# Bike for a 9 year old boy



## Alcdrew (28 Jul 2007)

I've been looking for a bike for my son, with a budget of about £200 but there seem to be a big hole in the bike market. I'm looking for something that will be used for him to bike to school on and lesuirly family bike rides at the weekend. The best in budget I can find so far is the Trek MT220, anyone know anything about this bike? As I have seen the girls version and thought it felt heavy, but I suppose boy been boy it will be riden hard so the weight might be a nessecary evil, what do you think? 

All riding will be done on bike paths, with maybe a tiny bit of very quiet roads.
If it makes any differance, as a guide to usage, we currently ride.
Me: Trek 7.5fx
Wife: Specialized Hardrock XC with Schwalbe city tyres
Son: Some cheap horible toys r us thing..... Sorry, I know I shouldn't of. 

Any of advice on anything else I could look at?


----------



## Tim Bennet. (28 Jul 2007)

Try Decathlon. They now have stores in quite a few parts of the country and they always seem to have proper kids bikes.

We looked at a 15 speed, drop bar, kids racing bike with 20 inch wheels that was perfect for that age. It was 65 quid, but they had a 50 percent discount sale running.


----------



## slow down (28 Jul 2007)

Really depends whether you want a road or MTB type bike. Both my seven and ten year old have Specialized Hotrocks and Decathlon 7.0 Road bikes. The Spesh were £200 and £180, so fit within your budget and when I looked last year, I thought this was the best of the bunch by a long way - I picked up the seven year old's road bike two weeks ago for a bargain £33. Not sure whether they've discontinued it now though.


----------



## starseven (28 Jul 2007)

My son has a Ridgeback 24" wheel bike its lasted a couple of years , he seems to like it, and with exception of a bit of wheel trueing and brake adjusting has been very sturdy. Some of his friends have similar bikes made by GT both are all alu, have twist grip gears and are relativly light.


----------



## Alcdrew (28 Jul 2007)

slow down said:


> Really depends whether you want a road or MTB type bike.QUOTE]
> 
> Idealy I want a hybrid. But they don't seem to exist, so I recok an MTB wih some more roady type tyres.


----------



## ufkacbln (28 Jul 2007)

Slightly above your price range, but of extremely good reputation are Islabikes

Both MTB:







and "Road"


----------



## ghitchen (28 Jul 2007)

My son has a Ridgeback MX24 which has proved reliable and is light. It does everything from getting him to school to the red route at Glentress. I would happily recommend it.


----------



## alfablue (28 Jul 2007)

Islabikes is the way to go!


----------



## yellow v2 (29 Jul 2007)

Another vote for Islabikes, bought a beinn 26 for my 9 year old son and he loves it.


----------



## bulldicker (29 Jul 2007)

two of my boys have a kona hula and they think they are great. the reason i got them is they are the only 24" wheeled bikes i could find that didnt have the gripshift gear changing system as they both found it difficult to change gear with wet or gloved hands, the thumb shifters are a vast improvment for them


----------



## Big Bren (29 Jul 2007)

I got a Spesh Hotrock for my 8 yr old a few weeks back and can highly recommend it; the bike walks the line between quality (my benchmark) and looking cool (his benchmark) very ably, and is quite clearly a very well made machine. He's used it so far for everything from bombing up and down our street to a full on 12 mile forest trek, and it's performed very well.

Bren


----------



## Globalti (7 Aug 2007)

Yet another vote for Islabikes. See my other post - just bought one and it's excellent.


----------



## bonj2 (7 Aug 2007)

You shouldn't make a child have a drop handlebar road bike, that's just cruel.
It should be a decision they take themselves.


----------



## Arch (7 Aug 2007)

Who said anyone was making any kid do anything? Plenty of kids want proper road bikes with drop bars. Just because you couldn't get on with them, doesn't mean everyone has to be the same.


----------



## Big Bren (7 Aug 2007)

Mere weeks after getting the Specialized MTB, my son is mithering me for a road bike. This is not indicative of dissatisfaction with the Spesh btw - he wants both.

Bloody kids today - don't know they're born etc etc.

Bren


----------



## Alcdrew (7 Aug 2007)

Thanks for all the suggetions. In the end, he/we choose a Gaint stp 250 Which seems good, and more importantly he likes it so uses it more 

I like the sound of Islabikes, look well built. But unfortunatly the styling wasn't to my son's liking. So that had to be crossed off.

Decathlon- Bikes, sound like a bargin. I can't believe they can be making any money selling bikes at that price. But no stores around here, so had to give that a miss.

Spesh hotrock - had a look at the hotrock triple, but he wasn;t overly keen on it in real life. So thats that.

Trek 220 - still like this, but it lost out as it doesn't have water bottle butts and he wanted a water bottle!


----------



## bonj2 (7 Aug 2007)

Arch said:


> Who said anyone was making any kid do anything? Plenty of kids want proper road bikes with drop bars. Just because you couldn't get on with them, doesn't mean everyone has to be the same.



Hmmm... I'm sceptical. Seems a bit funny that there's loads of posts from parents like "what road bike should I get for my kid" but none from kids saying "what road bike should I ask my dad to get me"


----------



## Arch (7 Aug 2007)

bonj;35016][quote name= said:


> Who said anyone was making any kid do anything? Plenty of kids want proper road bikes with drop bars. Just because you couldn't get on with them, doesn't mean everyone has to be the same.



Hmmm... I'm sceptical. Seems a bit funny that there's loads of posts from parents like "what road bike should I get for my kid" but none from kids saying "what road bike should I ask my dad to get me"[/QUOTE]

How many kids do you think hang about on here then bonj? Have you ever seen a child asking advice on anything on here, or over on C+?


----------



## bonj2 (7 Aug 2007)

Arch said:


> How many kids do you think hang about on here then bonj? Have you ever seen a child asking advice on anything on here, or over on C+?



Exactly! It's a roadie forum, and there's no kids on it. What does that tell you about what sort of bikes kids want?

There used to be plenty of kids asking for advice on mbuk...


----------



## ufkacbln (7 Aug 2007)

I always take these posts and threads at face value.

If a poster asks for advice - one assumes that they have knowledge and have worked things up to that point.

If the posts asks about road bikes then it is reasonable to assume that that is what the joint decision is.



After all any fule kno that responsible parents would buy their child a recumbent trike kmxkarts as they are more stable, hence resulting in fewer injuries, more fun and certainly more posturally sound.

And what's even more important - no drop handlebars.


----------



## BentMikey (7 Aug 2007)

miniMikey the pikey is a big fan of his new Islabike:

http://www.londonskaters.com/cycling/my-bikes-islabikes-beinn-20-review.htm

Although he also loves his KMX!!!
http://www.londonskaters.com/cycling/images/PB020007.JPG


----------



## dangerousjules (7 Aug 2007)

a deviation slightly on the subject a few months ago when i paid a visit to sideways cycles in cheshire tim the owner was building up a new bike for his daughter who i think is about 7...the spec was as follows
spot frame
chris king headset
hand built wheels around phil wood hubs
and various other bits of bike jewellery
i wish i had a dad like that when i was a kid! lucky girl eh!


----------



## bonj2 (8 Aug 2007)

Cunobelin said:


> I always take these posts and threads at face value.
> 
> If a poster asks for advice - one assumes that they have knowledge and have worked things up to that point.
> 
> If the posts asks about road bikes then it is reasonable to assume that that is what the joint decision is.




this is true in fact, i'm a great believer in that motives shouldn't be questionned, whatever the question.
I was however just passing comment generally, maybe I should have prefixed it with 'OT'. It was my general preconception that kids generally preferred mountain bikes, because they like riding round the park and up kerbs and what not, rather than covering distances. But if they do genuinely want a road bike, be it because their parents have got one or what, then get them one.


----------



## ufkacbln (8 Aug 2007)

Even more reason for a KMX


----------

