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Islabikes - Beinn 20 review

 


Islabikes Beinn 20

 

The Beginning

Since miniMikey [1] was in need of a new bike, having outgrown the previous one, I planned to get him a new one in time for the summer holidays.  Islabikes was the brand that came up most often in browsings on the internet.  Islabikes are not the cheapest of bikes, but they are of exceptional quality and designed to work with kids and their smaller dimensions, unlike many children's' bikes currently sold.  I should point out that they're not expensive either, but there's some cost associated with designing a bike properly.

A few emails and questions later, I'd made up my mind to go for an Islabike Beinn 20.  I was most impressed with the customer service, having my emails directly answered by Isla Rowntree herself, with very quick responses.  I'd thought about going for the Beinn 24, but she advised me against it as he's not quite big enough yet.  It's an easy temptation to get a bike that's slightly bigger, but I should have known better.  Admittedly he's some way into the right size for the Beinn 20, but I'm happy to take the hit and buy this bike now.  I'll sell it and upgrade to the next size when the times comes, so that will minimize any loss.  (Islabikes offer a buy back service)

Arrival and build

The box arrived within a week, and the bike "build" took 15 minutes, as it's mostly completely assembled and adjusted.  Just a matter of fitting pedals, front wheel, resetting the steerer spaces and tightening up the headset.  I adjusted the saddle slightly low to start with to help with confidence, but it almost wasn't necessary given how quickly he took to the bike.


Well packed and protected bits from in the box

Fully assembled and ready for the first test ride
miniMikey posing and chuffed, just back from the local park.

 

The Ride

All I can say is WOW!!!  It didn't take long and miniMikey was gaining confidence and riding much better than before.  Previously, he was quite nervous about doing a U-turn in the width of a road, but this was much easier for him with the new bike.  Perhaps the better stability of larger 20" wheels helped, but the bike is also really solid and functions beautifully.

He also used to mostly do a scoot start on the old bike, but with this bike has found it easy to to pedalling starts.  The brakes are really excellent, tektro levers and v-brakes that work with super sensitivity, and so unlike the cheese/steel rubbish found on many children's bikes.  The gears seem well chosen also, with a decent range that's plenty for miniMikey and his desire to speed everywhere.  He quite happily rode up the short and very steep hill back to our house, which I was impressed with.  That was also helped by the relative light weight of this bike at 9.6kg.

He also had a lot of fun with various games on the bike involving riding through cones in the park, doing the sort of thing I'm not sure he'd have had the confidence to do on his old bike.

 

Conclusion

Very very positive!  I'm so pleased how well thought out this bike is, and so happy with miniMikey's riding as a result, that I'm certain to be getting his next bike from Islabikes as well.  I'm not surprised that Sue Holden gave such positive reviews to two other Islabike models, the CNOC 16 and Rothan in Velovision Issue 22, April 2006.

Isla gave me such good quality customer service that I've no worries at all as to how she'd deal with any problem that came up.  None have so far, as expected.

Links

Islabike website. Isla is a former national cyclo cross champion, amongst others.

Another positive review in Velovision.

[1] © BigSteev

 

 

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