Advice needed: best value boys bike age 5-8

any recommendations for a boys bike with gears, hardtail/rigid with 18″ min wheels.
any bargains out there?
ta
Ed

my sons Landrover Cordonza 20″ wheels? REALLY good bike, not heavy, nice kit – just worked. £60 posted.

without question an isla bikes ‘bein’. superbly made, beutiful finish, lightweight and high re-sale value when you come to trade-on. when i bought one last year for my lad, despite reading so many good reviews for the bike, i was actually quite taken aback how good it was.

i’m sure i won’t be the last to recomend this bike.

I recently bought my kids ( 6 & 8 ) new bikes & it was a nightmare. At this age all they are bothered about is the colour & what it looks like! I had to battle with them not to have a cheap nasty bike which they liked the look of. As a compromise I got my son a Felt Q20 for £139 from Evans which we are both really pleased with.

giant mtx 20″ is a good price, but very heavy. giants “pro” model, the xtc junior 20″ doesn’t seem a very good spec for the money. specialized hotrock 20″ seems good, and nice and light, but a little more expensive. ridgeback mx20 20″ is another popular choice, and a similar price to the specialized.

most kids seem to pick a bike based on colour, as the spec. and price is fairly similar on most manufacturers’ offerings.

Isla bikes or a scott/specialized if you want a suspension fork, that felt looks nice too.

specialized hotrock 20″ or trek mt60. Both great bikes, the forks on the spesh are a lot plusher and it has a nice little chain device to stop the chain falling off

Giant Kids bikes are great, very well made, aluminum, so nice nice and light also.

The MTX is always a good buy!

Depends how much spare cash you have. If you’re after a cheap one – try second hand. I picked up a hardly used Specialized Hotrock (i think) for about £100 for my daughter and an ex hire centre giant for about 50 for my lad

Both our girls progressed through Ridgeback MX 20, which were light

Reminder to tide out loft

Tracey

Kona Shred 20″ wheel

Specialized Hotrock. Not the cheapest, both my kids have used them. Daughter now has the AF1 24” wheels and she loves it, it has really built her confidence.

I have a 20” wheel, 10” frame in red for sale if you are interested. Peak based. http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?arc=2005&spid=21423

paul at hollowford dot org

islabike, islabike, islabike, islabike, islabike. The islabikes are good enough that you’d ride them, if you were small enough. Oddly enough, I’ve ridden both the bein 26 & cnoc 16. My five y.o. girl has a Bien 20 (large). All sizing info on their website.

The Trek Mt60 is crap – super heavy.

islabike looks sweet, but i like the way the specialized are just small versions of our stuff.
my twins have had hotrock 12’s for 2 years, they are battered, tyres bald and paint chipped off, but they are fixable, adjustable and good quality.
went for a 6 mile off road (proper, not trail centre) ride with one of them on sat, 12″ wheels and singlespeed. more than most weekend warriors manage!

The big bike brands aren’t smaller versions of what we have – islabikes are. Those forks are a waste of time & weigh a ton – it’s just a branding exercise for dads to buy the kids the same/similar brand as they ride. My eldest had a Trek, “because you know son, Lance rides a Trek. Do you know who Lance is? Let me tell you blah blah”.

My twins have only had islabikes, although my girly will be getting a BMX race bike later in the year. The boy, oddly, has not interest in bikes at all. Yet.

Jeez, I sound a like someone who has just bought their first Apple Mac.

like the islabikes, but dont fancy being charged an extra £20 for knobblies.
they nice for town parks and cycle paths but my lads are over jumps(nice dodgy 2 brick high one in the driveway) mud and rocks.
take your point on the forks, but some ‘proper’ adult hardtail forks are about the same quality!
tyres, chain, coaster brake, grips, saddle all good stuff on the hotrocks weve got.

Abigale was 6 when she got her Hotrock FSR for her birthday in 2004, had to buy it in France as it wasnt been imported here, It was light and the suspension did work, It went to Verbier the same year also used in the peaks and numerous trail centres. When she out grew it we could have sold it 10 fold but it went to a friends son who has also riden it in the Alps

Still been used and abused 5 years on

If he is tall enough you wont go wrong

Tracey

gj junior is still on his Ridgeback MX16, but I picked up a Spesh Hotrock 20 from Edinburgh Cycleworks for £50 last week. It’s a really nide little bike with plush forks, low weight and decent stand over height. Highly recommended.

fennesz i disagree with your big bike summary with regards to spesh hotrocks. They are indeed min scale versions of the bigger bikes.

My son has developed from 12 to 16 and will get a 20″ in december. All have been lightweight when compared to any other bike i have looked at, they have all had near perfect service and all have a rear coaster brake which has suited him fine until now. He is naturally ready to do away with the coaster brake and i have looked at the 20 model and would be surprised if the Isla bike is much different in weight.

That said i am going to have a better look at the isla bike as they do look good quality, however, as my lbs is a spesh dealer i will find it difficult to go past their excellent service. My son is the only 5-6yrs old i know of to wear out a coaster brake. Spesh had to strip one from one of their stock bikes as they dont even carry them as parts.

Oh and finally, i recommended the 12″ Hotrock to the sister in law for their little lad. I got a thank you the other day when they £99 bike 2 yrs ago sold for £65 on ebay. Thats exceptional value

Geoff did they have any more at that price???? Are you sure

Hobo – sorry it was the Bike Station, not Bicycle works. It was second hand, they recycle them. All bikes are donated / retrieved from the local dump, checked over and any parts replaced. To be fair, it needs a new rear tyre, but there are very few marks on it – I was well chuffed 🙂 . I guess they will get them in from time to time, so it’d be worth giving them a call.
http://www.thebikestation.org.uk/%5B/url%5D

That makes more sense.

Good buy though 🙂