Good first bike?

[flatstanley72]

Anyone have suggestions as to a good first bike for a 4-yo? We want to get DD a bike for her birthday, but aren't sure what brand is good. She really wants a princess bike, but they get pretty bad reviews online. Anyone have experience with these? Thanks!

[AllisonR]

My biggest suggestion would not be the brand but the size. Bikes are expensive. So some parents buy them a bit large, thinking their bike will "groww with the child". Except the bike really ends up being too big, unweildy and not controllable for the child, so they don't learn to bike, or don't enjoy it, or really need the training wheels just to bike. My suggestion is a balance bike, then when DC can pedal and balance, a proper bike - no training wheels. Must be in a small size he/she will be comfortable and confident riding on. You will only get a year or two of use before you have to buy a larger bike, but so worth it, imo. Buy used if money is an issue.

[Swandira]

I have a four-year-old who learned to ride recently. She started out on her big brother's old balance bike (the kind with no pedals) -- it was a Kettler. (You can get one on Amazon for about $100.) She rode that for about two weeks before she had pretty much completely mastered balancing. She could glide along for a considerable distance before she'd put her feet down. At that point we went to REI (www.rei.com) and got her a Novara Firefly. I think we paid $160. (It's pastel blue and extremely girly-looking, complete with tassels on the handlebars.) I don't know how you feel about training wheels; L's bike comes standard with them, but we took them off since she didn't seem to need them.

We've been really happy with the bike we got her, and so has she! She rides it all. the. time. It's really sturdy, but not particularly heavy, so she can handle it herself. It handles well and is easy to adjust as she grows. She likes the aesthetic. It does have the coaster brakes (you pedal backward to slow down) rather than handlebar ones, so she'll have to relearn braking when she gets a big-kid bike, but that's a bridge we'll cross when we come to it.

Anyway, that's our experience with four-year-old girls and bicycles: if the kid is really interested in biking, spend a little more and get her a good bike. Your mileage may vary.

Nealy
mama to T (12/02), L (2/06), and O (12/08)

[pbjmama]

I decided I didn't want to spend alot of $ on bikes so we have done yard sale/resale for ours. I bought a technically too small bike for my ds and took of the pedals = balance bike for $3. He rode that with no pedals for about 2 weeks, then with pedals for a couple of months, then for his 4th bday I bought him a bigger bike. It took a few times because his center of balance was different but he loves it now. I think it was $25 a a resale shop?