Mod edit: This thread is from 2015
My daughter is three and a half and is wanting a bike for Christmas. I've measured her inseam and she is at the low end of a fourteen inch frame. I've read enough threads to know that getting an unassembled bike is recommended beyond that though I am in the dark. Our high limit is $200 and am looking for a general recommendation on brands, models, etc.
In reply to bigbrainonbrad:
Kids grow quickly, $200 sounds like way too much money for her first(I presume) bike. If you can't find one in rideable condition used, buy the cheapest department store bike that fits. Find one with a coaster brake rear hub, and if it happens to have either front or rear caliper brakes too, that's a plus. I would avoid anything with gears, and just search for a cheap functioning bike that she likes.
Yeah, just find something cheap on CL or maybe a local FB garage sale group if you have one. We bought most of our kids' bikes for $5-10 when they were younger.
CL all the way and you should find barely used bikes. Buy someone else's $200 bike that got used 4 times.
Don't be tempted to buy one that's too big thinking that she will grow into it. I made this mistake.
My daughter's first bike had 12" wheels. It was good from 3-4 but then she got a little big for it. When shopping for a replacement, I found that 16 and 20 inch versions of the same bike were the same price, so I bought the 20. She could just about pedal it with the seat all the way down, but the reach to the grips with the handle bar turned was way too much for her. Also, high-sideing is much more dramatic on a 20. I ended up getting a $5 16 inch bike at an estate sale and she rode that for two years before she was big enough for the 20.
The advantage to a more expensive bike is usually weight. A cheap bike (not saying cheap used from CL, but genuinely cheap) heavy bike is a lot harder to ride for a little kid than a better bike that weighs five lbs less. I also recommend something like the Strider balance bike if you're just going to be messing around in the driveway. They learn the balance and steering of riding without the complexity of pedaling. My kids that learned on a balance bike transitioned to two wheels in about 1/3 the time compared to starting on training wheels and are better riders.
In reply to mazdeuce:
You can also build your own version of a Strider balance bike by taking a cheap used CL bike and removing the crank and chain.
My kids still ride wal mart specials. No better then they take care of them even there new 20 inch will be something like a next.
We just unscrewed the pedals to make a balance bike. No need to get as elaborate as removing the chain and pedal assembly..
damn, even getting a bike for a kid is complicated these days?
just buy something cheap that the kid fits on until they get up to a "full size" bike, then maybe spend a little money on it. $5 garage sale bikes work just fine for small kids.. unless they are snobs and just have to have the one with the latest Disney characters on the pads, in which case the $40 Wal Mart specials get the job done..
Strider balance bike or take the cranks off a small 12" bike.
I dealt with this recently, and was quite frustrated by the fact that there are basically no choices which slot between a junky Walmart bike and the $350 bike-shop rich person's kids bike.
As an avid biker and a real believer in buying nicer bikes...
Buy her a cheap WalMart bike that fits. Double check their assembly, even before leaving the store. If she really takes to riding and you want to get her a nicer bike, there a couple big-brand companies (like Trek) that make adjustable bikes that are designed to grow with kids. They start out bigger than she needs right now though. They have features like cranks drilled for pedals in multiple places, and wide-range seatposts and stem adjustments. They aren't cheap, but not too bad compared to buying multiple cheap bikes over time.
Right now though, I can't see the benefit of a premium level bike.
Those Stryder balance bikes (and the non-name brand ones) are awesome. It got my son to the point that he was riding without training wheels on his bike before he turned 3 years old.
We did find that the cheaper bikes with training wheels were not made to NOT have training wheels. Poor geometry. My son would crash for no apparent reason on his Lighting McQueen walmart special. My wife found some articles about how the steering is steeper or something (this was a few years ago). We were planning on getting him a nicer bike and a few days prior to making it to the bike shop, he crashed and got the end of the handle bar into his mouth taking out two teeth.
We wound up with a 16” Specialized Hotrock for him and a 20” girls version for his sister. They were about $225 each at the LBS. We sold his Stryder for more then ½ of what we paid for it and got $150 for his sisters bike when she moved up to a 24” by selling on craigslist. So we wound up the same place we would have been had we bought a $45 balance bike and a $75 20” bike and tossed them when done.
I got my just-turned-4 year old a 16" bike from walmart which was $50. its a little big for now but shes able to get up on it and ride it so she can still enjoy it and there's room to grow. When they are young don't over think it.
I like the idea of removing the pedals to create a balance bike, will have to try that next year
We went the cheap bike route for the first few bikes. The little guy got big brother's hand-me-downs for a while. This year he got a pretty nice Giant from the LBS. For a first bike, I'd go to Toys R Us or buy gently used.
balance bikes are better for learning than training wheels because training wheels actually teach you the OPPOSITE reaction.
Motorcyclists will be familiar with 'countersteering'. Basically it means to initiate a turn to the left, you start by turning the handlebars right. This is how you ride a bike as well, unless you have training wheels. With training wheels, you initiate a turn to the left by turning the handlebars left.
Imagine how confusing it is to a poor kid's motorfunction brains when they try to get off the training wheel bike and get on the real bike - suddenly all inputs are OPPOSITE! No wonder it takes a while to learn.
Pedals off in theory works, but the balance bike is way lighter and has a place to put their feet up when they get momentum going. We have a very slight hill on our drive and the kid would keep his feet up all the way down, make the turn to the sidewalk and almost make it to the neighbors drive. The kid across the street had one a year later and same thing. The reason we took off his training wheels so early is because he would jump from the balance bike to the training wheel bike and almost crash from taking turns so fast.
how did we ever learn to ride bikes before someone came up with the idea of selling a bike without pedals on it?
oh, yeah: my dad put me on a bike and more or less forced me to learn to balance while holding me up, until one day he just sort of let go and i rode away on my own without knowing it. i was only like 4 years old, but i remember it.. he also had a pretty effective method of teaching me how to swim: he pushed me off the dock at the beach...
^This.
No balance bike, no training wheels. Just mom or dad holding on to the bike while I pedaled around the back yard. After a few sessions of that, they let go without me knowing.
Everything worked out fine.
I just got my 7 year old son his second bike for a Christmas present off of Craigslist. A very lightly used Trek MT 60 20 inch for $75 and couldn't be happier. I've searched CL for about a month off and on. New sale price is $299.
Zombie Canoe Sunk!
I paid something like 69.95 for a 16" mongoose from wally world for my son at that age. He grew out of it in a couple years and I just upgraded him to a swanky bmx racer for 300 that came with all the race bits.
I paid something like 69.95 for a 16" mongoose from wally world for my son at that age. He grew out of it in a couple years and I just upgraded him to a swanky bmx racer for 300 that came with all the race bits.
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