When your kid no longer needs it, simply pop off the O-ring and let it dangle. The frame design incorporates the characteristics of a hardtail mountain bike, with a shock fork in the middle to reduce impact without making the ride too difficult. To maximize the chances that your kid will come to enjoy balance biking, Strider’s McFarland, bike guru John Bradley, and fellow Wirecutter editors recommend the following.
For our testing subjects, we enlisted our friend’s adventurous little kids, including 2-year-old Elle, 6-year-old Luke, and 7-year-old Fleet here in Charleston, South Carolina. River, who is 3 and a proficient balance biker, took to our fleet with enthusiasm. So what about skipping the balance bike and heading straight for a small pedal bike (like a 16-inch model with training wheels)?
Many experts we spoke with agree that training wheels render a bicycle little more than a dangerously tippy four-wheeled tricycle and don’t teach a child to balance. The Strider 12 Sport is strong, lightweight, a cinch to assemble, and the most adjustable option for kids age 18 months to 5 years. Although it is a men’s frame, there are many women who choose huffy cruiser men’s frame mountain bikes. The Woom’s beautifully cast aluminum forks are attached to a unique steering limiter, which is little more than a strap and a thick O-ring bushing. The limiter offers progressively greater resistance once the handlebar approaches a 90-degree angle, preventing the rider from making jarring and potentially over-the-handlebar stops.
In 1892, the Davis Sewing Machine Company initially started manufacturing products for service stations and steel bicycle rims. During the Great Depression in 1934, the company branched out to making bicycles in America. Huffy mountain bikes are known for their comfort and affordability and that is exactly what I am paying for! These bikes are perfectly suited for kids and beginners that are just starting their biking journey. A strong and responsive braking system is also something that they are known for. Kent road bikes are a great option for those looking for a quality bike that won’t break the bank.
You can easily raise and lower the seat via a quick-release lever from a minimum height of 12.25 inches to a max of 15.5 inches (a shorter max height than both our main pick and the runner-up) while you can raise the handlebar stem 3 inches. The Banana’s super-light foam tires and wheels work fine on paved and carpeted surfaces, but were quite slippy on kitchen linoleum and hardwood floors. The handlebar bar height itself is not adjustable via the stem—only by rotating the bar.
Huffy understands a comfortable bike ride begins with a comfortably padded seat. As soon as you sit down, you’ll feel like this Perfect Fit frame is designed specifically for you. As you pedal, your legs can fully extend forward, which helps to eliminate wrist, arm, neck and leg fatigue. In addition to that, I ride on the miles and miles and miles of perfectly manicured bike paths strategically placed throughout my 55+ gated community. I may live in an active-adult community, but this grandma isn’t over-the-hill yet! Huffy mountain bike I’ve added a few photos of my Huffy hangin’ out in Solivita (which means ‘Life in the Sun!’) where I live.
When sitting, the child should be able to put their feet flat on the floor, and nearly all the child’s weight should be on the saddle. Giant’s Pre is on a par in most respects with the Co-op REV 12, including the price, but it’s available only in bike shops, making it harder to find. A nicely narrow Q factor—the distance between the cranks—keeps a child’s legs from splaying out while on the pedal and allows them to generate power more easily. Still, the REV 12’s fit and finish are top-notch, it’s fun to ride, and the support and availability you’ll get from REI, both in their brick-and-mortar stores and online, makes this bike a solid backup choice.
If you’re confident that you can persuade your youngster to give push biking a go (and money is a secondary concern), the aluminum-and-stainless-steel Woom 1 is a work of industrial art. With a featherweight frame and rubber-tired wheel set, custom-built and -selected componentry, a powerful hand brake, ideal geometry, and solid customer support, the Woom 1 is the perfect balance bike for kids age 18 months to 4 years. Geometry-wise, the Banana is very similar to our runner-up pick, the Co-op Cycles REV 12. The curved frame is well-engineered with a very low step-in height of 8.5 inches. The handlebar grips are marginally kid-scale with a grip circumference of 3.5 inches, and the seat is also right at the edge of what a little kid would need at a large 5.5 by 8 inches.
The Strider’s straight, mountain bike–style handlebars are a kid-size 14.5 inches wide, which makes the bike very responsive, while the tapered grips are toddler-friendly at 2 to 2.5 inches in diameter. Like most balance bikes sold today, the grips feature bulbs on their ends that prevent not only torso impalement from jackknifed handlebars but also scraped fingers from inevitable visits to gravel or pavement. The narrow seat allows for easy mounts and dismounts and features a gentle tilt downward from front to back to help keep your child saddled. Its surface is not too slick and not too sticky and comprises a durable yet just-soft-enough foam rubber. The bike comes with two easily interchangeable seat tubes—one short (8.6 inches) and one long (11.5 inches)—allowing adjustment heights from 11 to 20 inches, the widest range of any bike we tested and among the widest of any balance bike. Combined with handlebars that can rise nearly 5 inches on their own, you have a tiny bike that could be comfortably ridden by our 2-year-old tester and even my 8-year-old son.