I think this popped up in another thread recently, I got my older girl the hotrock when she was 3 thinking a coaster brake would be a good thing, but didn’t really work out for her though, only served to confuse the issue when learning to pedal as they can’t back pedal or set the pedals to set off, in the end I got a replacement 12″ wheel and I fitted an 18t freewheel as the 16t was a wee bit hard for her at times…
It is Much improved for the changes now, but it’s original set up didn’t help encourage her with cycling at all.
The hotrock is mostly great, the frame is pretty good, the geometry does work for a little person the other parts are all robust, but the coaster brake and cobbled on front calliper for the UK market are what really lets it down IMO, not all kids will find a coaster brake intuitive, I’m sure some click with it straight away, mine didn’t I ended up changing the bike to stop her getting frustrated…
Looking back she’d have been happy with almost anything so long as it was pink, so I could have saved a fair bit of money on something a bit cheaper and still had her happy, I think there was a Ridgeback and a Raleigh in the running at the time, I discounted the CNOC 14 on the grounds of price (£200 odd) and I was certain she needed 12″ wheels because she was quite small, So then I went and bought a Specialized… 🙄
An Islabike will have better sized levers for little hands, big bonus IMO, and it will be more “resaleable”/trade-in-able, which kind of makes it worth the slightly bigger initial spend if you can stretch to it…