And another.
A light bike and great brakes that work for small/weaker hands are important.
Green runs in Morzine no probs for this Belter 👍

Kids won’t appreciate a ‘good’ bike over a normal one…

Mini started on a Hot Walk balance bike which he loved, light and easy to manoeuvre. He moved on to a BSO and quickly went off cycling, his look on it varied between terror and unimpressed. I replaced it with the Cosmos and within 5 minutes he was back in love with cycling, confident and happy to ride off kerbs and lean it over to turn etc.

A light bike and great brakes that work for small/weaker hands are important.

That was my experience too. I remember our girls struggled a little bit with the standard rim brakes on the Belter 16 on long steep descents. The Belter 20 has cable disc brakes and they are much better. Our eldest is now on a 24″ bike with proper Magura hydraulic discs and loves them.

That Hope modified Belter is awesome! I presume that’s a 20″ right?

No it’s a Belter 16”
It’s proud rider is just turned 4 in the pic above 👍

No it’s a Belter 16”
It’s proud rider is just turned 4 in the pic above 👍

Brilliant! I can imagine the disc brakes were a huge benefit in that terrain.

fantastic neal! my youngest (2 last weekend) is the physical one picking it up fast, my eldest at 4 in the next week is now confident on the rothan but not at your littleones level….confident not good!

Our eldest daughter struggles with confidence. Always afraid of crashing, even though she rarely does. Our youngest is more of a little ripper and hasn’t been put off at all by the odd tumble!

But when I compare them to other girls of the same age at school, they are far better riders than most. I put that down to starting then off on balance bikes and then decent quality lightweight pedal bikes at an early age. If I went back with hindsight I would do exactly the same again. Of course the keenest kids will make good progress on any bike, but you can certainly make it harder work for them! I suspect our eldest would have given up riding by now on poor quality heavy “toysRus” bikes. Our youngest might well have persevered regardless. They are all different.

thread revival for an update and more advice please! I am admitting, I made a mistake, please help me correct it.

After being 2nd highest bidder on about 8 early rider belter 16s I decide to buy new, found it at about £280 IIRC and bought new. yay. With my eldest girl having outgrown the islabike rothan, I thought the 16″ would be fine if a big step up. Hmmm. We gave it to her as an early christmas present a fortnight ago and have had her out on it 4 or 5 times (who knew? it seems Santa delivers early to good girls as sometimes he just can’t fit EVERY present in is sleight on Christmas night, so big ones like bikes sometimes come early!). first time I had the pedals on and it didn’t go well so I took them off and thought let her get used to its size as a balance bike for a couple of rides then refit. So after 3 or 4 more rides now its clear there is a problem, She has gone from wanting to go riding and flowing along, zig zagging and swooping around on the isla, to having paddies and strops ‘I DON’T want to ride!’ ‘I DON’T LIKE my new bike!’ and so on. It is I’m afraid, just too big. despite being a tall 4 years and 3 months it is too big. She fits over it fine, I’ve got the seat up almost 2 inches from its lowest position and she can stand over it well but she is too stretched and seems to be struggling to steer and so on, struggling to balance and has just lost her confidence completely!!!

Options I’ve considered to resolve this:
1. Back to the rothan for bit….No. its too small now and gives the impression of giving in (She has a tendency to give up if things are hard ….I really don’t want to feed that!)
2. wait til she grows a bit. NO. I can’t punishes the younger one and not ride, and would fear the both going backwards. besides, its just mean.
3. Adjust the bike to reduce the reach? A shorter stem? difficult, the steerer tube is not normal size i assume. plus it’ll be costly. Maybe roll the risers backwards to reduce the reach half inch but … bike probably still too long for now.
4. Bite the bullet and buy a 14″. The favorite option. Although not planned I had already been thinking I’d need to get one next summer as the youngest, now 2 and 3 months, is doing very well indeed on her isla and will want to be on a pedal bike like big sis by mid summer or sooner, long long before she would fit the 16″. So If i get one now, hopefully the eldest will be bigger and okay to move up to the 16″ in 6-7 months and the youngest can have the 14″. (Who knew? Santa made a mistake! he delivered the wrong bike and its been too big! he came back and swapped it!)

So…before I spend another £276 pus postage (from discount bikes, that german online store)….have I missed any option that would make the 16″ work well now?

Have you tried a 14″ cnoc? It’s probably far to small if she is tall.

Can you make the belter special for her? They do look cool to us, but lack the bright colours kids love.
We put red pedals & grips on ours (as red was favourite at the time). Stickers help too. There is also to ongoing desire for a basket to put dolly in, which will make it like her friends bikes.

I can’t picture how long the stem is, but it’s already quite short iirc.

Are the brakes set up really easy to pull? Also, if the belt is tight, they are really hard to pedal. Get it on the workstand, check it over & make it perfect for a little person with really little hands& legs.

We found the switch to pedals took time & their was alot of back & forward to the balance bike before it was forgotten about. Just be patient, if she wants to ride the rothan, it’s better than not riding. If it’s too small, see if you can find a cheap early rider trail 14+. It won’t fit for long though.

Kids learn from other kids. Make sure she has the chance to play & ride with a role model.

Yep I’ve set the brakes and tensioned the belt. I also adorned the bike with butterfly and flower decals, it looks good. It is just a bit big. The stem is fairly short, not measured but is guess at 40-50mm.
Hmmm

Our daughter is six and we’ve gone through a few Isla bikes, all brill, then a Vitus 20, which has been brilliant and with the bigger wheels allowed her to do more challenging trails 🙂 she’s now ready for a more capable bike, so Santa is bringing a new Hellion 20 for her, I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about a bike, it really is a thing of beauty and the design is spot on, roll on Christmas!

Just personally, the things I’ve learnt over the past few years, no matter how close she is to the next size bike, getting a bike that’s even a bit too big reduces her enjoyment of riding, hence the Hellion 20 which will probably only last a year or so. I think light, well designed bikes are a must. Several of Ambers friends were struggling with riding and not enjoying it on cheap, heavy bikes. The parents asked for assistance, we found second hand Isla bikes, added a tiny bit of encouragement and off they go, miles of smiles. I think kids bikes are probably one of the best things I could spend money on! I may not be saying that in a few years when my ten year old daughter is dropping dad on the hills…

Whereabouts in the country are you? I may be able to help but you’ll need to DM me.

Thanks sandwich just tried twice but got ‘privacy settings do not allow it’. Have you for a setting blocking pms?

I’m South London, SE19.

is your child just riding round the estate or do you have delusions of grandeur of their abilities?

Sophie had cheap second hand bikes to get her going. When I started taking her “off road” I wanted a bike that would brake well and fit properly. Got a commencal ramone 16 now.

wouldn’t spend much on a first bike. They will out grow it quickly. Got Sophie’s from a local bike charity. Tool it back when she out grew it and got a bigger one. Spent around £35 for 2 bikes.

well that comes across very anti bike, and on a bike forum. No she isn’t the next Laura Trott or Shazneh Reid, she is ‘Just riding around’. I want her to enjoy the bike, ie it fine and be confident on it, that’s all, and very happy to put a bit of time and money into finding the right bikes along the way to give her the opportunity to like bikes as I do and be confident riding them to school for fun and what ever. SHe’s far from the best at physical things so far, and very sure if i’d not got a nice balance bike for her she’d not be riding at ll yet, but she is, and quite well and enjoying it. I’m keen to ensure that continues and while I know she will ejoy the belter 16″, at the moment its wrong for her. I am not a push dad trying to create the next olympian, just a dad trying to give his daughter a chance to enjoy something and also learn a skill I think is valuable.

Thought about running the stem backwards to see if it’s just reach? I doubt she would notice any handling difference

I did for a moment but ruled it out as i think it will make a huge handling difference

Update and next question:

Eldest is now riding her belter! Proud dad here. I rolled the risers back bringing the bars a cm closer and tried again and she was much better! After a couple of goes using it as a balance bike I put the pedals back on and it wasn’t long before she was off and going, yay!

Next…. Youngest, 2 years 4.5 months, is much more physical than big sis so doing well on the rothan which she’s had about 9 months now and of course after seeing big sis pedal she wants to as well. So I’ll need a 14″ after all. She’s not big enough for that yet but but will be in 2-4 months I guess. I’m looking at cnoc 14 small but it seems there are many more large and many more of the older 14’s on eBay, so my question is, does anybody know how the older cnoc 14 compared size wise? Ie, what was the minimum inside leg for the older cnoc?

I’d love a belter 14″ really, but not seeing any on eBay at all

You could try facebook marketplace and gumtree as well as ebay……….

I still have our old Dawes Academy, stick some normal risers on and it’s a Squish with a different paint job otherwise it’s a BMX version.

It’s a bawhair off an Isla in weight terms and was happily cycled for miles at a time. Also in good nick. I’ve resigned myself to taking a hit on depreciation, if you’re interested let me know.

Hi squirrel, just looked it up, the Dawes is very light! Depreciation on anything other than Isla or early rider is nuts, I actually made a profit on the rothan.
Where are you?

does anybody know how the older cnoc 14 compared size wise? Ie, what was the minimum inside leg for the older cnoc?

Pretty sure that the “old” cnoc14 was the same size as the new 14 Large. So 38-48cm. The new 14 Small was added for small but capable sprogs. Cnoc were always 3+ age anyway.

FWIW I got my youngest riding (quite tall – 97th %) on the 14″ at 3years and 11 months, and by the time she was 4 she’d already graduated to a Frog 16″! She’d been on the 14″ for about 6 months as a balance bike with pedals off and front brake disconnected.

At 4y and 7m she looks a bit big for the 16″, in terms of reach, and she runs out of crank speed. Beinn 20 (old style) next, once I’ve moved her brother up from it (he’s a small 6y 11m).

Isla is always worth a phonecall – they’re pretty helpful.

The Dawes looks good as well! Just bear in mind that whatever you get, she won’t be on it for that long.

We had a Cnoc 16 (that is now enjoying a new life in Doncaster) and ran it with both kids until the seatpost was at the min insertion mark. Both moved smoothly onto a Beinn 20L.

For Isla at least if you stick to the alternate sizes progression it seems to work.

I’m up in Scotland but would post, can’t be hard to find a box that would fit! Can dig out pictures if you’re interested.

Hi again squirrel. If it’s like the squish it seems it’s min inside leg is 40cm so 6cm taller than the cnoc 14 small, so unfortunately I’ll pass. Although the eldest is tall and has taken until 4 to master the balance bike and hence was able to go to the 16″, the youngest is shorter and is totally gung-ho, hence mastering the balance bike already and she’s still 3-4cm too short for the small cnoc. She’s so gung-ho that even a full speed otb with the bike summersaulting over again and smacking her on the head didn’t put her off! Once I’d dusted her down she sat straight back in the bike and rolled away! She currently thinks it’s hilarious to zoom down the hill with me shouting ‘brake!’ while running along side holding her coat hood to prevent warp speed. She can brake fine, and control the ensuing skid, but thinks it’s funnier to give daddy a heart attack :/
I must be mad thinking of putting her on a pedal bike.

Yep, standover height is about 40cm at the centre of the top tube so as you say that’s way off. Your daughter sounds like a hoot (if you’re not the one having the heart attack), hope you find what she needs.

Carrera star 14 has v low stand over with a dropped cross bar

Try a frog 40 for size – my 2 year 9month old boy is on one and pedalling it.

Smallest inside leg bike I could find available in the U.K.

@neillnevill, apologies I have been distracted and missed your reply about message settings. If you’re sorted no worries otherwise hamster1 AT icloud DOT com will fine me by email.