Where the pissing hell do you buy a decent kids bike?

My 2 eldest have the Hoy Bonaly 24’s. Bought them rigid but as they started getting arm pump on longer descents we fitted suspension RST forks from bike-discount.

I do wish that they were disc brake compatible.

They will soon be too big for them though so not sure where next… I have sets of 26″ wheels lying around and forks so personally I’d be happy to build them something up, if I could find the right frame…

good luck!

Any of you kid bike builders need a bling 620mm bar?

620mm pfff too narrow lol

For a ten year old?

TBF it was a joke although mine has been running my old 711 carbon haven’s since he was 10.

I bought my 11 year old a 14 inch Genesis core with air forks recommended on here. Reduced to 450 at Sprockets and an excellent bike for the cash. My lad loves it and isn’t bothered by the weight judging from the speed he climbs the bloody hills on it! Best of all the fork actually works and quite well.

You want a 14″ adult bike. How much weight do you think you will save for 8″ of aluminium tube?

That’s totally missing the point. As I’m sure you know. It’s not about the weight of that particular length of excess tube. It’s about the surplus weight of so many of the other bits on the bike. As someone above said, they build the full gamut of bikes from 13″ through to 22″ with exactly the same tube thickness; tyre, rims, forks, seatpost, bars etc etc. They should be able to spec up a bike with kit that is strong enough for a tiny body without it being expensive or stupidly heavy.
Islabikes can do it, surely Evans could pull something out of the bag given the huge volumes of bikes they sell.

As Keith said all those years ago: “Strong, Light, cheap, pick any two.”
I want light and cheap. But it doesn’t seem to exist, despite the theory. Or at least not outside IB’s world. (and as I’m sure a Frog owner will tell me, IB isn’t really all that cheap)

A question to all the people frothing about wasting that much money on a kids bike, what are you riding round on these days? Is it a cheap heavy steel lump or do you have a bit of CF bling for your own bike. What do you think is an acceptable ratio of parent’s bike cost: kid’s bike cost?

10 yr old is on a Genesis Core 20 and 13 yr old is on a Cube Acid. Both 27.5, both deore/slx with air forks. The Cube is a little lighter, about 26 pounds, the Genesis 27lbs. Great bikes as follow ons from the various Islabikes we had. They are riding more tecky stuff all the time and my days of smugness are limited 😀

My nipper has a commensal Ramones 16, nice little bike and tough as anything..

Looking at the bikes they sell for bigger kids, I’ll probably be getting one from them again.

20″ 10.5kg 650 euros

24″ 11.4kg 369 euros

24″ 11.5kg 750 euros

Just getting my daughters bike ready for a weekend bike packing in the Lakes 27.5 wheels but she is quite happy on it!
Untitled by Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr

No sus fork, but these look pretty good:

http://www.raleigh.co.uk/ProductType/ProductRange/Product/Default.aspx?pc=1&pt=9&pg=12915

I’ve an Isla to move on but never got around to it

What have you got Drac, I’m looking for a 24″

I found the only way to get a decent kid’s bike (apart from a couple of Islabikes we had) was to build one myself around a small sized hardtail, the last one I did was based on a 26” wheeled Orange Crush frame sized small with a 150mm Secktor spacered down to 110mm at first and then going to the full 150mm a fews years later.
The frame cost £199 new from Bikescene and was very old skool geometry i.e. short on top. Couple this with a load of 2×10 XT parts, CRC discounted Sun Ringle wheels and some old carbon bars and post I had to make a 24lb bike costing about £900 all in. sold it recently for £600 so had three years use for £100/year – good value and a great bike.
Now the little bugger is growing like a weed so I suspect it’s not going to be so easy next time!

There’s a Facebook group for buying/selling used Islabikes that might be worth a look https://www.facebook.com/groups/826309394088435/

Bought one of these (in a more tasteful blue/black colourway) a couple of years back for my (then) 10yo.
From memory, came in at £230 on sale with Wiggle discount.
Still going strong today.

Felt Q24

That Raleigh isn’t too bad, but resale value won’t match an Islabike 😀

The Felt looks nice but is 3kg heavier than the Raleigh, when you’re only 7 years old that’s a lot of extra weight……….

What have you got Drac, I’m looking for a 24″

I think it a 24″ let me check.

Been looking too, as my lanky soon to be ten is rapidly outgrowing his hoy bonaly 24.

the orbea looked to be a good option. the hoy 26 is another good option…

If I was going to waste an inordinate amount of money on a kids bike I think I’d get the Early Rider Belter 20″ trail – 9.45kg with front suspension seems pretty good, nice looking bike with simple gears – it’s even on the Evans Cycles website!! Criminally expensive but still way less than you spent!

I take it back, too small for what you’re after.

I found that making a bike from scratch out of second hand parts was a much better and slightly cheaper process. One that got my son the right bike for his height, weight, ability etc:

Rides sweet now i’ve had the shock tuned for him. Wasn’t much short of the £800 that the OP spent tho. Bet it rides better than a £800 ‘off-the-shelf’ bike too.

It’ll ride even better when the brakes work, lardman 😉

I got a ladies Cube in 14 inch for my 11 year old daughter off here for £120. It’s loverly and light and she likes the colour. I thought the forks were naff but she isn’the 14 stone…