla than they do on a Frog. The Frog appears quite a long top tube, doesn't have riser bars, and they are relatively narrow. I think that all adds up to kids feeling more at home on an Isla.

We, and other friends nearby, have gone through a succession of Ridgebacks of various siz s, which have all been well used and well appreciated. Nothing to compare them to though.

We went from balance bike to Islabike Cnoc 14 when the boy was 3 and he loves riding it. Probably by age 6 (next April) he'll be ready for something with 20 inch wheels and gears. Hope to almost get my money back on the Islabike.

[quote=Pieface ]I wanted the Frog as it is basically the same as the Islabike, however a Frog is £200 new and sell for £100 on eBay.

Well to be fair, despite what I said above, that may be a good argument to buy a s/h Frog - it seems buying one new will likely cost a lot more than an Isla though.

frog bikes are on sale at the moment and seem to have good resale value

Where? I'm after a frog 55

I can't recommend this enough. We popped into Halfords to buy my 4 year old a helmet still deciding about a CNOC etc and having seem this, couldn't justify the money on anything else.

After 18 months on a balance bike, it took him 10 minutes in a field to master pedalling.

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/kids-bikes/carrera-cosmos-kids-bike-16

My lad is 4 and a half and loving his frog 43...probably will be replaced with a frog 48 before too long...!

both our kids progressed from an islabike rothan to a cnoc 16, neither of them took to riding the cnoc at all. a friend recommended a ridgeback which they both took to immediately but grew out of very quickly (6 months) they then both jumped on the cnoc and rode it perfectly!

this is not a thinly veiled advert for the ridgeback and the cnoc...

it's a pretty blatant advert!!

however it is all true and both bikes are for sale!

What's the significant difference between the Cnoc and the Ridgeback - is it just that the Ridgeback is smaller and the 16 was a bit big?

Another happy Frog owner here, got the 43 for my boys 3rd birthday last month, he picked it up straight away and haven't managed to tempt him off it since!

Cheaper than an Islabike, lower resale but also comes with 2 sets of tyres and mudguards (both useful to me) so for me was better value all round, and also available in my LBS.

What's the significant difference between the Cnoc and the Ridgeback - is it just that the Ridgeback is smaller and the 16 was a bit big?

Kids have been through two Islabikes - great bikes which have stood up really well to being abused, dropped, scraped etc. Kids described them as "fast" compared to other bikes. Resale value is very good, though I let one go for a fairly knock-down price a year or two ago. Buyer passed it on for the same price, and subsequent buyer has promised to do likewise (which was nice I thought). As above, there's a very active used buy/sell group on Facebook.

Mate has a couple of Frogs for his kids - seem like great bikes too.

both are silver / grey so not a colour issue!!

both a similar size but the ridgeback is slightly more sit up and beg i guess... not enough in my mind to make a difference but both our friends and our kids didn't get on with the cnoc until they'd ridden the ridgeback, but once the ridgeback was mastered they were on the cnoc almost immediately. they are a very similar size.

i suppose small things make a bigger difference to smaller people!

If money is an issue (although I doubt it, this is STW after all), have a look at Dawes. My 7 year old nephew is now on his second (or is it his third, not sure) and they seem pretty good bikes for not a lot of money.

Islabikes are for girls.
Frogs are for boys.
Early Riders are for flash gits.

We've just bought our great niece a cnoc. She is only just 4, so the pedals have been removed until she gets the hang of it.
The Hoy bikes look good.

At that age, a third hand Ridgeback MX16. Think her and her brother had it for 4-5 years between them and it cost us about £20 between buying and selling.

Now quite a fan of Frog bikes. Problem is that if you get them used to light bikes too early you are looking at very expensive choices by the time they are 10-11 years old!

Another vote for the early rider belter. It's so nicely thought out and made.

Monkey jnr (nearly 6 yrs) has been riding his CNOC 14 since 3.5 yrs. It's been brilliant.

Taken it everywhere from pavements and parks to the Surrey Hills and various BMX/pump tracks. He's loved every minute of it. It's been his 'posh' out and about bike (that gets properly looked after) as he has 2 others for abusing with friends. Recently bought him a secondhand Apollo thingy to help adjust to the next size up as I'm not yet sure which path to go at this point.

We bought a Saracen Bolt at that age.

It's not as nice as the frog 52 that eldest is now outgrowing that was next but it's on boy 2 now (4) and he's knocking out 11miles of disused railway on it no trouble at all. At that age they're not usually slugging out 500ft climbs.

Early Riders are for flash gits.

My daughter agrees with you. In her own words, "My bike is really, really, really, really, really, really cool, daddy".

She's right, too.