So, little miss Z seems to have finally mastered her balance bike, and it’s her birthday in a month. We’d like to get her a proper bike with pedals, but most kids bikes weigh more than a small SUV, and as she’ll only be 4, a heavy bike really won’t work too well. Any recommendations?

Hatter Jr got a 16″ wheel early rider belter for his 4th and was zipping about on it in no time

The oil-free belt drive is very handy for any bike that will spend a fair bit of time being carried or stored indoors, on car boots etc.

Early Rider Belter 16. New if you can, second hand if not. Excellent, very light and lovely to look at as well.

We got the boy a frog bike for Christmas last year when he was 3 1/2 didn’t touch it for a few months as he still preferred his balance bike but once he got on it away he went without stabilisers .
The frog seems to be a decent enough bike , well built and not to heavy and they do a trade in to get money off the next size up which we need to do soon , they come in a choice of colours to which is pretty important to a four year old

Thanks guys – a bit more than I was hoping for, but not far from what I expected. That said, because of the price, I think a neutral colour will be the go. If/when a smaller miniZ comes along, we’d rather not have to buy another on the basis of colour when it’s time to hand it down…

Plenty of light bikes around (see above) but my view is that we all managed as kids when that wasn’t an option and buy at the cheaper end (not cheapest) of the market.

Yeah, and I’ve just checked what shipping to Australia is for the early rider belter – over 100 quid 😯

And believe it or not, I won’t be able to buy one here (or might not even be able to import one if I wanted to pay the shipping): https://www.productsafety.gov.au/recall/groupe-sportif-pty-ltd-early-rider-belter-16-childrens-bicycle

So, I’ve been reading into this some more, and it seems that all kids’ bikes in Australia must be fitted with a rear pedal brake, even if they have dual rim brakes. This seems spectacularly nanny state, and also not very helpful for a young child trying to master the art of pedalling. Thoughts?

We tried ours on a Trek with a coaster brake. That went badly. Apart from the weight of it (almost as heavy as my bike!) the coaster just confused her and ended up throwing her off. I did dismantle the innards so it stopped doing that but it was still far from ideal. Especially as it was significantly heavier than her balance bike.

Now have her on a Dawes Academy 16 which is light and easy to get on with, money well spent.

Not a fan of coaster brakes. Sweajnr is on a spawn furi 14 (great bike but no idea on price /availability in Oz) and one of his friends has something with a coaster brake. It’s noticable how much harder she finds it to set off as there’s no option to adjust the cranks (I.e back pedal) to get them set up so she’s constantly trying to start from an awkward point. I can see potential logic though in that she pulls better skids than sweajnr as coaster is more powerful than 3.5 year old hands.

Hmmm. If we end up buying local I can see some spannering going on with the hub then. I’ve never liked the things either.

£350 for a bike for a four year old? 😯
I remember being four years old and I couldn’t have given two shits about what the bike I was riding was like, I just wanted to ride a bike.
Keep things in perspective people. 🙂

£350 for a bike for a four year old?

Whilst on the one hand I agree, on the other, I’m not sure that a four year old should be lumbered with a bike nearly three times the weight of my own bike…

£350 for a bike for a four year old?

Consider the quality of an Isla, Frog, etc. then compare what you’re getting compared to a SRAM cassette, a low end RS Fork or any number of single components for an adult bike. I think they compare well. That and their resale value is very good too.

A lot of parents buy their kids bikes for their own benefit… feel good factor that they’ve spent lots of money. The kids really don’t care, and when I was a kid I never ever thought my bike was heavy.

But whittling things down to being cost effective, because there’s this daft second hand market for Isla, frog etc, it does make sense to buy a good used bike for 200 and sell it 2 years later for 150.

We’ve just got our very tall almost 3yr old a carrera cosmos, it’s really good as light as frog etc, decent quality parts like tectro alloy brake levers.
But only £150 at the moment minus any BC discount, there’s also a girls version the star.

We went for a 16″ Belter for our 4 year old.
Looked at all the options and it was the best fit and kit for the money.

Evans had them for £299 (still do, just checked 🙂 ) and when you compare it to what we spend on bikes it’s not that much.

Quality of the kit is superb, and the belt drive works really well and is clean!,

The neutral/silver colour does mean that resale would be easier, but we have a 4 month old now too, so it’ll be passed on in a few years time.

That whole back-pedal brake thing for kids bikes in Oz is weird!

ooof – Postage to Aus from Evans is a rather unapologetic $340!!! 😯

Bloody ell! Well, not Evans then!
Are the choices in Oz a bit pants?
Do Islabike or Frog not have distros there?

The belt drive on the belters is good, kids aren’t the most mechanically sympathetic and it’s one less thing to keep on top of. It’s expensive but worthwhile given the quality and the resale value.

For the purposes of honesty hoppy jr is on #teamearlyrider but we’ve bought the 16″ he used to have and the 20ts he’s on now.

Article about Frog bikes in Australia

There’s a contact no in the article.

I’ve emailed Earlyrider about their shipping as it’s still about $180 but that’s express. As there’s no rush they may be able to do it cheaper less express! Also, I’ve queried the fact that I’d still be up for VAT according to their website, which is not correct as I’d be buying export from the UK, so I should get 20% off. We’ll see what they say, but if they’re unapologetic about the P&P and pocketing the VAT then it looks like Frog to have a distributor near me. It’ll be interesting how that goes given the stupid rule about that rear hub brake.

But more broadly to answer the question on kids bikes in Aus, yes, kids they do seem to be really pants – very heavy and expensive, and that law about rear brakes doesn’t help either.

This Vitus at CRC comes up at $260 inc. postage. Thoughts? http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/au/en/vitus-bikes-sixteen-kids-bike/rp-prod162645

Zokes, back peddle brake is probably because until Isla came along and woke the kids bike market up brakes were mostly a decoration, not designed for either the reach or strength of small hands. Is it feasible to import components and diy a build?

The “I suffered a 14kg bike when I was 4 so should my kids, there’s no way I am spending 350 on a four year old” ignores a number of points:

– inflation: my first bike was 70 quid second hand. That is about 240 in today’s money. Which is probably the same ball park as a similar condition Isla bike today!
– kids bikes moved from being male by real bike companies to toy suppliers and style overtook utility/weight – they got fat and crap. Even the real bike co’s stopped trying
– you were dead keen on bikes so didn’t care – many others had a crap early experience and never engaged
– if you want to ride with them and go somewhere not stand and watch them ride in a circle then the more efficiently they do that the less pushing you’ll have etc
– bikes designed for a price point are usually made from rubbish and so are a nightmare to maintain AND have crap resale prices (most end up in the dump).
– put half a dozen bikes in front of a group of similar sized riders and let them swap and change between them and they will pretty much all choose the lighter bikes.
– if weight doesn’t matter to a person who can probably lift 15kg three centimetres and weighs less than double the bike then his dad won’t mind riding something that is in proportion?
– you might be looking at 150-200 difference between a decent kids bike and a kids BSO, what was the last thing you spent that much for on your bike? Did it really make that big a difference?

We have an early rider belter 16. The quality & attention to detail are fabulous. Things like the little brake levers make all the difference. Also, support and spares seem much better then the other similarly priced brands.

(In the UK at least), bide your time, pick up a bargain and you are unlikely to loose much when you sell it.

Zokes – look up ByK bikes, they’re an Aussie brand. I’m in NZ but my eldest had a ByK e350 at 4, excellent bike. Very light, has a rear hand brake. The back pedal brake can be removed in about 2 minutes, you only need to know how to operate two spanners. Very greasy but simple to do. If your kid is on the small side, try the e250. They’re by far the lightest bikes I could find over here, bought second hand at a reasonable price and will be able to sell for not much less after being used by two kids.