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My lad turns four in a months time and he's due his first proper bike. Decided on the Cnoc but unsure of the sizing.
He's 100cm tall with a 40/41cm inseam, looking at the chart he might be better off on the 14 but for obvious reasons I'd prefer to get him the 16. He's still on stabilisers so I'm hoping that we would get away with the 16.
How do the Islas come up size wise?
Thanks.
I think the 16" should be fine. My just turned 4 year old is smaller than yours (98cm with a 39cm inseam) and the 14" looks tiny. In the summer he was able to get on and ride a Beinn 20 small.
However if you were wanting to get him off the stabilisers it would be handy if he could get both feet down easily...
I think you'd be ok with a 16 with stabilizers. My lad found the 14 a bit big when he started with it but that's because he was riding without stabilizers straight from the balance bike. 8 months on and it's almost too small..
14".
Smaller bike will give him more confidence.
And get rid of the stabilisers.
I would say don't buy big in the hope that stabilisers will make it possible to ride. Stabilisers just delay the process of learning to ride, so get a bike with a low enough saddle height to let him get both feet on the ground initially.
It's tempting to see if you can get them onto a slightly bigger size, because you don't want to buy something that they grow out of too quickly, but I found that Islabike's sizing advice is pretty accurate if you follow the procedure on their website.
Like others have said, focus on ditching the stabilisers and go with the smaller frame to improve confidence. Both of mine progressed from the rothan balance bike straight to a cnoc 14 without using stabilisers. Islabikes hold their value well so you should be able to find a secondhand 14 and sell it for almost the same money 6-12 months later.
If you look at the Islabikes sizing charts you'll see it doesn't really matter whether you start with a 14 or 16, you'll end up with the same number of bikes between now and them being fully grown. That said I measured my daughter at 40cm and 102cm 6 weeks before Christmas and opted for the 16 thinking it would be 3 or 4 months before she used it frequently. It fits fine now however i.e. she can get both feet down fine.
Thanks, leaning towards 14 tbh.
Both his big sisters were off the stabilisers at 3, my lad just doesn't want to know as soon as we take them off.
Do the online charts relate to the minimum stand over height or the minimum saddle height?
I'd probably look for a second-hand 14" that he can learn on, for the short period he'll need it before the 16". Then sell it on without losing any money.
Like others have said, focus on ditching the stabilisers and go with the smaller frame to improve confidence. Both of mine progressed from the rothan balance bike straight to a cnoc 14 without using stabilisers.
Agreed.
My (fairly tall) four year old got a Cnoc 16 for Christmas after learning on a Rothan. She was tall enough to jump straight to the Beinn 20 but I felt that was too big a leap in size.
Right choice because it took literally 5 minutes to get her up and pedalling around confidently on the Cnoc. No stabilisers. 😀
14 it is then!
Just looking online to see what size his current bike is and found a picture of one the same!
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Just to reiterate, that isn't my sons bike, living room or shoddy bike building skillz.
I should hope not!