Which bike for 8-year old?

[DAST]

I want to buy my son a reasonable bike and am considering these 2 models:-

GT Palomar 24
Mongoose Rockadile 24

Which would you choose? Are there any better bikes for the same price (£180 here in UK)? I don't want to spend more than £200. The bike will be used for road, track and occaisonal light off-road use. He is 8-years old (but tall for his age).

Thanks

[atbman]

http://www.islabikes.co.uk/bike_pages/ for the best bikes for kids, bar none.

A number of the kids in our Saturday Bike Club have them and they are great - properly proportioned in all respects, esp. brakes and cranks.

Recommend them wholeheartedly

[cfbeagle]

I bought my 7 year old son a Trek MT220. We really like it... he can finally keep going with out complaining!

He road it 31 miles the other day and then road circles around the parking lot waiting for me to load the other bikes! That is a big difference from before where I had to almost push him home.