The Hoy Bonaly has been replaced by the Hoy Pentland - see the new range here.
The Bonaly 26 is now only available second hand, but it makes a great choice bike. They were sold new via Evans Cycles, as a premium kids bike, and if you buy a well maintained model it should continue to provide years of fun for your child.
The Bonaly range is definitely a subscriber to the philosophy of ‘keeping it simple’, with its rigid fork, low centre of gravity, and of course, lightweight. It’s technically a mountain bike, but with its rigid forks, it’s suited to mixed terrain (although probably not the best choice if you’re doing lots of on-road riding).
Hoy upgraded the Bonaly range in 2019 to make it lighter and improve some of the design features. It has a fresh, modern look with a lower spoke count and a redesigned frame. We haven’t tested out this particular bike, but have been impressed with the smaller Bonaly 20 we’ve reviewed.
One of the appeals of this bike will be its disc brakes – the Shimano RT200 hydraulic discs with RT26 160mm rotors mean this bike looks and feels like a grown up bike – but with the correctly sized components for a younger rider.
The 9 gears come via a 32 toothed front chainring matched up to a Sunrace M90 9 speed 11-34T cassette, with the power transferred to ground through Kenda Small Block 8 tyres.