My son is 3 years old, and I am considering getting him a new bike.

I am torn about what to get for him. Trek came out with a trikester that I have seen in person, and it is pretty impressive. It has a very adjustable fit, pneumatic tires, and it rolls well.

The other option is a 12" bike, but the only 12" bike I have seen (Gary fishers) are pretty crappy. Of the 6 assembled bikes, Three of them had the wheels were out of true. All of the rear wheels had significant drag. Does anyone have experience with this?

Right now he is riding one of those old all metal tricycles with the hard wheels, but is does not roll terribly well, and this seems to prevent him from using the pedals.


Thanks in advance for any advice.

When my son was 3 years old we bought him a 12" bike from Amazon.com. It's called a "Rhino Racer" and if that name ain't cool enough the bike frame's fully chromed.

After two years he's outgrown it, plus the bottom bracket is acting up a little. He'll be getting a new bike in a month or two.

I have seen the little bikes at the bike shop. I would go to Wally or someplace and get a 35 dollar bike. The kid is going to outgrow it before you can turn around. Save the bikeshop price/quality bikes until he is ready for a 16 or 20 inch bike. Best -

I agree BUT do consider one more option...

Ebay. We found a very nice used Trek Mountain Cub for our 4 year old and paid 37 dollars for it. It's a lot better quality than anything we could ever hope to find in a Mega-Mart... especially for the price.

After I tricked it out with H-Bar tassles, a comfy SpongeBob seatcover, some "Smiley Face" valve caps and dinosaur spoke clip-ons... she's in love with it!