For children, bicycles can keep them healthy, exercise their social skills, and encourage children to ride a bicycle is a good choice.

With 2022 in a week and only a month or so away from the Chinese New Year, you might be thinking of buying your child a bicycle as a New Year’s gift. So how can it be difficult to pick the right kids bike for your child? We’ve put together a simple guide to help you buy a bike that’s comfortable for your little one.

Why choosing the right size is important?

Having the right bike can make a big difference in a child’s early cycling experience and allow them to enjoy the sport we love. Children grow very fast and no one knows this better than their parents. Buying a plus size bike may be an option for many parents, who think it can save the cost of changing bikes because of their child’s growth, but it can actually cause harm to the child’s body.

Riding a bike that is too big not only makes handling more difficult, but it makes the whole process less fun. If you want your child’s initial memory of riding a bike to be positive and enjoyable, making sure you find a bike that fits their current size is critical.

What are the different sizes of children’s bikes

Kids bikes are sized in two ways: wheels and frames. As the child grows, the size of these two main elements increases simultaneously. However, unlike adult bicycles, children’s bicycles are usually measured and sold by wheel size.

The smallest wheel on a kid bike on the market is 12 inches on a balance bike, while some bike wheels designed for teens can go up to 26 inches, usually in two-inch increments. The frame is geometrically designed to accommodate the increased wheel size as children grow. On smaller frames, there are also components that are correspondingly reduced in size, such as brake levers and cranks.

How to choose the right size kids’ bike

 

When choosing the right size bike for kids, the age of the child can be almost ignored, their height and leg length are more important as children grow at very different rates.

Most brands offer size guides to help customers choose the best size kids’ bike. When a child is sitting on a purchased bike, making sure they have both feet on the ground is important not only to provide a good pedaling position, but also to be safer when parking.

The second element of fit is reach. You want to make sure that the child has comfortable access to the handlebars with both hands, as well as easy access to the brake levers, and can easily operate these.

A child’s skill level is also related to bike size. A less confident or less skilled child may be suitable for smaller bikes, as they tend to be easier for a child to handle and increments, as well as get on and off.

Balance bike or bicycle with auxiliary wheels

There are a lot of factors to consider when shopping for a kid’s bike, but broadly speaking, we just need to start with two main segments: balance bikes and pedal bikes.

In recent years, the balance bike has become very popular as a child’s first bike. Of course, there are also some parents who choose traditional small bicycles, which are usually equipped with detachable auxiliary wheels.

The first stage of how a child rides a bicycle is very important, the balance bike teaches the child basic balance skills, and the bicycle with auxiliary wheels will increase the time for the child to learn to balance, because it turns the bicycle into a tricycle, so the auxiliary wheels will Complicates the learning to ride process.

By learning on a balance bike, children can master balance, steering techniques from the very beginning, which has a very intuitive effect on upgrading to a pedal bike. Balance bikes are great for kids starting walking to around 4 years old, and the time to switch to a bicycle will vary depending on your child’s abilities, with some kids taking longer to master these skills, others quic