Recreational & Family - Looking for a quality bike for my beyond wonderful, eight year old niece moving up f

I need advice on purchasing a quality bike for an eight year old young lady.One who loves to ride. She is moving up from her twenty inch bike. Any suggestions on twenty-four inch wheel bikeshop bike that is under $200? Or on a department store/sporting goods store bike that is of the same quality as bike shop bike.Would prefer the cruiser type bike to the mountain bike type, but quality level and reliabilty are most important factors.Thanks for the help!

I like kids, so would tend to make this a grand adventure in which we visited nearby shops, checked out any really good possibles from the classifieds, tried various models, did some research on bikes, looked at possible good places to ride the new bike, and then finally purchase the one that fit niece, budget. and quality standards.

As a matter of personal prejudice, I would not visit the big box discount stores. Even though some of them have good bikes for the money, the junk predominates. Your budget should be adequate for a good basic kid's bike.

I just ordered two Raleigh Rowdys for my 8 year old daughters but they are 20 inch. We are upgrading from the Lil Honey to gears and hand breaks. I think the Raleigh kids bikes are well built, fun to ride and reasonably priced. Raleigh also makes cruiser styles for kids.

My wife "forced" me into buying our 7 year old daughter an Trek MT220. My daughter is a bit taller than average so even though this bike is a still big for her, everything fits well. The nice things about this bike is that is have an increadible range of adjustments. As she grows, the pedals can be moved further out. No other bike I have seen so far has as much adjustment capacity. This means that this bike will last and fit for many years. The next bike I expect to have to buy for her will then be an "adult" bike. This is not a cheap bike, but it has very good components all around and will last for years without giving constant grief. As a major bonus, the bike came in a bright pink... my daughter's favorite color. She needed a new helmet this year as well and it matches. Even in the lower gears, I am amazed at how fast she can get riding. My daughter is still get comfy riding solo, but soon she'll be able to ride along side of me and keep up without any problems.

Happy riding,
André

I've seen some nice little Giant and Specialized 24 inch mountain bikes at my LBS in the 200-300 dollar price range.

Thanks for the advice. She picked a Giant at the local LBS.
Joe