Based on my own personnel experience: I bought my son a 16" Avalanche bike, no front suspension, with "pedal back" brakes, heavy as hell, when he eventually rode it, he was 5, loved it, cost me a grand, but outgrew it rather quickly, so to a degree not too much value for money. He quickly out grew the bike and when I realized how much he loved it I got him an expensive Mongoose Rockadile 20" bike with front suspension and good components, I have since pimped the bike with nice light stem, post bars grips etc, and he gets full value of the bike so worth the extra moola. He learnt to ride on a JD Bug from the age of 3, this turned out to be the best cycling related purchase of my life, a lightie on a JD Bug to learn IMO is the best thing. That all been said, I have just bought my 4 year old daughter a 12" girly bike, or rather father Christams purchased said bike, for R450 from Makro, my logic is that she will get value out of the bike and when she is a bit older I will cork for a proper bike. Small kids do not care less about weight and nor does it matter in my opinion, so forget the weight issue, front suspension, means even less to a lightie, when young your wrists are your suspension, and roasties from lack of suspension are purely there for show and bragging rights. Get a cheapie 12" bike with training wheels for your girl, she will have confidence quickly without the nervousness of trying to ride a bike that is potentially too big for her, 450 is not too much, let her have a crack at that for a while and then invest in something better. Weight, suspension and components mean sweet bugger all to kids, the most important thing to your daughter by a country mile, will be that it is pink!
