First bike for a three-year old
Discussion
Can anyone suggest the best bike/supplier for a first bike for my three-year old daughter? I have a Giant Trance plus a Ribble road bike so am fairly comfortable from an adult bike perspective but just don't really know where to go for a kids bike. I've discounted going to Halfords due to the general ineptitude of the staff in my nearest branch. My local independent (Mike Vaughan in Kenilworth) has a limited range of 12" bikes on the website so will be my first port of call but any recommendations would be warmly received.
Key factors for me are quality, value for money, lightness (is this a factor for kids bikes?) and ideally available in pink/purple - kiddo's favourite colours.
Thanks in advance
Key factors for me are quality, value for money, lightness (is this a factor for kids bikes?) and ideally available in pink/purple - kiddo's favourite colours.
Thanks in advance
asked the same question on another forum recently. These were touted as very good:
http://www.islabikes.co.uk/
http://www.islabikes.co.uk/
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/specialized/ho...
Got the wee man this years ago except in blue and our 3 year old just now is getting one for his B'day
Got the wee man this years ago except in blue and our 3 year old just now is getting one for his B'day
A recommendation for Giant here http://www.giant-bicycles.com/EN-GB/bikes/model/an...
When I was shopping around for one, I found that nearly all 12 inch wheel bikes had the American style pedal brake rather than a free hub. The Giant allows them to back pedal to get the power down!
When I was shopping around for one, I found that nearly all 12 inch wheel bikes had the American style pedal brake rather than a free hub. The Giant allows them to back pedal to get the power down!
My advice, someting cheap and cheerful, you'll be amazed at how quickly they grow out of it at three years old. Like a pair of shoes, it'll get scuffed dropped and trashed and be down the tip in 2 years time. When of course you'll replace it with another one. Trust me I've had 4 kids, it's not worth spending money on bikes until the are teenagers. Go secondhand.
this is pistonheads after all.Depends if you want her to be able to cycle proficently at a very young age to join in outings. Or just something to cycle round the garden or local park.
If you want her to get up to speed quickly and spend time cycling with you then get a balance bike first. This teaches them to balance without stablisers very quickly and the transistion to a pedal bike can be seemless.
Isla's are great but expensive, if you want a balance bike, a ridgeback scoot (used to be zooom) are a slightly cheaper 10% alternative but very similar. I would advise against anything wooden or to gimmicky, the light weight ali frame & smaller components are ideal for 2-3 year olds on the isla rohan or scoot.
If you just want a fun pedal bike, then a bike with 12" or 14" wheels will be ok, they normally come with stablisers already and enough girly accessories to add to your growing collection of pink stuff.
If you want to get a serious pedal bike for her take a look at isla's cnoc14 and try and find a major manufacturor who will do a similar spec bike slightly cheaper.
Evans Cycles have specialised and scott bikes in 12" but they are as or more expensive than the isla, ridgeback do 14" ones at just over £100. Depends on how tall a 3 year old she is really.
My boy is just 3 and has just started using his balance bike really well, we have a 16" BMX mongoose pit crew bike I got a few years ago waiting for him but will probably need to put a 14" bike in the way to start his pedalling on.
If you want her to get up to speed quickly and spend time cycling with you then get a balance bike first. This teaches them to balance without stablisers very quickly and the transistion to a pedal bike can be seemless.
Isla's are great but expensive, if you want a balance bike, a ridgeback scoot (used to be zooom) are a slightly cheaper 10% alternative but very similar. I would advise against anything wooden or to gimmicky, the light weight ali frame & smaller components are ideal for 2-3 year olds on the isla rohan or scoot.
If you just want a fun pedal bike, then a bike with 12" or 14" wheels will be ok, they normally come with stablisers already and enough girly accessories to add to your growing collection of pink stuff.
If you want to get a serious pedal bike for her take a look at isla's cnoc14 and try and find a major manufacturor who will do a similar spec bike slightly cheaper.
Evans Cycles have specialised and scott bikes in 12" but they are as or more expensive than the isla, ridgeback do 14" ones at just over £100. Depends on how tall a 3 year old she is really.
My boy is just 3 and has just started using his balance bike really well, we have a 16" BMX mongoose pit crew bike I got a few years ago waiting for him but will probably need to put a 14" bike in the way to start his pedalling on.
Those Isla's look great.
I bought my son a Puky balance bike, when he was 3(£85??), the smallest Ridgeback when he was 4 (£110?) (he did a 4 mile ride first time out) and the the next Ridgeback up when he was 5 (£125?)
His little sister is now starting off on the Puky. Then I'm either going to have to paint the small (blue) Ridgeback pink or flog it on to fund a new or secondhand one.
My theory is that if I can flog each one off for 50% of purchase price then the cost is £1 a week which isn't so bad give the massive use they gat out of them.
I'd happily buy secondhand but I found stacks of cheap c**p out there and very few proper, branded bikes. Plus the bikes in question we often right over the other side of London and having to take the best part of half a day off to get from NW10 to SE27 or something and the economics of buying s/h start to teeter.
I bought my son a Puky balance bike, when he was 3(£85??), the smallest Ridgeback when he was 4 (£110?) (he did a 4 mile ride first time out) and the the next Ridgeback up when he was 5 (£125?)
His little sister is now starting off on the Puky. Then I'm either going to have to paint the small (blue) Ridgeback pink or flog it on to fund a new or secondhand one.
My theory is that if I can flog each one off for 50% of purchase price then the cost is £1 a week which isn't so bad give the massive use they gat out of them.
I'd happily buy secondhand but I found stacks of cheap c**p out there and very few proper, branded bikes. Plus the bikes in question we often right over the other side of London and having to take the best part of half a day off to get from NW10 to SE27 or something and the economics of buying s/h start to teeter.
RichB said:
My advice, someting cheap and cheerful, you'll be amazed at how quickly they grow out of it at three years old. Like a pair of shoes, it'll get scuffed dropped and trashed and be down the tip in 2 years time. When of course you'll replace it with another one. Trust me I've had 4 kids, it's not worth spending money on bikes until the are teenagers. Go secondhand.
I'd go with this. My youngest daughter (now 4) has just this weekend taken the stabalisers off her £25 Tesco special. It was a) a bike, b) pink, and c) had ribbons on, so as far as she was concerned was the most amazing bike she had ever seen, and absolutely loves it.Of course the reality was far from that - it looked like a £25 bike and I remember swearing at it last christmas eve.
To be honest the first step in getting her to ride a bike was ... to get her to ride a scooter, as doing that she just is learning balance, not worrying about turning the pedals round. Many bikes seem to take this route (no pedals) but they're not cheap if bought new. Still, in a few months she'll have grown out of this one, and we'll give it away and get her onto something a bit more road worthy.
I went down the route of Islabike and my daughter has a CNOC16. She's now five and there is plenty of life left in it and we ride at least once a week. Accidentally made her do a 20km loop once too (went the wrong way). Lots of pushing her up hill!
The trouble I had with the cheaper bikes is the sheer weight of them (and the tinsel/ribbons). They weigh a bloody ton, and I live in Malvern, which is not great for flat routes to ride.
One thing to bear in mind is resale value too. There's a pretty strong demand for Islabikes so they can be re-sold for a decent fraction of the price.
You pays your money . . .
The trouble I had with the cheaper bikes is the sheer weight of them (and the tinsel/ribbons). They weigh a bloody ton, and I live in Malvern, which is not great for flat routes to ride.
One thing to bear in mind is resale value too. There's a pretty strong demand for Islabikes so they can be re-sold for a decent fraction of the price.
You pays your money . . .
I'd get an Islabike Rothan for a 3 yr old. They are as good as the Likeabike Jumper, but are 2/3rds the price. We got the Jumper - nice though it is, it's over the top for a 3 yr old. Our boy is now 4, and we've now got him a Cnoc 16.
Gratuitous Likeabike Jumper stunt video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxp4TjAkSL8
Gratuitous Likeabike Jumper stunt video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxp4TjAkSL8
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