Islabikes – Good for my pension pot?

Igm to be fair hardly anyone does rapidfire on 20″ kids bikes. My kids are both on treks which were cheap second hand and local to us rather than choosing them over similar other ones, we couldn’t afford newer bigger islas at the time.

Differences between our kids 20″ treks and same size islabike is the pointless and heavy ‘suspension’ fork, heavy quill stem, less good brake levers and steel bar and seatpost, loose ball massive axle bottom bracket (isla is cartridge), otherwise excellent quality. Also trek apparently have a patent on cranks with 2 holes in them to make them shorter or longer (so says craig our excellent local trek dealer) and the huge adjustable quill stem does mean you can grow the bike a bit with your kid. But yes i can definteley see where the money goes on an islabike and obvious when you have a close look at one why they are so much lighter. I think that is more important the smaller you are: would you rather pedal or push a bike a quarter your body weight or a third?

Definately worth the price. Our boy was feet-up balancing just before his 2nd birthday. A friend of mine was getting gently frustrated by his daughter’s inability to balance on her kiddy bike, but was able to go feet-up on the very first attempt on our isla. Not just lighter and well made, but well designed too. Our boy is 6 now, and on his third islabike.
As everyone has said, when the bike’s outgrown, you get almost all of your money back, making them the cheapest childs bike going.

Julian – My older lad is on 24″ wheels now, a Kona Stinky 2-4 full suss (secondhand for a very reasonable price on here, but really set up for going to the Alps later in the year) and a Beinn 24 small for normal riding round here. One has gripshift, one rapidfire. I think he finds the rapidfire easier.

So far we’ve gone through

Like A bIke – New Kepper
Ridgeback MX14 – New lost £50
Ridgeback Mx20 – New Lost – £75
Isla Bike Beinn 24 (2nd Hand) – Will probably make a profit

Islabike is so light compared to equivalents, mainstream brands seem to want to pander to how kids see them – forks, discs etc… but the extra weight is huge and there is no performance advantage.

going to do “the way of the roses” (170 miles) with my lad who’s just turned 8, and wouldn’t do that on anything else that would fit him that I’ve seen.

Next worry is he’ll soon be on to a 26 and there is quiet a price hike, and we don’t have an old one in the shed as a hand me down.

We’ve been looking at 20″ bikes recently. There are quite a few supposedly decent ones from big manufacturers like Trek, Spesh etc but they all have half a ton of ironwork on the front to make it ‘look like mummy and daddy’s bike’. Which is disappointing.

Islabike are far lighter than even the decent brands, and about half the weight of a Halfords BSO. This might not be an issue for a playing-out bike but I intend to go on real bike rides with my daughters and whenever there’s a hill the weight saving will make a huge difference to little legs.

Evans have a Pinnacle one for £230 which is pretty good, and not far off the weight of the Islabike. It’s still 2-3lbs more but much of that could be tyres – IB come with quite skinny semi-slicks.

So for real bike riding definitely the Islabike or the Pinnacle I reckon – well worth it.

I’ve just ordered my boy his 4th Islabike, it was a harder choice this time, Frog was very close, it was the gear ratios, and the weight that decided it in the end.

and if you think Islabikes second hand price is mad, look at Star Wars Lego, our floor is littered with Lego Spaceships that would be worth much more than purchase price, if they’d stayed in the box, and these are less than two years old.