Advice on kiddie's bike

[pippa]

When my newly 4 year old daughter and I went to the park this weekend, she was whizzing around on her balance bike at dazzling speed, notwhithstanding the fact that her knees were close to scraping her ears.

 

It is therefore time to move on to a pedal bike, but at the rate she is growing there is no way I'm buying a new one.

 

On the mighty gumtree there are these options for R400 each:

 

Vortex Planet 16"

Giant Animator 16"

 

In the world of kiddies bikes, it seems nothing matters except than the colour of the bike (both these bikes are - shock!horror! - for BOYS, because they aren't pink). There is not much info about when they were bought, and the brand and models I figured out by looking at the pics.

 

Is the one brand noticeably better than the other one?

[Cranky]

You would need to give us the links to the adverts but the Giant should be much better. I searched gumtree and only found a 12 inch Giant Animator.

[Oufy MTB (Roadie)]

got a 12 inch bmx for my boy at pnp brand new for R400. both front and rear brakes, no fix cog, and no reverse pedal braking. He turned 4 and was on a balancing bike, whipped of the side wheels and he rides like a dream. honestly, the kiddies bike in bike shops are over priced and some don't respresent his future bike, unless you plan for your child to ride a fixed cog, or reverse pedal brakes.

 

cos I only spent 400, i have no issue upgrading soon. yes younger brother is only a year behind and the other boy pops out next month, so hand me down opportunities galore