Just called Islabikes as a repeat customer to order a CNOC 14 and apprently they will only sell/ship within the UK now. A new policy since last summer and apparently so they can meet the UK demand.

Not very helpful given I live in Sweden, to which they shipped to me before.

Are they really that popular and busy? Seems strange to be turning away good customers :o(

I think they maybe that popular! Maybe try Frog as an alternative – http://www.frogbikes.com/ – they deliver outside the UK.

Buy mine – my son doesn’t like it. But you’d have to arrange shipping.

Edit- ah its a 16 not a 14

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-rothan-islabikes-cnoc-16-17

Sorry Hora, thanks for the offer but I need a 14 this year.

I could have it shipped to my mums in Derby, but it might be a little heavy for her to carry to the post office seeing as she is 74!

Might have to conder Frog again but been so happy with the Rothan.

Bream, deliver it to your Mum’s then use something like parcel2go to arrange collection from there.
All you Mum would need to do it print out and stick on the new label over the first one.

I have a CNOC14 and I’m looking for a CNOC16 so could be a three way!
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No idea what postage to Sweden would be though, i can have a look.
Edit: Looks like its about £30, with some guesstimate box size. if your interested. i can get some pictures this evening.

Why don’t you ask Islabikes if they’ll allow you to collect, then send book it on parcel2go/myhermes/etc?

Just had the same problem for a different model. They would not ship to France. I enquired via. e-mail. The response was something along the lines of ‘it’s complicated and the reasons are many…’ but then and this is a direct quote (I remember because I was astounded) : ” we want to limit our growth”. So I took my money straight over to Frog bikes who despatched a bike here to France within 4 days for a suprisingly cheap postage compared to the prie we paid to get our first islabike (outgrown) delivered here about 3 years ago.

‘Disappearing up their posterior’ was the conclusion Mrs Mugsy and I made. The Frog bike we bought instead is great and far better value.

hora – may I ask why your son doesn’t like his Cnoc 16?

Just my lad a frog for his birthday it’s a 55, bigger than what you’re after but I’m very impressed with it and he loves it.

I can understand why they might want to limit their growth, maybe that’s not the best way to put it but there’s a lot of sense to controlling expansion IMO. If they struggle to keep up with domestic demand with their current infrastructure/supply chain then it could do their brand a lot of harm to start trying to push into other regions too quickly.

That said, if you’re coming to them then they’re a bit silly not to ship overseas. It’s not like they’re advertising that service. At the very least they should let you arrange a courier.

Frog bikes to France, is it just me? 🙂

Edit: Plus IIRC they’re trying to push into the US which must be pretty all consuming.

So should I now post that mx16 then ? 😆

If you want to get get it delivered to my work, then book a courier to pick it up.
It’ll be boxed well, so will need sod all work on my part.

Thanks for the replies and offers.

Just to add that they don’t even have stock anyway so I can’t buy one now, I asked if they had confirmation on the next delivery and was told ‘not sure, but we should know on Wednesday’. Was told new stock would be in before the end of Feb.

Not sure whether to wait, by a 2nd hand one or buy a Frog 😕

llfl, sorry bud, now stop messing and get that house built 😉

hora – may I ask why your son doesn’t like his Cnoc 16?

He loves his Stryder balance bike and rode a MX16 recently – got on great with it. The CNOC16 looks ungainly/hard for him to ride. I don’t buy the bollocks about the levers being ‘smaller for small hands’- all little kids bikes have small levers. I’m just not sold on it at all. Its sat there unused which is damning. The only plus of a Islabikes over anything else is resale value. take that away and its like all others to a small child. Oh and its not THAT light.

I have one in Lund if you want it 🙂

Hi George, I’ll drop you a text….

There’s a Norwegian bloke asking exactly the same question on Cycle Chat right now. He also wants to ship to Sweden to avoid import duty.

Typical Norwegian, using Sweden to avoid taxes 😆 😉

Update:

Thanks to the offers of help and 2nd hand bikes; in the end decided to go for a brand new Frog bike. In Stock, very easy to buy, dispatched the same day as I ordered (Friday 28th Feb) and then arrived at my house in Sweden yesterday (Wednesday 5th March). And after puting it together last night I’m impressed.

So, in summary I won’t be bothering with Islabikes again, the service from Frog was very good and the quality of the bikes build is appropriate. Frog are slightly cheaper as well and I think their colour range is better. Only down side is that according to the website the Frog is slightly heavier, but its certainly no heavy weight and still feels light in the hand.

Its amusing mini Hora is as fussy about bikes as senior Hora…get him something totally too small to suit then Hora 😉

Glad you got sorted. When you say the build quality is appropriate how do you mean? Does it compare well with an Islabike?

I’m interested as I just ordered a Cnoc 16 for my eldest, but another £100 for the next one up (Beinn), plus he could be leaving it in ditches etc by then, means I might be looking elsewhere when it comes to getting the next bike.

I’d say the build spec is comparible to Islabike, if not slightly better. Frog have some nice small detail touches also, like their straight pull wheel set have 2 green spokes on each wheel, and their colours and decal are more vibrant.

I do think (but don’t actually know) that perhaps the Islabike frame tubes are perhaps a better grade of alloy and perhaps where they save some weight. But I wasn’t keen on the Cnoc rear triangle layout from the pictures whereas the Frog is more traditional.

Overall I’m impressed enough to recommend and buy Frog again.