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Most people think I bike with my kids because I like exercise or because I want to combat climate change. Neither is true (or, the entire answer, at any rate). No, it's just that sitting in pickup or dropoff lines in a car makes me want to yeet myself straight into the path of an oncoming 18-wheeler. Now that my kids are 7 and 9, and old enough to bike with me, it's also much more fun to watch them hop curbs and swing their legs and shout, “We live in a jungle!” than it is, again, to wait for traffic lights to change. Mountain Peak Bike
The WIRED Gear team has many children, and we enlisted many of them to test these kids’ bikes on rides to school, on the trails, or around the park. These are our top picks for every age and size. Don't see a bike for your kid here? Let us know, as we will continue to test and update these picks. And if you're looking for a bike for yourself, check out our Best Electric Bikes, Best Cheap Ebikes, and Best Electric Cargo Bikes for Families guides.
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Bikes are expensive. It's tempting to future-proof your purchase by buying a bike a size or two bigger, for your child to grow into. Do not fall into this trap! Not only is it uncomfortable, it's unsafe—how would you expect to control a bike that was two sizes too big for you?
To find the correct size, you'll either have to measure your kid's height or their minimum inseam length. Children's bikes are measured by wheel size, so a 12-inch bike refers to a bike with 12-inch wheels, and so forth. When you get the bike, see if your child can stand over the frame with flat feet comfortably on the ground. Make sure your child can get on and off easily and that their hands can reach the brakes and shifters if the bike has them.
Other factors you might want to consider:
Brakes: Most kids start with coaster brakes, also known as pedal brakes. They let you stop by pedaling backward. An older kid might want hand brakes so they can pedal backward like Mom or Dad. Rim brakes are cheaper, but a disc brake will help them stop faster.
Shifters: Once your child is big enough to comprehend basic physics, an intuitive twist shifter will help them keep up with Mom or an older sibling. I can always hear my 7-year-old's shifter frantically clicking behind me and his sister on our way to school.
Suspension: Are you planning on dragging your kid mountain biking with you? Then you might be considering a bike with shocks. However, these will add considerable weight and expense to the bike. Kids are also usually light enough so suspension might not work. I would suggest prioritizing bigger wheels and better brakes first.
While I think around $400 is a reasonable price for a brand-new kids' bike, that's a lot of money. Do not get the cheapest brand-new bike at the big box store; I have done this before and ended up carrying tiny bikes to the nearest shop for replacement parts. There is a healthy secondary market for kids' bikes that children have outgrown. You might want to check Craigslist, eBay, Facebook Marketplace, or ask your neighbors.
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As a trained volunteer at my children's elementary school, I have taught multiple (multiple!) children how to ride bikes, and the first step is simple. First, start with a balance bike, or a bike without pedals. Once they can push themselves off with feet on the ground, encourage them to balance and coast by jumping with two feet off the ground. (I suggest you do this by chasing after them and shouting, “Jump! Jump like a bunny! Jump!”)
We have long since given this strider bike away, but this was my daughter's, and then my son's, first balance bike. It has a sturdy steel frame and grippy grips for slippery little paws. It can fit an inseam of 12 to 20 inches. The weight capacity as stated is 60 pounds, but a 165-pound dad may or may not have sat on this and wheeled around, and it was fine. We never did get around to doing this, but you can also add a foot brake so your child can stop if you push them down a steep hill.
If you can afford it, Woom is my favorite bike brand for children. You can start with a 12-inch Woom balance bike and upgrade to bigger models from there, all the way up to the Woom 6, which is a 26-inch bike. At 5, my son sized into the 20-inch Woom 4, which is when children should start learning how to shift.
The standout feature on the Woom 4 is MicroShift, which is an intuitive twist shifter to cycle between seven gears. My son shifts so rapidly on his way to school that it sounds like he's calculating on an abacus, but in a year of riding, the chain has never fallen off the gears or gotten stuck. That's amazing. Something to note is that Woom's sizing might be a little optimistic; my now 6-year-old son sized into a Woom 4 when he was 5, and the ergonomic grips were just a little too big for his hands. However, it's also a few pounds lighter than the Guardian (see below), which made it an easier bike to learn how to ride a two-wheeler. The Schwalbe tires are also nicer (and should be, for this price). The Woom 4 starts for kids who are 45 inches tall (3.75 feet), and Woom also provides a bike sizer tool.
The big problem with most little bikes is that they don't mirror the geometry of their grown-up peers. Kids' bikes tend to err on the side of being stable, at the expense of providing efficiency. This is why my then 7-year-old daughter's first ride on the ByK E-450 was such a revelation for her. Rather than having to walk a super-heavy kids' bike up the steep hill to our house, she was able to stay seated and power right up it. The E-450 isn't steel; it's a lightweight alloy that leaves the entire 20-inch bike weighing just over 18 pounds. (This is close to half the weight of the 20-inch bikes at Target, which average about 30 pounds.)
The shape and weight of this single-speed make this bike easy for early elementary school kids to pedal, but it's the thoughtful details I appreciated most. The saddle is big and comfortable, it comes with a bell, and it was easy to take off the front tire so I could fit it in the front seat of a sedan when it was time to hand it down to her cousin. Oh, and when it comes time to go back down that big hill, there is both a coaster brake and two hand brakes. —Martin Cizmar
My daughter rode the steel Guardian 20-inch from the time she was 5 to when she was 7. The standout feature is the brake system; there's no pedal brake. Instead, Guardian has a patented SureStop brake system. There's only one handbrake, and it always triggers the back brake before the front brake, so it's impossible to flip the bike. This means the cabling system is a little longer and more complex than on most bikes, and I did sometimes get the front wheel tangled up in the brake cable. But I gave it to a 20-year-old to see if he could flip it and he couldn't, so there's that.
Like the ByK, the Guardian is lighter than a Target bike, although it's a steel frame, so it does weigh 20 pounds. Guardian also has kid-specific geometry, with small grips and a lower center of gravity. It's compatible with training wheels, which I did put on and take back off again. Of the many bikes I've tested, it's also one of the easiest to put together out of the box. This bike is reliable and has lasted for years. It fits kids who are 43 inches tall, and Guardian also provides an online RideSizer tool to make sure you order the right-sized bike.
The Priority Start fills the gap between children's bikes and adult bikes and has everything you could ask for on a bike for an upper-elementary-age kid. The geometry of the bike promotes effective pedaling, and at roughly 23 pounds, it's a lot lighter than most competitors. The Priority Start's best features though are its components, starting with the hassle-free Gates belt drive. Often found on commuter bikes and ebikes, this carbon band takes the place of a chain but won't rust over, crust up with dirt, or slip off. That belt drive connects to an internal hub gear with three speeds. This also helps avoid maintenance issues, though my 9-year-old daughter complains she'd like a few more speeds (it does seem like the lowest gear could stand to go a little lower).
The Priority Start is great for kids starting to take on longer rides like commuting to school, occasions where its worry-free reliability is massively appreciated. My daughter has grown far more confident in her riding in the 8 months since she started on the Priority Start, which is the main thing you want from a bike bridging the gap between a traditional kids' 20-inch bike and a standard adult 26-incher. —Martin Cizmar
Getting the bike is the first step. Here are a few bike accessories my children use every day.
Little Nutty Helmet for $70: Both my children started in the Baby Nutty helmet and upgraded to the Little Nutty. They come in a bunch of fun designs (I suggest letting your child pick out a pattern for maximum stoke) and have MIPS, which stands for Multi-directional Impact Protection System; it's a technology that helps protect the brain against rotational forces in an accident.
Giro Fixture II Helmet for $75: Now that she's older and riding a bit faster, my daughter has graduated into a Giro MIPS helmet. The vents are bigger and it's a little lighter.
Kryptonite New-U Evolution Lite Mini Lock for $104: Next, your child needs a lock to keep their bike secure when they go to school or the library. This lock isn't distressingly heavy for little hands. My kids like keys, but if your kid loses the key, get a lock where you can set the code.
Thousand Front Traveller Magnetic Bike Light for $35: Kid bike lights are different from adult bike lights; my 7-year-old is not biking 12 miles in the dark at 25 mph without me. I want bike lights that are affordable and easy to take off and stash in a pocket. This is my favorite light for my kids' bikes, but if the bad reviews scare you, we also like these.
It's not worth buying a cheap kids bike! Unfortunately, we have to test that theory sometimes ourselves.
Schwinn 12-Inch Duet for $110: This bike was not worth the money and effort I spent on it. It's harder to assemble out of the box than many adult bikes I've put together. The parts also aren't machined that precisely, so it felt wobbly to a 3-year-old and couldn't go fast. On several occasions, I had to carry it to the bike shop because a pedal crank or training wheel broke. Spare yourself and your kid the misery.
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