My daughter is quite small for her age – she’s 4 and a half and around 100cm tall with an inside leg of 40cm.
From everything I’ve seen, I think it’s gonna have to be a 14″ wheel (apart from one possible exception) although I am not sure how long it will last her for.

I’ve started looking around & have considered all the usual suspects. I think I’m only willing to really spend around £200 and that is scraping the upper ceiling.

There seems to be several options worth looking at, both above & below my budget:

Ridgeback Dimension – above budget.
Ridgeback MX14 – below budget, but a bit heavier & I’ve seen mixed reviews
Vitus 14 – above budget & virtually sold out.
Frog 40 – above budget & 2 of her friends have got them, so perhaps get something different
Pinnacle Koa 14 – below budget, but virtually sold out and the size guide suggests might be a bit large
Woom2 – looks good, but quite a way over budget
Cuda CP14 – size guide suggests too large
Carrera Cosmos 14 – Halfords size guide suggests too large
Early Rider Belter 14 – lovely looking, but over budget & sold out.
Isla Bikes something – I’ve not really looked at these as I think they are way over budget.

And finally, the anomaly – the Specialized Riprock 16.
It’s a 16″ wheel, but the size guide puts her slap bang in the middle. It looks well made & is only a smidge over budget (£210).
Looking at the geometry, it seems like they’ve made a really low-slung frame to squeeze the larger wheels in. This seems like a great compromise to me – I’ve even saved pics of the Frog 40 & Riprock 16, overlaid them in Powerpoint & made the top one transparent. With a bit of measuring & resizing – it does indeed appear that the important bits are all in about the same place, but it has the bigger wheels.

Does any one have any advice or experience?
I am erring towards the Specialized to be honest, but am a bit nervous about the larger wheels & finding out that in real life it actually is too large for her.

Last time we looked at first pedal bikes, they all seemed a bit large and I don’t wanna get her something that she can’t ride for another 6 months!

buy a second hand bike to start with. I went to a bike charity place and paid £10 for a bike.

Its her first pedal bike and you are comparing geometry??????

I got a secondhand Carrera Cosmos for my daughter’s first pedal bike – although she’s a little bigger and it’s the 16″ wheel one. 14″ should be fine for most kids IMO.

It’s overlooked compared to the likes of Islabikes, Frog, etc but is a similar weight, light alu frame, proper threadless headset/stem, Kenda tyres, super short reach brake levers, all good stuff.

poah

buy a second hand bike to start with. I went to a bike charity place and paid £10 for a bike.

Its her first pedal bike and you are comparing geometry??????

I have considered this, but the lockdown makes this a bit tricky as all the charity places are closed.
I had a look around online & there didn’t seems a great deal about. The stuff that was available was all collection only & I am not sure ‘driving to collect a bike’ comes under essential travel.

Regarding geometry – I was not comparing between bikes, with the exception of the Specialized. All of the bikes that look like they will fit her are 14″ wheeled, apart from the Specialized which is 16″ – so they must have done something with the geometry of the frame compared to all the 14″ bikes to make it size up as suitable for her.

simon_g

I got a secondhand Carrera Cosmos for my daughter’s first pedal bike

Yeah, this does look good, but the 14″ version states on the website that it’s suitable for 105-117cm.
She’s around 101cm in her shoes at the most and when we tried her on one a while ago at Halfords it was too large for her; even with the saddle as low as it goes she wouldn’t have reached the floor.

She’s a bit of a nightmare in Halfords (or any other bike shops for that matter), as she goes straight to the bikes with stabilisers that she knows she can zip around on and just goes round in circles. When you try to then get her to actually spend some time trying the ‘proper’ bikes she doesn’t want to because it’s not as much fun.

I know the bike shops are open at the moment, but I am struggling with justifying going into one for a kid’s bike as it’s not a necessity. Equally though, I don’t want her to miss a summer of riding her first pedal bike if I can get something sorted.

Exactly the same situation as us & I bought a early rider seeker 14. It’s a great size for our 5 year old & the size really suit him. Drop early rider an email, they do have specials every now & again.

I’m really impressed by its quality & it might not last him as long as a 16 will but he’s happy & comfortable on it, plus from his balance bike, it took him about 5 minutes to master pedalling on it. I think on the 16, it would have been too big for him & maybe put him off so was the right choice for us

Try calling Early Rider.
They may have a ‘second’ that you could buy. Also there is a pre owned page on Facebook.

You’re probably overthinking it. If she wants stabilisers and it makes a slightly bigger bike workable where’s the harm? It’s easy to get caught up in the balance bike / no-stabilisers thing but some kids progress quicker than others. They’ll learn how to pedal and will have a bit of unlearning/adjusting when the stabilisers come off but all the time they spend having fun on a bike is good IMO.

My daughter just didn’t “get” steering a 3 wheel scooter until she started school and wanted to zoom around the playground in the morning with the other kids. My son is two years younger and picked it straight up by copying her. They have to want to progress!

Like donkysled said I Rang them and got a “second” belter 16 works and it’s really good. Yes they are expensive but I think it’s worth it and the resale seems really strong.

Balance bikes work well as they do learn to “balance” downside is they prefer the balance bike to the pedal. Sophie went from balance bike straight to a pedal bike and had no issues with balance so no stabilisers required.

Early Rider Belter 16 nearly at the end of use with child 2 here. Brilliant little thing, just brilliant. I would offer to sell, but I’ve already got a buyer lined up*, I’m afraid!

*Currently, I expect to have lost approximately £10 in depreciation against my purchase price!

OK then – might be worth giving Early Ride a tinkle….i’ll look for the pre-owned page too.
Nice tips, ta!

simon_g

You’re probably overthinking it. If she wants stabilisers and it makes a slightly bigger bike workable where’s the harm? It’s easy to get caught up in the balance bike / no-stabilisers thing but some kids progress quicker than others.

Maybe I didn’t explain very well. She’s desperate for a pedal bike & I think she’d be OK learning without stabilisers. She’s seen her friends transition to pedal bikes in the last couple of weeks & wants to ride ‘a proper bike without stabilisers’ as she puts it.
But, when we drop into Halfords it’s just easier for her to jump on one of the 12″ wheeled bikes with stabilisers (Paw Patrol, Frozen etc) and zoom around the display stands. She is used to the pedalling action as they have trikes at nursery. We then try to get her off those, to size up a ‘proper’ bike but she doesn’t want to know. It’s always just ‘one more go’ going round in circles.

🙂

Well in case anyone is interested, I found a couple of bikes on eBay.
I wasn’t really planning on buying two bikes, but the same seller had a decent looking 14″ and 16″ wheeled bike.

I ended up paying £45 for the smaller one; a Carrera Star which appears to be the same as a Cosmos but with a lower top tube. The grips are filthy (bought some replacements) but the rest is ok and the seller has fitted new cables.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2j42b2B]IMG_20200520_205159[/url] by STW stumpy01, on Flickr

The second is a Ridgeback Dimension 16. This was £99 and is in very good condition apart from some small chips in the paint. Again the seller has put new cables in and set it up well.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2j43Hjq]IMG_20200520_205243[/url] by STW stumpy01, on Flickr

Funnily enough, the Dimension isn’t much bigger than the Star. It’s big enough to mean it would be too big for her now but it probably won’t be too long before she can swap.

That’s great, she’ll be sorted with wheels for a good while now!

We’ve just got our daughter pedaling over the past few weeks, it’s amazing!

She was confident on the balance bike, so when her 14″ wheel bike arrived, I let her scoot around on it without the pedals for a while to let her get used to it.

I also let her use the balance bike whenever she wanted, there was no pressure to pedal, I didn’t want to put her off!

There’s a video from islabikes where she suggests holding your kid undr the armpits to support them whilst they get used to pedaling. We did that a bit, but to be honest she wasn’t really getting it liked that and kept pedaling backwards! In the end my wife just said to her you set off and pedal yourself…. And she did!!

6-7 weeks later and she’ll ride nearly 5 miles!!

This is the video we followed. She explains why stabilisers aren’t the best.

Timely thread. My son had been going great on his balance bike but it was starting to look a bit small for him. I rather hastily bought him a Cuba pedal bike in time for his 3rd birthday and he wasn’t ready. Fast forward and we’d had a couple of dabbles without success and he wasn’t having fun. Then last Saturday it clicked for him in about 10 minutes. A bit of pushing to gain momentum. Then on Sunday we went out did a mile or so into town, carried in to his grandmas for cake and squash in the garden then all the way back home.
5 miles! I only had to carry him the last 15 metres too

I do wish I’d bought something with less crappy cranks and a decent headset/stem. And a bit lighter…