Bike for 13 year old boy - where from?

[Sherbert37]

Have around £100 to spend and refuse to spend it in Halfords after some appalling 'service' yesterday. Any ideas where I can get a built bike from for that amount?

[maxpower]

how about Decathlon or Evans? or an independent bike shop?

[gregssausageroll]

I just bought a bike for DS from islabikes but I think one for a 13 year old might be more than £100. Worth a look though.

What about Argos?

[gillybean2]

I tried to buy ds a bike at Halfords last year. Had it all booked (not paid for though) but we got snowed in. I tried to ring them three days running and at least twice on each of those days. Was out on hold, cut off or put through to the department and phone just rang and rang. Really really frustrating!

I figured if they couldn't be bothered to answer or take a message then I wasn't going to keep phoning to try and rearrange a collection day.

I suggest you look in yellow pages for a local smaller shop. We have a cycle king and an independant shop near us which were both good when I bought my bike. Eventially got mine at the cycle king (only coz i wanted it that day and they had one I could take away there and then)

[nocake]

Definately go to a bike specialist. A small local shop is your best bet for good service. If you can't find one then Evans are okay.

Don't under any circumstances get one from Argos or a supermarket. In the bike world they're known as BSOs - Bicycle Shaped Objects - because they look like bicycles but they are such poor quality that that can't really be called bicycles.

[gregssausageroll]

That's why we went with islabikes nocake!

[Takver]

You aren't going to get one from islabikes for £100 though!

I'm about to put dd's 20" bike (for 5-7 years) on ebay and so have been checking sold prices for the last couple of months, even 2nd hand they go for £150+. (In fact average of £163 plus postage, to be exact.)

I think that Specialized kids bikes are pretty good quality, and they tend to go reasonably cheaply on ebay compared to other better makes. Not sure what size you'd need for a 13 y/o, though.

[Sherbert37]

Well I got one from Amazon on one of the Black Friday deals for £60. Don't expect it will be wonderful although it is a Raleigh. Will doubtless come in a box of bits but have a kind neighbour lined up for assembly. Thanks for your replies.