Best bike for adventurous 3.5 year old

[ChrisF]

40 minutes ago, Sid the Sloth said:

"it's not about the bike" - that Lance guy you were telling me about.

Clever oke that Lance  

 

Patch is correct in that the wrong sized bike certainly does not help kids to enjoy the sport.  Same with the setup .... MOST bike shops dont take the seconds needed to set the brake lever reach for kids short fingers.

 

Sticky grip shifts .... nough said 

 

But with the basics in place, allowing the kid to handle the bike with some confidence, then most of these bikes are "good enough".

 

 

For his second bike we splashed out and bought a Momsen.  YES, technically I could see why it was better than the Titan equivalent ....  In real world terms, none of these made any real difference to his growth in the sport.

 

Most importantly, each bike was bought to fit him properly, and set up to ride correctly and safely.  From this base point he could get going and have FUN.

 

 

With his first 26'' I started looking at the component specs in more detail, buying a basic Titan and upgrading it to a 1x11 SLX from day one.  At least had about 18 months of use from this bike ... just had another growth spurt, and have been on the Green Machine for the last few rides.  NOW the fun starts.  Proper 1x11 SLX, a decent REBA fork, and nice light weight frame ... 

 

 

sorry, what were we talking about ... 

 

 

[ChrisF]

Really should add .... the "first" bike starts years before he (or she) gets anything with pedals ...

 

Those horrid black three wheeled scooters should be burnt.  It took wayyyyy tooooo long to get Maritz off these plastic monstroseties, and actually riding a bike.

 

Eventually I got him to ride on the grass opposite CWC ... The next weekend we went to Hazendal .... he was HOOKED.  

 

 

I am now firm supporter of "balance bikes" for the little ones

[Pure Savage]

3 hours ago, Sid the Sloth said:

"it's not about the bike" - that Lance guy you were telling me about.

Yeah, but I dont think we should be doping 3 year olds

 

[Chadvdw67]

On 7/13/2021 at 4:44 PM, ChrisF said:

Maritz chose his third bike based on the finish of the welds ....  

Nice, I like the way he thinks, good looking welds are just too much of nice.....

7 hours ago, Pure Savage said:

I have seen kids put off riding their bikes but when they do get a decent ish bike they pretty far behind their peers. That has nothing to do with them, just bad equipment.

I think it could just be down to the kids, my nephews always had the shoddiest of shoddy bikes, HEAVY, no brakes, all the bearings were fubar, etc, but they always loved riding, couldnt get them off their bikes.....