My 5 year old birthday is coming up, and he’s almost out grown his Trek 12 (which was great, but very heavy)
I’m looking at his next bike, and I’m toying with the idea of getting him a 16″ wheel BMX, as apposed to say a normal children’s bike for that age.

I’d think it’d good fun, and could maybe help his bike skills too.

There is a United Recruit 16 on the evans website reduced from £269 to £189 as it is slightly scratched.

I got my (tall) 6 year old an 18 inch Saracen BMX, pretty good value for money and it should last him. Seemed too big at first but hes soon got used to it.

Scruff, can I ask, why you choose a bmx over a normal childs bike?

He could have had a Frog or Giant MTB or a BMX and he wanted a BMX, he likes the skatepark / jumpy stuff and he cant still ride the BMX on local trails with me.

We The people do some really cute little starter BMX’s

A 16″ BMX is likely to be really very heavy, unless you spend a lot. So shop carefully!

I picked up a 16″ BMX 2nd hand as an additional bike (GT Centro). It’s great fun and virtually indestructible, but it weighs a ton – enough to make it hard to hop etc. It’s a tricky thing because riding “BMX-like” bikes definitely helps skills. My eldest kept riding his Cnoc14 long after it was waaay too small for him for this reason, that’s why I ended up getting the BMX as it was getting a bit silly 😉

Oh and obviously BMXs have a reason for being heavy if you’re going to be doing BMXy things on them, but it’s a big step up in weight – eg:

Islabike Cnoc16 = 6.1 kg
wethepeople Seed 16″ = 9.3 kg

I bought a felt heretic 16 for my eldest. It’s mint. He liked riding it, but the wheels never left the ground. May keep it for my youngest, but could be pursuaded to sell if you were interested

Although I think BMXs are great I would always want my kids to have a “proper” bike too.

Three reasons: 1, BMXs are not designed to be ridden sitting down so it would make long cycles uncomfortable. 2, the gearing. 3, they usually only have a rear brake