What Bike For My 3 Year Old Daughter

[RosscoPCole]

I'm thinking of getting my 3 year old daughter a bike for her Christmas. Any suggestions? Please no £3,000 trick carbon framed specials. Preferably under £100 and no white tyres!
Thanks in advance.

[Raven Flyer]

Buy her the one she picks from the line up in Halfords.

[936ADL]

Halfrauds - Don't do it!

Look no further than www.islabikes.co.uk . The CNOC14 would be perfect. Slightly over budget, but money well spent!

[Raven Flyer]

My guess is that she would like a pink bike, preferably with Barbie stickers and tassels from the end of the handlebars.

You could always ask her to write down a list of her priorities... eg Red groupset, Zipp wheels, etc.

Edited by Raven Flyer on Saturday 23 October 14:59

[zebedee]

936ADL said:

Halfrauds - Don't do it!

Look no further than www.islabikes.co.uk . The CNOC14 would be perfect. Slightly over budget, but money well spent!

the fact you have asked the question means you want to put some thought into it. So the only way is to get something that will be good and give her the joy you want it to, so you need a bike that is put together with that in mind - has to be an Islabikes CNOC. Its what I am getting my 3 year old at Christmas, moving on from his Islabikes Rothan balance bike which has been brilliant. Cnoc is over budget, but check their resale values against halfords ones - basically you would be giving away a halfords one whereas Islabikes are sought after and apparently have a secondhand market too. Think you might even be able to trade them in for your next Islabikes purchase. They are based at Ludlow and you can try their bikes and see what you think.

[With these feet]

I bought my son a Raleigh something or other from Halfrauds (think it was circa £80)
Its obviously not built here anymore, though he loves it, I was looking at him on it today and noticed how pissed the frame was! Probably assembled with not a jig in sight..There is no rear brake(!) wheels are plastic with solid tyres which have little give so on damp surfaces with stabilizers means it spins the rear wheel quite easily. In all its fine for him to learn on but certainly no more than that. I can see once the stabilizers are off, the shortfalls of no rear brake and crappy tyres will relegate it to the garage...

Those Islabikes are rather tasty and as said, look like they will hold their resale value.

[FamilyGuy]

It will get dropped and trashed in short time and as you want them to enjoy the bike you'll want something you can be relaxed about this happening to. So I'd suggest something cheap and Chinese from Toys R Us, Children's toys have almost zero resale value as almost all parents want new for their children. It will also be outgrown within a year or so. From experience, check out the gearing - for a first bike you want really low gearing so it is easy for the child to peddle and get the reward of making progress - we were given a high geared bike that was simply dispiriting for the little ones.

[mph1977]

i think family guy has the right sort of idea , if you were talking about a 20- 24" wheel bike for a tween there might be some merit in decent bike and kit etc - though based on what the tweens round here ride they usually want either a stunt BMX or a really too large for them MTB type bike on 26" rims

[zebedee]

family guy is talking about a toy. We who are talking about Islabikes are talking about bikes. O/P said they wanted a bike, presumably to start a biking career. My sons Rothan is very sturdily built and a year on looks as good as new despite a lot of use. He absolutely loves it, scoots to pre-school every day on it and parks it up, takes his helmet off and hangs it over the handlebars. He loves his bike and he loves bikes too, helping me clean mine or sit on the child seat on a longer ride. I don't think any kid other than one hell bent on destroying it would wreck an Islabikes bike. Resale values do exist as well apparently, though I've not looked into it as my next son will be using it next!

[With these feet]

As I put earlier, the Raleigh is very poorly built for just under £100 (Tescos now do them for £70)
Look at the build of the Islabike and you can see there is no comparison

[zebedee]

front brake only - on a plastic wheel - good grief! My 2.9 year old is already braking hard on steep hills on his rear wheel brake equipped rothan ("It makes the wheel stop going round daddy") and I can trust him with it, wouldn't trust that red and yellow thing on the flat!

[Raven Flyer]

I thought we were talking about bikes for 3 year olds.

I still maintain that a pink bike will be the best one.

[JQ]

This does'nt look too bad for £50 at John Lewis, and is what I intend to buy my eldest for Christmas. Pneumatic Tyres and a rear brake, yet not too expensive.

Obviously not too pink which may not go down too well with a little girl.

[J.P.W.]

Another vote for Islabikes here. We'd bought our daughter a Trek Mystic (pink) before we heard of Islabikes but our son has a Cnoc 16, following on from a Rothan. The confidence he has from riding a proper bike, with (fairly) light weight, easily modulated brakes, proper adjustability and kid-friendly controls is incredible.

The Trek was not cheap and you might expect it to be fairly decent but by comparison, it weighs a ton (meaning it gets dropped a lot and can't go up hills), the brakes are hard to apply and don't really slow the bike down much. And it feels far less solid.

If you want your kid to love cycling, it's never too early to encourage her by buying a proper bike.

[R6dug]

JQ said:

This does'nt look too bad for £50 at John Lewis, and is what I intend to buy my eldest for Christmas. Pneumatic Tyres and a rear brake, yet not too expensive.

Obviously not too pink which may not go down too well with a little girl.

I would not bother my 3 year old has one waste of money. Spent more time fixing it and he looks after it.

We have just ordered him a isla bike for christmas. His older brother has a isla bike and loves it. Well built and have good resale value.

[road_rager]

Raven Flyer said:

I thought we were talking about bikes for 3 year olds.

I still maintain that a pink bike will be the best one.

+1, my daughter only cared about the colour

[SplatSpeed]

big wheel

[zebedee]

road_rager said:

Raven Flyer said:

I thought we were talking about bikes for 3 year olds.

I still maintain that a pink bike will be the best one.

+1, my daughter only cared about the colour

probably because the bike was crap. Hopefully the O/P wants a bike that his kid wants to ride as much as possible and builds skills and confidence on quickly so that they want to spend as much time on bikes as possible. That's my thinking anyway, and that's why I wouldn't buy or reccomend crap, the same way I wouldn't say that if someone doesn't know much about cars and driving they are as well off in a Daewoo as a Ford Focus, or doesn't matter what car it is as long as they like the colour, its just not true.

[anonymous-user]

If your not going to get a a CNOC14 because they don't come in pink and cost too much, but still want a proper bike then go for the Ridgeback Honey 14 it is built to the same theories is a little heaver (I think the CNOC was about 6.5kg and this the RB honey 8kg), where as anything by halfords or toyRus will either be slightly heaver and completely crap or much heavier and completely unsuitable. It's also a bit cheaper than the islabike and you will be able to pick one up locally without delivery charges. Evans will internet price match one for you so you could get one under £100 delivered.

http://www.ridgeback.co.uk/bike/honey

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 28th October 10:23

[Coco H]

zebedee said:

road_rager said:

Raven Flyer said:

I thought we were talking about bikes for 3 year olds.

I still maintain that a pink bike will be the best one.

+1, my daughter only cared about the colour

probably because the bike was crap. Hopefully the O/P wants a bike that his kid wants to ride as much as possible and builds skills and confidence on quickly so that they want to spend as much time on bikes as possible. That's my thinking anyway, and that's why I wouldn't buy or reccomend crap, the same way I wouldn't say that if someone doesn't know much about cars and driving they are as well off in a Daewoo as a Ford Focus, or doesn't matter what car it is as long as they like the colour, its just not true.

We were given a couple of those plastic wheeled bikes which friends' children had used. They were fine to have a bit of fun and a peddle around on. We then bought a Halfrauds bike in the sale with pneumatic tyres - OH ending up rebuilding bits of it (as said above not at all well built). He's learnt to ride without stabilisers and can manage a 5 mile ride on that bike. It's getting a bit small and now I think the better built bikes above are the only way to go. I am not saying the Halfrauds bike was a disaster but we simply didn't know what was available at the time and none of us did much cycling.This has all changed!
3 is quite young to be spending big money on a bike but £200 doesn't seem excessive to me. If you have other children that the bike can be passed onto then it seems to be money well spent.