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The Islabikes Creig 24 Pro Series is the new top of the range performance 24” mountain bike for young racers and enthusiasts in the 8-10 age range. Islabike has already ushered in a new era of quality kid's bikes, but their new Pro Series range of bikes ups the ante when it comes to weight and performance.

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It’s hard to go to any trail centre or local woods, school bike park or cycling club without seeing a selection of small brightly painted Islabikes and kids whizzing about all over the place. It’s a good sight – one that cannot help but put a smile on your face.

The Islabike Creig 24 Pro Series in action

If you have not picked up an Islabike ever, then next time you see one ask if you can feel the weight and whilst you are doing that check out the reach on the brake levers, the small grips, the short cranks with small pedals and high-quality wheels and the superb fit for smaller riders. This is where Islabikes proportional design and fit really shines. Then think about how much your child weighs and how much a few extra kgs will mean to them as they attempt to keep up with you in the local woods. As adults, we kid ourselves that it is worth spending £1000 to save a few hundred grammes, so should this not be even more important for children with their power to weight ratio. Islabike thinks so, which was the genesis behind the new Pro Series line.

The Islabike Creig 24 Pro Series

The Pro Series bikes push what were already significantly light kids bikes into a different ballpark. Their idea is to give the keen young cyclist the perfect bike to allow them to improve their skills and push themselves to the limit of their abilities. The Creig 24” 8+ model that we are looking at here is 9.02kg without pedals. That’s 19.9 lbs, which doesn’t sound bad for an adult bike but is super light for a kid’s model. There are a few ‘similar’ weights from several other brands, but none with suspension forks and disc brakes and that is the key.  

This bike is designed to be ridden hard over any type of terrain, not just at the local grassy park, but at the races and trail centres all over the country. The Pro series is designed for the young rider to develop a wide range of mountain bike skills and perhaps have that extra edge when it comes to racing.

So what makes the Creig 24” Pro cost £1500? However you look at it, that's a lot of money for a kids bike that will last between 1-3 years depending on their unpredictable growth spurts. 

For a start, it’s a great looking bike in satin grey with orange/fluro-red graphics and finishing details. It really does look like a quality bike and a quick look over the spec and things start to make sense. Instantly visible is the Rock Shox fork and the huge cassette on the rear wheel.  It's running 1x11spd drivetrain using a combination of SRAM GX gripsgifter shifter and mech with an 11-42T Shimano XT cassette. The cranks are proportionally sized at 152mm and beautifully finished with a polished face which will look good forever because of it. Note to other crank manufacturers - black wears off.  

The fork is Rock Shox 30 TK Gold 26” version, as used on the Creig's 26” wheeled big brother. Instead of reducing the fork travel and axle to crown length, Islabikes have opted to design the frame around the stock 26” fork as they felt it was the best performing quality fork they could find for the bike.

What makes it special for the younger rider is that the fork stations are ‘only’ 30mm in diameter. That may be out of fashion due to their unwanted flex issues for adults but are perfect for smaller riders who are able to benefit from reduced stiction (aka seal friction) that these smaller stations provide. The fork offers compression adjustment with lockout facility and there is a rebound adjuster at the foot of the right leg. 

The RockShox fork was chosen for the extra skinny legs for lower seal friction

The wheels are Stans NoTubes ZTR Crest 24 hole rims with sealed cartridge disc hubs with hollow axles and although not set up out of the box tubeless they can be converted as both rim and tyre are tubeless ready.  Theoretically, this could save you about 200g or so. It’s something I have yet to do but will be on the list for a future upgrade. To be fair I’ve struggled to find Presta valve 24” tubes in shops so this would be a really sensible upgrade.

Fast rolling and lightweight rubber is a big plus

The finishing kit is worth a comment as well as it’s a little out of the ordinary on a kid’s bike. The handle bars are 25.4mm aluminium and are mated to a short 60mm KCNC stem, a brand well known for lightweight components. The seat post is carbon and 25.4 and the saddle has hollow cro-mo rails both of which are specced for their comfort and weight. A special mention goes to the Token BB which has a Ti 4Taper axle in a carbon shell and saves a few extra grammes no doubt, but more importantly it enables fine tuning of the Q factor with Islabikes own specially made cranks.

The ride

The 11spd drivetrain has a decent 11-42T range with a single ring up front

Step forward the test pilot –Fin aged nearly 9 and who has been riding forever.  He is a member of cycle club and rides Aston Court and Leigh Woods regularly. He’s also done his fair share riding in the mountains in France and Wales and I’d say he is pretty confident with most situations.  He’s been riding the Creig 24 Pro for about four months and has raced it, taken it to skills centres in the FOD, wooden decking in Swindon’s Croft Park and generally blasted around on it with a huge grin on his face.

His regular heavily modified bike has an alloy frame, V-brakes, decent wheels with the same tyres and old modified Pace suspension forks. It weighs 2 lbs heavier than the Islabike which makes it light but it is not a particularly ergonomic fit and there are a fair few compromises with it so it would be interesting to see what he thought about the Creig 24 Pro Series.

Fin’s first experience with the Creig 24 Pro was at Battle on the Beach in March where he entered the under 10’s race and was incredibly nervous amongst some very serious ‘local’ racers. He needn’t have worried as both he and the bike performed fantastically finishing in the top half. Not bad for his first ride on the bike.

He has had trouble with twist shift gears in the past but the GX shifter seems to be so smooth that he was finally able to use a good range of the gears throughout the race and keep ahead of the chasing pack.  In fact, the 1x11 system is the first revelation of the bike. Previously he never liked to shift in and out of the granny gear during hilly rides because he found his hands were either not strong enough or they got tired quickly.

With the Creig 24 Pro he has found not needing to use the left hand and finding all the gears he needs on a smooth right-hand shifter much easier.  Overall the simplicity of the 1x11 GX system has massively improved his ability to keep his speed up and climb hills. He has even found to his surprise that there were more gears left than he thought whilst climbing and I have noticed he has never actually used the 42T through his own choice and managed all the climbs he has come across without it.  

Previously, he has not liked the standard grips and they don't seem to have lasted well on his other bikes so they been swapped for other models but these grips seem to be lasting well at the moment.

The cockpit has a custom bar and stem

Picture

The forks are the second revelation and put simply are the best I have found on any kids bike. They are smooth and light, having less stiction and being more active for the lighter rider. They have been put through their paces with relentless enthusiasm, leaping off anything he can find in order to test them – a big thank you to the Forest of Dean skills and pump tracks for helping here. 

In summary

The fit of this bike is perfect at the moment. It is tricky to say how long it will last as he grows in spurts, like most kids. This is obviously a strong consideration for any parent and potentially the only downside of this bike as the standard response to a normal Islabike is that it costs too much for a bike that will only last X amount of time. However time has proved that Islabikes, if looked after, will hold their value. In fact I cannot think of any other bike that performs so well on the 2nd and 3rd hand market. This is presumably why there are now so many at my son’s school and at the trail centres’ around the country. 

There is no getting away from the fact that this is an expensive bike but - and it’s a decent size but - if you have the budget and your child is serious about either racing or just pushing their skills to the limit this is a superb investment that should provide 1.5-3 years of turbo charged fun and performance for them. The care and attention to detail in the spec choices are as close to perfect for a confident emerging rider as you could wish for and will undoubtedly lead to improvement in their riding ability and their enjoyment of the sport. 

If current resale values of classic Islabikes are anything to go by, it should hold its value well and you can recoup a large chunk of that initial outlay on the next size up where the competition is much much broader.

Overall this is an excellent mountain bike that just happens to be designed for 24” wheels and children between 8-10 years of age or 128-138cm in height. Islabikes choice of kit and beautifully proportioned frame will allow any aspiring your rider to go that bit further, higher or harder.