Warton Junior is 3.5 years old,and he’s ,making the step up from balance bike to pedal bike this christmas. He isn’t a particularly tall lad, so what do people recommend? the cnoc 14 or 16? Or for that matter, a generic 14 inch wheel bike, of a generic 16 inch wheel bike?
cheers

For Isla measure his inside leg and check their size chart – it’s good and accurate. Then get the biggest one he’ll comfortably fit on. Nothing worse than getting a new bike and it being just the little bit too big – can put them off easily.

16 will have a slightly longer “shelf life” and roll over bumps better, but my eldest thrashed his 14 quite happily until he moved onto to 20″ wheels.

As for others, I’ve looked at them all and my conclusion is you get what you pay for. Pay a bit more and you get something a bit better, but at the end of the day once you crossed the point where they’re not silly heavy then they’re all bikes and will do the job fine. Line them up by price and decide how much you want to pay 🙂

agree Jonathan, it’s either a islabike or a frog. he has a specialised balance bike, but their pedal bike is out the equation, due to the daft coaster brake.

I got my kid a 16″ specialized. It is a very nice bike, but I agree about the coaster brake. I was looking at getting a new rear wheel but I don’t think there are mounting points for a back brake.

It’s not a big difference in price between the Frogs and the Islabikes at the 14/16 sizes (£185 vs £199), but it’s a fairly big difference in weight – Frogs are about a kilogram heavier. Nicer finishing on the Islas to – eg proper seat post and nicer tyres.

Easy choice for me 😉

My four year old has a 12″ hotrock – and is just discovering the joys of the coaster brake. Skids are for kids, after all… Unlike the isla bikes, the brake lever for the front brake isn’t well designed so he can’t really work it very well.

Got a cnoc 16 from his cousin to move up to – perhaps christmas, as looking at that size chart he’s big enough!

Get a 14, he’ll more likely fit on that. Then swap it for a 16 later on if you so desire but like above my lad went from a 14 to a 20.

Get a Cnoc 14.

Mine were on theirs until they got Beinn 20s at 5 – and even then the Cnoc 14 would be dragged out for off-road riding.

And then after 4 years of use I sold the bike for more than I paid for it.

my boy got his cnoc 14 at 3.5

He’s very happy on it with plenty of growing room left but he’s not what I would describe as a relaxed and confident rider, he tenses up if there’s a bit of a wobble..
His younger cousin however is smaller than him but is a very natural rider already off stabilisers.. She’s very relaxed with a fluid style, and just kinda goes with the flow..

As a result it didn’t seem at all like a bad idea to quickly put the smaller, younger cousin onto a cnoc16 to grow into, but there’s no way that yunki jr could have managed a bike that’s a bit bigger yet

We got a 14″ Ridgeback for our eldest when he was about 3 (before that on a Puky balance bike) and he just wasn’t bothered at all – preferred his balance bike ‘cos he could ride that! By the time he got round to riding the pedal bike, nearer 4 yr old, he very quickly graduated onto the 16″ Ridgeback.

The Ridgeback’s are certainly heavier than the Isla’s but reasonable kit for the price (always coming up 2nd hand on ebay) so not wallet breaking to upgrade as they grow.

(I’ve got 2 smaller ones who are rapidly approaching wanting bikes as well, so it not quite a one in one out policy!)

Cnoc 14 = more chuckable 😉

My 4.5 yr old (Larry Little Legs) says it brings the skate park and BMX track alive.

The Islas are designed to skip the next one so as other correspondents have said they’ll be ready for a Beinn 20 when done with the 14.

I agree on the size charts BUT if your little un’s handy on a balance bike then (according to Isla) you can add a couple of cm onto their inside leg as there’s less in the way of confidence to overcome.

Cnoc 14 = more chuckable

but, will it make the trail come alive???

He’s essentially mental, whether he’s on his sccoter or balance bike so I’ll take that into consideration Scuttler, cheers 🙂

I agree on the size charts BUT if your little un’s handy on a balance bike then (according to Isla) you can add a couple of cm onto their inside leg as there’s less in the way of confidence to overcome.

This is true – our youngest was off and riding the Cnoc 14 at 2.5yrs, well before his feet could touch the floor on it 🙂

I’d say go for a 14, depending on his size of course. My eldest went from a Rothan to a Cnoc 14, he was ready for pedals but the 14 was very slightly too big for him so no way he’d have fitted a 16. I ended up using a different seatpost and an upside down clamp to bring the saddle another 15mm or so lower which was just right for him.

Because he could reach the ground with confidence he was flying very quickly, probably 20-30 mins until he was pedaling unaided and another 30 mins perhaps before he could get himself started.

He’ll probably be getting a 16 in the new year sometime but only because his brother will be ready to go to pedals and will get the 14.

Not sure I’d agree with the above from scuttler and jonathon, IMO they need to touch the ground comfortably to be able to get going properly, but that is just my opinion.

We went 16 – a steady 4″ progression in wheel size 12/16/20/24. I’ve said before that I think 14″ is a bit of a dead end, I also had a used 18″ that I sourced for a friend’s son in lieu of the 16 to 20.

I’d agree they need to touch the ground but a confident kid will be happy with tip toes / balls where as an unconfident one will want the extra stability of flatter feet. If they’re put off it can be detrimental but if they’re already pretty handy that’s unlikely and you should aim for something they’ll flourish on. Like this – the right colour!

Not sure I’d agree with the above from scuttler and jonathon, IMO they need to touch the ground comfortably to be able to get going properly, but that is just my opinion.

If you’re buying from scratch I would agree, but there is some leeway on what they’ll happily ride. My hand was forced as I couldn’t stop him trying to ride! Started on Cnoc 14 before he could touch the floor at all, very happy on it by the time he could just about get a toe down. This meant some significant back ache for me chasing after him! Riding off road, too small to touch the floor

jonathan – Do you realise that you’ve named your son Ezra..!? 😯

(ace name BTW 🙂 )

Cheers.. I think 😉

mine initially went on a 14 which was fine on road but too twitchy offroad, so I got them on the 16 as soon as I could, which was much better – more stable and better steering.

Fat tyres can make a useful difference to stability off road. Kenda and Schwalbe both do some pretty fat little treads – here’s some 14 x 2.125 Kenda’s modelled by eldest in his riding-the-little-bike-when-he-should-know-better stage…

You can’t beat a big beach for skids by Jonathan Bateman, on Flickr

(they just clear the fork crown!)

I’ll join in. And they’re his jeans – not his sisters.

I’d go with a 14,kids can be put off riding if the bike is too heavy.
My son went from balance bike to pedal,not a straight forward transition as he hated pedals,he preferred to use his feet so i left the stablisers on the new pedal bike until he got the hang of it.
He now rides a Cnoc 16 and loves it.