My 4-year old is now riding too fast for me to keep up with, and despite endless lever fiddling and fettling, his hands are just too small for braking, so I think I'll have to get him a coaster-brakes 14" bike (he's too small for 16", and he's on a 14" right now that's about right)
Anyone recommend something? The big brands seem to do only 12" or 16", and everything else seems to have lever brakes.
I converted a couple of 14" Islabikes to 3-speed hub gear recently - they've got pretty small brake levers, the boys who use them seemed to manage fine. Or of course it would be possible to bung a coaster brake on in the same way I put the 3-speed on.
Pics on my FB:
As Ben says - If you haven't seen one in the flesh the little brake levers on the Islabike Cnoc14 are really very small. I really wanted to get some for another bike but they only come in the little bar clamp size. It's a pain though - the brake levers on his Beinn20 are still too big for good braking and he's 7 now.
Best pic I could find of it (he's 3 1/2 there). The lever blade is a long way down the casting and sits very close to the bars:
[url= http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3256/2850925147_4310efe233.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/jon_b/2850925147/ ]Saul riding[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/jon_b/ ]Jonathan Bateman[/url], on Flickr