Children adore bicycles. It is the foundation of many childhood memories, and many parents or teenage big bros or sisters anticipate the day they give the kids in the family their first bike. However, selecting the best children’s bike might be challenging.
You know how you would choose a new bike for yourself – you’d consider whether you can comfortably sit on the bike and touch the ground with your feet, whether you can comfortably rotate the pedals without your legs colliding with anything, and whether you can reach the handlebars with the optimum bend in your arm so that you feel no strain anywhere.
Naturally, you must enjoy the color and accessories that come with it or that you may add to it. Choosing a children’s bike is similar to choosing a bicycle for adults, except that your child may have never ridden before, making this a completely new experience for you to prepare for – managing their expectations, anxieties, and fears, their ability, and confidence, as well as your concerns about safety and ease of use.
Thus, the following are the factors to consider while selecting the best children’s bike:
Age and Height
It’s all too simple to consider height as the sole yardstick for determining the optimum size. Take care: it has the potential to be deceptive as an indication.
Unlike many other manufacturers, however, the age and height categories for each bike range overlap significantly. Given that most children acquire their balance at a similar rate, comparing the ability to age and height is considerably more helpful.
As parents, you are all too familiar with the height disparities between your children’s classmates and peers. Furthermore, height is not a reliable predictor of skill or confidence.
Ability and Confidence
Children learn to ride more efficiently, have more control over their bikes, and have a lot more fun when they are the masters of their realm. Almost every parent we’ve encountered favors purchasing a bicycle that their children can grow into.
While this makes financial sense, there are drawbacks – the added size, height, and weight are somewhat intimidating, and a youngster frequently is unable to ride or handle the bike appropriately. What’s the point of that?
You know that not all children of the same age have the same physical capabilities – see them on the playground, likewise, for riding a bike. While some may intuitively be able to manage to steer, pedal, or push (on a balancing bike), and brake, others will genuinely need to acquire each ability individually.
As a parent, you must subjectively assess your child’s aptitude, which will inform your choice of bike size. The ability of a child to ride a balancing bike or scooter will also affect their ability to ride a bike with pedals. Thus this is another decisive factor.
Physical Fit
A bike is a suitable size when your child can:
- Sit in the saddle and place both feet’ balls on the ground.
- Straddle the top bar with a reasonable space between your legs and both feet level on the ground.
- When sitting on the seat, reach for the handlebars with a slight bend in the arms. If the bike has handbrakes, your youngster should be able to grasp them and exert sufficient pressure to bring the bike to a complete stop.
As your kid develops, you may adjust the seat post and handlebar stem to the restrictions specified in the owner’s handbook. Another excellent piece of advice is to set the handlebars back and the seat to the lowest position possible – this limits the reach somewhat and provides more growth area.
Bike Weight
Would you ride a bike that is more than half the weight of your body? Could you imagine how difficult it would be to maneuver the bike from a stationary position and through turns or up and down a curb?
Therefore, why would you expect your child to behave similarly, especially as they learn to ride? There was no choice of lightweight children’s bikes available elsewhere globally.
Girls or Boys Specific Design
From a riding perspective, the variation in form design between girls and boys does not affect functioning. Indeed, a lower step-through (as in the girls’ design) benefits the majority of young riders by making it easier to get on and off. There is also no discernible difference in strength between the two designs.
Thus, it is primarily a social issue – there is an expectation for two distinct styles in the market.
Longevity
How long will my child be able to ride the bike before outgrowing it? As a parent, you need to be confident that the bike will endure long. The most typical reason children must upgrade their bike size on a standard cycle is a lack of knee space between the seat and handlebars.
It leads you to raise the seat, at which point your youngster loses interest or confidence in riding due to the bike’s extremely high center of gravity, making it even more challenging to ride.
Buying From a Bike Store Versus a Department Store
While you may conduct research online and study every bit of information on our website, your local bike store specialists can provide customized advice for your child. It is not something you’d find in a department shop.
Purchasing from a department store may result in the bike being partially constructed, but purchasing from a bike shop ensures that the bike is safe and configured, especially for the intended rider.
Once you’ve purchased from a local store, you’ll have a place to return for assistance, guidance, maintenance, and safety checks – everything from readjusting gears to repairing damage or coping with a puncture. Develop a relationship with your neighborhood business, and they will watch out for you.
Your child’s bike should be the appropriate size. It implies that your youngster should be able to straddle the bike securely with their feet flat on the ground. Your child should be able to get into the bike seat by leaning the bike slightly to one side.
When your child rides, their knees should not come into contact with the handlebars, nor should they be so extended out that your child has difficulty maneuvering the bike.