Raleigh Molli 16

The Raleigh Molli 16 is part of its latest children's range and it offers a great introduction to riding. It's a decent weight, the paintwork will stand up to plenty of abuse, although the biggest draw for our youngest tester was Molli the dog...

• Pros: Decent quality frame, powerful brakes for little hands
• Cons: Rough feeling headset to start with

Many kids' bikes we test here at road.cc are designed to be smaller versions of adult bikes, from the likes of Islabike and Hoy to name just a couple, but the Molli is a much more traditional model. Its step-through frame makes it easier for young riders to get on and off, and with the higher front end than normal they are encouraged to look further ahead to avoid accidents, or so says Raleigh.

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Our tester, Isla, is nearly five and found the Molli very easy to master. She hasn't been riding very long, teaching herself to pedal after mastering the balance bike mode of the Black Mountain Pinto back in the summer, but even with the move to the bigger 16in wheel size of the Molli she didn't need the addition of the included stabilisers.

The length of the wheelbase and the easy-to-live-with neutral handling means that the Raleigh is very well behaved. Even on the first couple of rides getting familiar with its characteristics, Isla never looked to be finding it difficult to get to grips with the steering.

Unlike a lot of this style of kid's bike, the Molli uses an aluminium alloy frame rather than a heavy cheap basic steel and that brings the weight down to just 8.3kg without stabilisers.

Not exactly a lightweight, admittedly, but by ditching a couple of kilos the Raleigh was much easier for her to manoeuvre whether on or off of the bike, plus pulling away and accelerating were all more achievable.

The singlespeed gearing offered plenty of speed to be whizzing along on the flat without making short inclines too much of a chore, especially if she stood out of the saddle to accelerate up them. If you do live anywhere too lumpy, it might become a bit of a challenge.

With the amount of speed available it is good to see that the Molli comes with a decent performing set of V-brakes, and while I have seen many children's bikes with painted rims, the machined braking surface of the Raleigh helped Isla to slow or stop quickly without too much lever pressure.

The levers can be adjusted closer to the handlebar too, should you need to.

When it comes to overall quality the Molli goes a long way to justifying its £170 price tag.

The welding on the frame isn't the prettiest but it is acceptable for the money, and it does have a solid coat of paint over the top. Both it and the decals are then covered by a clear lacquer to stop scratches and paint chips from the inevitable crashes and from getting rested up against walls.

The fork is hi-tensile steel which, although it does add to the overall weight, will stand up well to front end crashes into kerbs and walls and the like.

The wheels are solid and are laced up with 20 spokes front and rear. Riding on the byways and dirt tracks near home saw some mild abuse from stones and the odd pothole but we never had any issues with the wheels going out of true. The bearings in the hubs felt smooth too.

Tyre-wise, the Molli is equipped with 16in x 2.125in rubber and they stood up pretty well to punctures and the like. Being white, though, even the driest of rides will see them look grubby after just a few miles.

One thing that wasn't running that smoothly straight out of the box was the headset, which felt a little rough when turning the handlebar. After the first ride I was going to check how much grease had been used during installation, but after Isla had been whizzing around on it for a few hours everything had settled down and the steering was feeling smooth.

The drivetrain is hidden behind the chainguard which helps keep it clean and stops little fingers from getting trapped. It's all basic stuff but works fine enough and everything remained tight and creak-free.

The large platform plastic pedals are a nice touch, giving plenty of area for small shoes to push against.

The handlebar uses an old school quill style stem which gives a much bigger range of height adjustment than the more common A-head type. It was easy to adjust and with the bar having a width of 520mm it also calms the steering down a bit.

And it gives plenty of space to fit the basket for Molli the dog to perch in too.

The seatpost and saddle are all steel, again with easy adjustment. The saddle upper felt reasonably soft to the touch and I never heard Isla complain about any discomfort on the longer rides around the park.

Value

Most of the kids' bikes we've tested are larger and have extras like gears, which puts the price up so it's a little difficult to gauge the cost against others that we have first hand knowledge of.

> Buyer's Guide: 16 of the best kids' bikes

A quick trawl around the internet in places like Halfords, for example, will see you getting a similarly sized and specced bike for around the hundred quid mark, but as I said further up the review, those pretty much always have a hi-tensile frame which adds around 2kg to the overall weight. That is a fair amount of heft for a young child and can easily be the difference between them loving to cycle and it becoming a chore.

On the whole, I'd say that the Raleigh is priced higher than many but that doesn't mean it is overpriced; it comes down to how much you think that extra weight of the cheaper bikes will affect your little 'un.

Verdict

A fun and easy-to-ride young kids' bike thanks to the low weight and decent performing kit