Children's bike?

[graylocks]

ztirffritz, you named your son 'Ender?'

:thumbsup:

when does he leave for battle school?

[ztirffritz]

graylocks wrote:
ztirffritz, you named your son 'Ender?'

'Andrew' actually.

[mrbigstuff]

yeah, cheap bike to start. I think I paid $10 for a bike at the local S.A. and it was actually better made (older made in Taiwan model) than those sold for $179 (no typo) at the local bike store.

bikes are like almost everything related to kids: let someone else buy it new and then pay a fraction for a slightly used one.

for learning, find a gentle, nicely turfy decline and set off holding the bike from the seat. rinse, repeat. possibly multiple hours, or days, depending. guaranteed to work.

[pinkoos]

We did training wheels on a $60 big box bike for my older son but a Glide bike for my younger son.

I would recommend the Glide bike (or similar) rather than training wheels.

http://www.glidebikes.com/

[M A V I C]

Get a balance bike to start. Then the kid can learn to ride much easier and have much more fun. I avoid the wood ones because they're heavy and after the polish gets scratched, they absorb water and swell/warp. My kid's first bike was a Giant Pre. There weren't a lot of options for solid balance bikes then, and they were rarely found used. But now they can be had pretty commonly on craiglist.

After that you can pickup a name brand pedal bike off craigslist, or other method of buying used (ie moms groups). I'm not really sure why people buy the cheap department store bikes. Quality name brand bikes can be found for around the same price, used, that are lighter weight, roll better, have better gearing, better geometry... that will last longer and resell for much more. You might laugh at the "geometry" aspect, but the wrong bottom bracket height + crank length + pedal width can spell disaster over and over again.

Buy a used Specialized for $75, ride it for two years, sell it for $65. If you drop $75 on a cheap bike, you're not going to be able to sell it for anywhere near that, plus the kid will have to ride a crappy bike.