Bike For a 5 year old

http://www.tetoncycleworks.com/Articles/our_bikes/litespeed.html

For a child that age, you'd be stupid to spend more than $50. Kids
grow and mistreat stuff. Wait till they are older and buy a good bike

Quoted message said:

For a child that age, you'd be stupid to spend more than $50. Kids
grow and mistreat stuff. Wait till they are older and buy a >good bike

Everybody's on a budget, eventually.

We bought our kids new bikes at a shop that carried kids' bikes and
Lightspeed, Trek, Serotta, etc. There's some pride of ownership value
there IMHO. Yup, heavy (Trek Mountain Cub). Not too expensive, they've
ridden them a lot. Mistreated but loved nonetheless. Maybe there is
"light" out there, maybe not so important. Kneepads, elbow pads, helmet
v. useful accessories. --TP

<[email hidden]> wrote: For a child that age, you'd be stupid to
spend more than $50. Kids grow and mistreat stuff. Wait till they are
older and buy a good bike
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The fact that kids grow means that there are plenty of kid's bikes that have
been outgrown, probably available in the $50 range. The fact that5 kids
mistreat stuff means that a used bike that is still usable is probably
pretty rugged.

So shop for a used bike for around $35 to $50, and then sell it when it is
outgrown by all the kids in your family.

On 26 May 2005 11:25:57 -0700, "dmitry" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Hello all,

I am shopping for a bike for a 5-year-old daughter.
Preferably something that will last her 2-3 years and something light.
All kids bikes I have seen so far are very heavy.

Any recommendations?

Any kids' bike will last 2 to 3 years. In fact, with even normal
negligent lack of care, they'll usually go 6 to 10 years or more;
there's a Huffy girl's bike in a corner of my patio which is still
serviceable after 10 years, and it has had little more than an
occasional squrt of oil on the chain. There are usually loads of
usable kids' bikes at garage sales and thrift stores. To the best of
my knowledge, no commonly-supplied manufacturer's models in this range
are made to be light. This is not an area in which the bike makers
have recognized a market (or need) for technical innovation. The
average child of that age is more of a threat to the bike than vice
versa, so the bikes are made to be rugged enough not to break when
stepped on, thrown around, dropped off the porch, etc.

The most important issue is to get her a bike that's about the right
size now, even though that means she'll probably grow out of it in a
year or two. An extremely basic guide to picking the right size of
bike for a child is at http://www.huffybikes.com/shop/size.html (and
no, I don't recommend Huffy bikes over any other brand, but at this
level of riding experience, in my opinion, there's very little need
for more than simple functionality; virtually any bike of an
appropriate size can provide that.)

--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

I would suggest a single speed bike with a coaster brake. Keeping it
simple helps the durability as well as the ease of use/learning. While
light would be nice, one of the best things I did with my kids' bikes
(boy 5, girl 4) was to replace the rear sproket with the biggest one I
could find. It's amazing what gearing small kids bikes come with. The
original gears were way to long. With a lighter gear they can get
started easier, as well as deal with minor hills.

Here's a fun picture of my boy a few months ago:
http://www.tjuma.net/jump.jpg

I also put a quick release on the seat post to be able to make quick
adjustments, and cut the bars down a few inches. A well fitting bike
with a light gear is more important than all other concerns, in my
opinion.

Have fun!

Joseph

Quoted message said:

I am shopping for a bike for a 5-year-old daughter.
Preferably something that will last her 2-3 years and something light.
All kids bikes I have seen so far are very heavy.

The best what I found for my 6-year was 20" Kona Makena.
After I replaced terrible knobby stock tyres with 1" recumbent
slicks and changed saddle+seatpost for something not so
"real steel", it lost more that kilogram of weight and now
gives good service for third year.

-- Konstantin Shemyak

I have twin sons and bought 2 different bikes for them. one was a
specialized and one was a "TREK JET 12".

I will not be purchasing another TREK bicycle from asia EVER after
this horrible experience. There are many reasons why i think this
bike is worse than the average huffy at sears or walmart :

1. The rear axle nuts will not stay tight. I have to tighten them
before almost every ride.

2. The training wheels did not work. They fell out of adjustment
which contributed to several spills. I had to bend them back into
position.

3. The training wheels are noisey as heck. They are so noisy and
vibrate so much that I finally replaced them with new wheels from a
3rd party manufacturer. One problem (of many) solved.

4. The front fender bracket is / was extremely flimsy. The mounting
bracket was made of tin-pot metal which made it quite easy for the
fender to hit the front wheel. Problem solved as the mounting screw,
which was not locknut (which is what any competant manufacturer would
use for such purposes), fell off, causing the entire fender to fall
off.

5. The rear fender has the same problem, however, luckily, I only
have to bend it back one per week, not once per day.

6. There were other problems with the bike but I do not have it here
in front of me right now - "oh evil bicycle - let me count the ways..."

======

Until recently, here was the procedure to go on a bike ride with my
twin sons :

(a) Get boths sons to wear helmet. Wear a helmet myself.
(b) Go to garage, bring all 3 bikes out in the sunlight
(c) Do a 9-point inspection on the TREK to see what parts are about to
fail or have self-loosened since the bike was stored quietly in the
garage last time. No need to check the Specialized bike.

======

Suffice to say, this is a horrible bike, and my son bears the scars
from many falls caused - in part - by repeated mechanical problems
with this bicycle. When just about any part can fail on any given
day, its almost impossible to protect your child.

I have thrown bike into the dumpster, along with a warning tag for any
poor unsuspecting dumpster-divers.

He used to love riding but these days he's afraid of the bike - and I
don't blame him at with the TREK JET 12 bicycle - the Darth Vader of
bicycles !

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA

dmitry said:

Hello all,

I am shopping for a bike for a 5-year-old daughter.
Preferably something that will last her 2-3 years and something light.
All kids bikes I have seen so far are very heavy.

Any recommendations?

I bought a Trek Jet 20 like ths one http://tinyurl.com/b6am7 for my 6
year old son, primarily because it was one of the few bikes I could
find at LBSes here that did not seem to weigh a ton. Unlike the guy
who posted some horrible experiences with a smaller Trek Jet, my son's
bike seems fine so far, nicely built and reasonably light.

--
--kabes.

Get anything that fits the kid at a garage sale. Forget training
wheels. If the bike has them, take them off. They only mess up a
kids sense of balance.

If the bike has any hand brakes, remove them immediately. A kids
hands aren't strong enough to operate them, but they will get a false
sense of security from squeezing the lever and thinking it is going to
stop them. They will crash 100 times and keep grabbng at hand brake
levers even though it never works.

When you want to teach the kid to ride, you can kill your back as most
people do by running along with the kid on the bike and holding the
seat to keep them upright, but if you're smarter you will get a broom
handle and attach it to the bike using tie-wraps. The end goes down
where the kick stand is bolted on, and runs up along the seat tube and
up behind the seat Use tiewraps at the bottom and at the bike seat.
Then you can run along without bending over and you and the kid will
benefit from more time riding. The broom stick gives you plenty of
leverage to correct the kids tendency to lean or tilt, and provides a
normal height means to push them along to get them started.

As the kid gets better at riding, you can start letting go of the
handle for a few seconds at a time. Eventually you can stop holding
on altogether, then remove the handle.

Be prepared to get your kid a couple pairs of new shoes during the
learning time. No matter how many tmes you explain and demonstrate a
coaster brake to them, they are going to use their feet to stop the
bike for the first several months, until they see some kid making skid
marks on the sidewalk and they figure out how to do it themselves.
Then you need to plan on buying a couple tires.

Try not to put the seat too low. The kid will have an impossible time
going up hill if the seat is so low that his/her knees come up to
his/her chin while pedaling. It is better to set the seat higher,
where the kid can just get his toes to the ground while seated than to
have it too low. Try to teach the kid to step off the bike when
stopped- it isn't easy to get them to do it, but it is a good thing to
do. They will learn to start and stop themselves much faster that
way.

ookook said:

When you want to teach the kid to ride, you can kill your back as most
people do by running along with the kid on the bike and holding the
seat to keep them upright, but if you're smarter you will get a broom
handle and attach it to the bike using tie-wraps. The end goes down
where the kick stand is bolted on, and runs up along the seat tube and
up behind the seat Use tiewraps at the bottom and at the bike seat.
Then you can run along without bending over and you and the kid will
benefit from more time riding. The broom stick gives you plenty of
leverage to correct the kids tendency to lean or tilt, and provides a
normal height means to push them along to get them started.

As the kid gets better at riding, you can start letting go of the
handle for a few seconds at a time. Eventually you can stop holding
on altogether, then remove the handle.

Much easier is to use the "Hobby Horse" method. Lower the seat enough
so the child can easily have both feet flat on the ground while seated
and can push him/herself along just using feet on the ground. Remove
the pedals so they don't get in the way and hit ankles/shins. Now find
an empty parking lot (corporate lot on weekend or church lot during the
week) and let the kid practice pushing themselves along and gradually
coasting for longer distances between putting a foot down. A very
slight downhill slope (just enough to coast at a couple mph) makes this
easier. Once the child is coasting for reasonable distances have them
practice some turns in both directions.

Only when the child is comfortable balancing through steering should the
pedals be reinstalled and the seat raised a little to enable pedalling.
Gradually raise the seat to a normal height as the child gets
comfortable with their balance on the bike.

The whole process shouldn't take more than a few hours and involves no
falling down.

ookook kookoo said:

Get anything that fits the kid at a garage sale.

<snip>

Can't say I wholly agree with that. Kids like new shiny things,
whereas used kids' bikes tend to be quite beat up. It seems to me that
it is much easier to get a kid to ride and like riding his/her bike if
it is new and shiny. IMHO.

--
--kabes.

kabes said:

ookook kookoo said:

Get anything that fits the kid at a garage sale.

<snip>

Can't say I wholly agree with that. Kids like new shiny things,
whereas used kids' bikes tend to be quite beat up. It seems to me that
it is much easier to get a kid to ride and like riding his/her bike if
it is new and shiny. IMHO.

I'd agree with that to an extent. My daughter is one year younger than
my son nad rather than give her a beat-up (yet quite functional)
hand-me-down bike I got her a new one that was pink, and had flowers on
it. She really liked it and I let her play with it and monkey around
with it by herself for a while before suggesting she ride it. That
seemed to work well. She was quite keen on learning after a while,
despite feeling a bit over shadowed by her older brother whizzing
around, while prvious suggestions that she try his old bike never went
over too well.

Joseph

ookook said:

Get anything that fits the kid at a garage sale. Forget training
wheels. If the bike has them, take them off. They only mess up a
kids sense of balance.

That is for sure. My son learned how to ride in about 45 minutes with
the advantage of never having ridden a bike with trainig wheels, nor a
trike. My daughter a year later had been spoiled by some big trikes at
pre-school and had a much harder time of it. The whole leaning thing.

Quoted message said:

If the bike has any hand brakes, remove them immediately. A kids
hands aren't strong enough to operate them, but they will get a false
sense of security from squeezing the lever and thinking it is going to
stop them. They will crash 100 times and keep grabbng at hand brake
levers even though it never works.

I also recommend removing any bells, horns, or baskets. The kids will
end up trying to operate these devices, not be able to, and crash while
not paying attention to what is going on around them.

Quoted message said:

When you want to teach the kid to ride, you can kill your back as most
people do by running along with the kid on the bike and holding the
seat to keep them upright, but if you're smarter you will get a broom
handle and attach it to the bike using tie-wraps. The end goes down

Similar types of handles can be purchased cheaply which bolt firmly to
the seatpost or seat stays. I found that they work well to a point but
if the child gets too off balance, the rear wheel skids out sideways
and lifts off the ground, and the child falls over to the side. I found
it easier for me to grab (using my GI Joe kung-fu grip!) the back of my
child's wind-jacket and "steer" them while walking/jogging along next
to them. This way if they wiped out I could just hold them up in the
air more or less. Enough at least to avoid a wreck which might turn
them off the bike riding idea. It also meant they were in charge of
keeping the bike upright beneath them. It seems they learned much
faster about leaning when it was their body (via my grip) that was
initiating a lean instead of the bike via my pushing the broom-handle.

I also got both my kids bike gloves so it wouldn't be too painful when
they wiped out. Scraped palms will put a quick end to a day learning to
ride.

I also tried to have a positive outlook on any wipeout so as not to
dramatize the situation: "Wow! Look at that big scrape on the road from
your handlebars! That was some crash! Good thing you have your gloves
on, right? Let's try again."

Joseph

Werehatrack said:

To the best of
my knowledge, no commonly-supplied manufacturer's models in this range
are made to be light. This is not an area in which the bike makers
have recognized a market (or need) for technical innovation.

Puky (a German company) seems to be one of the few manufacturers that
specialises in designing bikes for children, ie building bikes with the
needs, capabilities and dimensions of children in mind from scratch,
rather than just scaling down adult bikes. Might not be easily
obtainable in the OP's neck of the woods but definitely worth a look.
<url:http://www.puky.de/>

Another issue apart from availability would be how your kids feel about
riding a "Puky" bike - I expect the name doesn't have the same
connotations in German.

d.

Quoted message said:

That is for sure. My son learned how to ride in about 45 minutes with
the advantage of never having ridden a bike with trainig wheels, nor a
trike.

My son refused to go on his bike without training wheels at first, but I
persuaded him to just "give it a go" one day (used the "hobby horse"
method, with pedals off and seat lowered), with the promise that I would
put the training wheels back on if he really wanted them...

A couple of hours later, the training wheels were in the bin - he put
them there himself.

Quoted message said:

I also got both my kids bike gloves so it wouldn't be too painful when
they wiped out. Scraped palms will put a quick end to a day learning to
ride.

Gloves are definitely a good thing - your budding cyclist will also
think they are very cool.

I'd even go so far as to say that for a young child learning to ride,
gloves are a more important piece of safety gear than... no, maybe I
won't go there.

d.

davek said:

Quoted message said:

That is for sure. My son learned how to ride in about 45 minutes with
the advantage of never having ridden a bike with trainig wheels, nor a
trike.

My son refused to go on his bike without training wheels at first, but I
persuaded him to just "give it a go" one day (used the "hobby horse"
method, with pedals off and seat lowered), with the promise that I would
put the training wheels back on if he really wanted them...

A couple of hours later, the training wheels were in the bin - he put
them there himself.

I like that hobby horse method. Maybe I'll give it a go next time
around. It might encourage the feet-on-the-ground type of stopping,
though. That's hard to un-learn. My daughter does it from having be the
only way to stop the trikes at pre-school, but my son never did that,
so he always uses the brake. Plus skids are cool, right?

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I also got both my kids bike gloves so it wouldn't be too painful when
they wiped out. Scraped palms will put a quick end to a day learning to
ride.

Gloves are definitely a good thing - your budding cyclist will also
think they are very cool.

My son wanted a black bike with flames, and gloves with Winnie the Pooh
on them. Cute age.

Quoted message said:

I'd even go so far as to say that for a young child learning to ride,
gloves are a more important piece of safety gear than... no, maybe I
won't go there.

That kind of depends, but I know what you mean. For the purposes of
learning how to ride, scraping hands will happen more often and will be
a big negative. Bumping the head is less likely, and will hurt even
with a helmet. It was difficult explaining that the helmet wasn't to
keep it from hurting, but was to prevent damage. It is also important
to explain that even wearing a helmet, one can be injured, so it is
important to try to keep the head from hitting anything anyway.

A well fitting helmet that stays on the child's head is very important.
I see loads of kids riding around with a ill-fitting helmets perched on
the backs of their heads just waiting for disaster.

Joseph

davek said:

Werehatrack said:

To the best of
my knowledge, no commonly-supplied manufacturer's models in this range
are made to be light. This is not an area in which the bike makers
have recognized a market (or need) for technical innovation.

Puky (a German company) seems to be one of the few manufacturers that
specialises in designing bikes for children, ie building bikes with the
needs, capabilities and dimensions of children in mind from scratch,
rather than just scaling down adult bikes. Might not be easily
obtainable in the OP's neck of the woods but definitely worth a look.
<url:http://www.puky.de/>

Another issue apart from availability would be how your kids feel about
riding a "Puky" bike - I expect the name doesn't have the same
connotations in German.

Design makes a big difference. My daugter's first bike was just as
heavy and looked more or less like any other 12" wheel cheap pink kids
bike. After our first try with learning, it seemed very twitchy, so I
measured it and found out what [censored] it was. I binned it (after taking
all the parts off) and got another different bike the same day. The
bottom braket was 2" higher than the one I replaced it with, the fork
had rake which combined with the steep head tube, would have been all
but impossible to actually ride even for an experienced rider, let
alone a learner.

There must be a market for light aluminum, well designed kids' bikes
with 12",a nd 16" wheels.

As a non-scentific survey, how much would people be willing to spend on
such a kid-proportioned BMX style bike?

Joseph

Quoted message said:

As a non-scentific survey, how much would people be willing to spend on
such a kid-proportioned BMX style bike?

My son is getting a new bike for his 7th birthday (imminent). He could
get a bit more use out of the one he's got now but it is a [censored] bike,
chosen because: a) it was cheap; b) it was what they had in the shop
(not a decent LBS, I should add, just the nearest shop to home) - heavy
steel frame, steel-rim wheels, cheap chunky tyres, low-end components, etc.

For his new bike we're looking at either the Puky Cyke or the Scott
Radical 200 EQ, both of which cost more than twice what we paid for the
current bike. Both are steel but the Puky also comes in an alu frame,
which is a bit more expensive again. But they are /proper/ kids' bikes
and come well kitted out with mudguards, rack, dynamo lights and quality
tyres, which probably account for a large proportion of the price
difference anyway.

Besides, he really loves his cycling, so I know it will be a good value
purchase in the long run.

So, in answer to your question: Yes!

d.