Current Projects chat and miscellany

Grips & clamp. Weather got me looking at 65mm mudguards already..

Bars are great, no regrets there at all (knock on wood).

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You probably already know, but just in case not, islabikes still offer loads of parts for sale. i have a pair of Rothans for my twins I intend to fix up, and needed an axle securing bolt. https://www.islabikes.co.uk/shop/rothan/rothan-12/rothan-12-2010-2012

Lovely bike and neat idea to carry that chain around. But where on earth do you live that it's already snowing?

For my sins, the US (Colorado).

Cheers. Yeah I've been scanning the parts.

No axel cup. I've just finished doing the wheels and think it's good enough, but one of those things I'll do at some point once they start riding.

Edit: islabike have confirmed replacement axle cones aren't stocked or readily available.

Good progress overall, but annoyingly I've mucked up the front wheel play, so have to tighten it up tomorrow.

TDL
✅ Clean and check
✅ Service rear wheel
✅ Remove random stickers
✅ Polish
✅ Service front wheel
✅ Repair saddle nose
☑️ Replace grips
☑️ Install bar end tassels
☑️ Adjust front wheel cones
☑️ Add custom reflective star stickers on a couple of chips

Happy with the saddle. Definitely passable for now.

Really hoping the grips arrive in time, as they seem to be coming from Holland and the current ones do look quite shit.

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I wish you good luck 🙏

Sweet bike! Would look good with mudguards

Genuinely, thanks. Trapped here by circumstance for a few more years at least.

@kjlem Cheers! REI has a sale next week, hopefully grab a set. Plenty of clearance on the frame and will be nice for winter - this is my daily shopping bike.

Love this! Wanted to order one of their forks but might get stung with import etc

Is this running 27.5?

This looks lovely. I picked a 14" wheel Hoy from eBay for my youngest for 25 quid, it will need some work to get it ready for Christmas though. I found cheap kids parts on the EU commencal website weirdly, but it turned out the tyres I wanted mainly from there were too wide. Nice kids saddles etc though.

Yep, 2.1 with light tread - I planned room for fenders. Think it does similar in 29" without. Wilde has a suspension corrected one too which I've seen in person.

That is a real score. So at that price you can afford to fix a things.

When I was searching it was a bit of balance to find something at the right price which didn't need too much work, or so much spending on parts that you may as well spend more to start. There's quite a bit jump in price for the newer models.

Got to say given this is ~10yrs it's condition says a lot about the high quality of them. It's a shame they stopped selling bikes. But then the bike instructor our eldest used made the point that when they came out they and frog were pretty much the only option for decent kids bikes. Now loads of the bigger brands have good options.

Now loads of the bigger brands have good options.

Any suggestions? I'm researching at the moment for a Christmas present for my nearly 4 year old - Hoy, Frog, Isla and Belter is my list so far but none are big brands

none are big brands

Specialized, Trek and Giant all have ranges from balance bikes up to nearly grown up

We've had good and well priced kids bikes from Kona and Ridgeback via ebay

Raleigh Performance and Dawes Academy. There is a Vitus as well I think and there must be a reassuringly expensive Cannondale.

Have a look in this thread too: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/334778/?offset=200#comment17575023

The lesson we went to had Frogs and while marginally heavier than Cnoc were all nicely designed and would be happy with them. I've also seen the Dawes Academy irl and thought it looked good.

We went for the Cnoc 16 for my eldest because one came up in silver in excellent condition near us at a good price. This time round we went for the cnoc 14* in large part because from our research first time round we were a bit familiar and as it was a known quantity/we're happy with the 16 we got.

What else... From reading plus the guy I bought the cnoc 14 from you can skip sizes. So his kid is going straight from this to a 20, whereas his older kid started on a 16 rather than a 14. The sizing guide is pretty helpful.

*Newer versions have Large and Small denoted by an "L" or "S" after the 14 on the DS chainstays. I think old ones were only had the one large size.

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Thanks, super helpful

Trek, giant etc all seem to be in the region of 9kg for a 14 inch wheeler compared to 6kg ish for Isla / frog / squish. Obvs weight isn't everything but I'm assuming it's a reasonable proxy for overall quality. So from limited research it does seem the small specialist brands are still offering something the big guys aren't.

Will look at Dawes and Raleigh too though

Ime weight is a consideration as you'll have to carry it.

Goes without saying ease of resale is a big tick in the Islabike/Frog box.

We have an Early Rider balance bike and pedal bike - love that the pedal bike comes with a belt drive instead of a chain so I doubt our eldest or her younger sister will ever wear out the drivetrain.

And the big corp. small bikes I have seen generally spec low cost shitty components - where Isla, Knox, frog early rider generally go out of their way to spec components that fit smaller hands etc. and are higher quality.
Ime you definitely get what you pay for.

Something I didn't realise until recently is that the grub screw on the brake levers moves them closer to the bars.

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Early Rider balance bike and pedal bike

These look fabulous, and agree on components. Ritchey bars! Maybe pushing it on price though and can't see many second hand.

Currently a squish 14 can be had for £250 new so that's in the lead I think, if I can't find a decent cnoc/frog nearby second hand

Yeah, we bought a Belter 14", and I am really impressed with the quality.
But I have yet to find a decent set of mudguards for it.

The last component needed for my new build is a Stridsland NW chain ring but with restock looking like it’ll be in the new year I’m seriously considering just buying one of those £20 narrow wide chain rings off eBay to get the build on the road!

Will they be good enough to see me through a month or two or are they likely to cause my untimely death?

I've had a bad experience with a cheap J&L off ebay. Chain kept dropping off. The ones from Spa are much better and reasonably priced.