General Cycling Discussion - Training kids on bikes, part 2

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.



PDA

View Full Version : Training kids on bikes, part 2

shawmutt
10-18-11, 11:40 AM
OK, I've talked with the boss lady, and bikes are the way to go vs. scooters or Striders. Any suggestions of brands or would any Big Box bike do? Are there some good values to look for in the Big Box stores? I was looking at the treks, but they are expensive and their resale value is dismal--and really the kids don't care about the names, they'll be excited to just get their first bike! I could look at used bikes but I just don't trust them.

I'm also convinced that training wheels are evil. For the parents who went without training wheels and used the bike as a balance bike, did you take off just the pedals or the whole crank assembly?

tagaproject6
10-18-11, 12:02 PM
Go for the big box as the kids don't care. They will outgrow them before you know it. I took off the pedals AND the cranks. I tried to leave the cranks on but the dang things kept spinning around and is an accident waiting to happen. If you have chain guards and the cranks don't spin around, you should be okay. Slam the saddle all the way down so that they have their feet planted on the ground. Don't even bother following them around to keep them up right, they will do that naturally on their own by alternately pushing off the ground and then putting their feet up.