Hi everyone, I came across this forum whilst researching bikes for my little girl and it has been incredibly useful so far
She is currently riding a 16" Carrera, but we'd like to upgrade her to a 20" for Christmas this year as she's too big for it. We've been to a few stores and she is just on the cusp of a 20" being too big, so we expect to get a decent amount of time from it
I feel like I'm going round in circles and at the moment we have the following bikes on our shortlist for her in 20"
Trek Precaliber 7 speed
Orbea MX20
Cannondale Trail 20
Carrera Luna
The only one we haven't tried out of the above is the Cannondale, but she has also tried a Hoy Bonaly and Frog 53 for size too
I was just wondering if any of those bikes in particular stand out as one that you'd go for please? My husband's parents think we should just get her a cheap one from Halfords, but she learnt to ride on one of them and could barely get it going, so when we changed her to the Carrera, she was away like a flash
Thanks in advance 🙂
I wouldn't bother with anything with suspension forks on it. a kid that weight/aggression is extremely unlikely to be generating enough force to overcome the bushing stiction so they're just adding weight. Plus size tyres are a much better way of smoothing the trail, and remove the chop (roots etc) that can really dint their confidence if you're riding off-road.
we've an (older) specialized riprock 20 and other than the forks I don't think there's anything I'd change. I've a feeling the newer ones are rigid? if so thats where I'd go..
There was a recent thread along the same lines...
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bike-for-6-year-old/#post-12535787
Virus have a good couple of options and reasonably priced. My lad loves his with the fat tyres and disc brakes.
https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/vitus-20-kids-bike/rp-prod194920
Very good price right now!
Vitus 20+
Its just ace, we have bought one for our little girl, 20 x 2.6 tyres are great for soaking up bumps, rigid forks to save weight (Kids suspension forks are crap), proper 7 speed with thumb shifters (Grip shift is also crap for kids)
Cable disk brakes, looks and feels like a proper mountain bike, just smaller
https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/vitus-20-kids-bike/rp-prod194920
Getting dangerously close to a consensus! Well, about not having suspension forks anyway.
Out of your list I'd recommend one that's not on your list - Cannondale Cujo 20. 2.6" tyres like on the Vitus, but about £100 more expensive and 100% cuter. 😂
Thank you for the suggestions so far
Sorry about the thread repeat, I'm not quite sure how to search yet on here
Don't bother - just Google it using the site address and what you're looking for. I've never got the search function to... function.
Getting dangerously close to a consensus
Weird that. I thought Orbea kids bikes had a great following on here, so surprised more people haven't suggested them...
We had (have still in fact) a Dawes academy. Triple butted frame, nice and light. Fancy secondhand?
We have the orbea mx20 [edit, actually it is the laufey....] Great bike, seems longer than other 20" bikes with quite a raked fork. Very stable for someone at the lower end of the size range. Tyre are only 2.2 (fine for a scrawny 5 year old running at 12 psi..) but there is room for more if required. Headtube will take a tapered suspension fork if you decide to go down that route later (@poah). Not tried the others though.
[edit - £250 for the vitus looks pretty hard to beat!]
I'd love to say yes, but my husband has his heart set on treating her this year after a very rough 12 months what with one thing or another
One thing we did notice about one of the bike shops we visited, was that they highly recommended the Orbea after seeing our little girl on it and didn't try to make a hard sell of any of the more expensive bikes 👌🏻
yeah that vitus looks great, its even got rapidfire instead of the gripshift that plagues most kids bikes.
I'd just get that Vitus. I doubt you'll gain a thing by spending more money on anything else. It's just a brilliant kids bike.
Another vote for the vitus, check the thread up there and you should see a picture of my daughter's out in the wild. She's loving it.
Our youngest has just moved up from a Frog 55 (managed to go from a 16 inch wheel bike straight to that). It's a good bike, more hybrid than MTB. Second hand they are pretty good value, new not so much.
Other kids on the street had suspension forks, including a Cannondale and a Specialized. Made the bikes heavier and the kids hardly had enough weight to make the fork move. Would go rigid and lightweight.
Wild bike from Go Outdoors and Squish also worth a look for fairly light aluminum framed, but not fancy, kids bikes.
This thread cost me 252.99
My husband is now noseying at the Vitus as an option
Can I just say thank you so much for all of the suggestions and advice. It really is appreciated 👌🏻
My little girl is 6 and has just this summer moved to her first "gear bike" as she calls it, and 20" wheels.
She had a hand in the choice and chose a Kona Makena.
It has been a great choice, she loves it and it has improved her riding and confidence massively. There are some great bikes around though, so some strong competition - but the green-ish Kona was the popular one here.
EDIT to say, she's just under 120cm tall. Saddle on the Kona is almost right down, but not all the way down. The bars are high-ish as a result, but she can ride it up and down hills and on singletrack comfortably.
I'll offer a vote for the Orbea being as there haven't been many and ours have been great but that Vitus does look great, certainly for the price.
We've just grown out of a Saracen Mantra 2.0 Rigid. It's been great. Used, abused, scratched, worn. Light, geometry seems right, good wide bars. Looks very similar to the Orbea or Vitus I guess.
My son also dislikes gripshift. Trigger shifters easier I think.
Got his new new bike yesterday. A Nukeproof Cub Scout 24. Until this point I think it was definitely right to avoid suspension forks, and disk brakes weren't necessary (or possibly even advantageous) either. Even now at nearly 9 it's not easy to set the suspension soft enough his weight will use it. And light weight is so critical when they're little.
Hey Emmy,
Welcome to the forum
All good advice so far definitely go for a trigger shifter to change gear rather than a twist grip, gives the impression of having a bike like the adults, plus twist grips become much harder to use as dirt and grime get in.
If they were any like my kids just get them the bike straight away they then get to ride it a bit more before growing out of it, their growth spurts never co-insided with birthdays and Christmas.
Go for light weight kids don't need suspension forks, I would even look at second hand if you buy carefully and your daughter looks after her bikes cycling is not expensive as the re sale of a good child's bike means you won't lose out.
Good point on size. When we first got our 20" bike it looked too big. About 5 minutes later it looked just right. And 2 years later the seatpost was at max extension and he towered over it like a giant. It did <2.5 years in total, and has been obviously (almost comically) too small the last few months. Now a size up looks too big, which is an opinion I expect will last me til about next Tuesday.
And that's a good reason to not buy new. That vitus is v good value, but a lot of the other ones mentioned by the OP are available second hand in decent nick, and can be moved on for a very small drop in price later on.
Just realised my 7 year old is on her 6th bike. Lols.
Rothan (about 18 months) Cost zero
Cnoc 14 (which lasted a month on her 4th birthday then was too small!) Cost £30
Frog 43 (the 16" one - lasted about a year) Profit of £10
Cannondale Cujo 20 (a year and a half) Cost zero
Trek Roscoe 24 (didn't like it - 6 months) Cost £30
Carrera Luna DIY special (a few months and counting - should last 2 years)
Can't believe no mention so far of the Islabike Beinn 20 which set/sets the standard for all-purpose kids bikes. Don't get me wrong, both my kids love their 24 inch fat Cujos, but unless they're off road a lot, fat tyres at 20 inch just add weight.
What sort of riding do you anticipate? Gravel forest tracks?
Can’t believe no mention so far of the Islabike Beinn 20 which set/sets the standard for all-purpose kids bikes.
Not cheap, but would be my first choice too in 20" for a general all-rounder - we had two secondhand ones. If veering much more towards the MTB side then the Vitus 20" looks a good choice. Ours moved onto 24" Vitus Nucleus after the Islabikes with eldest now on the 26" version of the same bike. Brilliant bikes. Quite a few appearing at local kids bike club too.
We've had Islabikes all the way for our 2 kids. They are 3 years apart so we have just about managed to move from bike to bike with the younger having the hand me down and the older getting the new bike. We've managed to sell the bikes for about 50%-75% of the cost when new and have done this from the balance bike up to the Creig MTBs.
One thing about the Beinn 20 though is that Islabike still insist on fitting it with gripshift, which is utter pants and both of our kids could just not get on with at all. I've swapped all the geared bikes over to trigger shifters which work much, much better.
That Vitus looks the business though.
At the moment, the bulk of her riding will be tarmac and gritty/sandy paths while she gets used to a bigger bike. Then we'll explore some simple forest trails as her confidence grows. The older she gets, the more daring she gets, so I think the simple forest trails will get more daring quite quickly 🤣
This is her trying the Carrera Blast for size a couple of weeks ago
https://photos.app.goo.gl/k7UPiywK4bgChVd7A</img>
I'm hoping this image works
That bike isn't what you want but the photo is full of win, kids on bikes is ace!
Tere's a video on one of the threads I've previously looked at of someone's little girl doing her first jump. And I showed my girl, the first words out of her mouth were "wow! Can I do that too mummy?"
