Recreational & Family - Right bike for a 2 year old?

Hi there,

We have a boy - who will be about 2.5 by the time spring finally gets here...

Last year at the lake we spent alot of time biking - we have a trailer behind my bike. He just loved it.

Now we're wanting to get him his own bike this year, and after doing a little browsing at toyrus, canadian tire, etc, we're a little confused.

He can reach the pedals find on both tricycles and 10" bikes with training wheels. He definitley does not get the idea (for the all of 15 minutes he's spend on them in the store) of pedals and turning with the bars.

We're confident he will, of course - but some trikes and all the 10 & 12" bikes are "recommended" for 3 years and up.

I guess we're wondering what experience people have had with their kids, what's the right age and what type of bikes they first used.

Any input would be appreciated, thanks!

Hello there! We bought a trike for our 2.5 year old son at Christmas. He will turn 3 in June. The past couple of weeks he has been outside on his trike riding it around. He is slowly getting the hang of it. He still has some problems steering and pedaling at the same time. Usually he stops peddaling and steers and then pedals again. I ride along side him on my bike so he gets to see the leg motion he has to do. That seemed to help. It takes some time, but they will get the hang of it.

I need to update my avatar with a picture of him on his trike instead of the plastic thing in his pic now.

Good luck!

I bought my 4 yr. old a bike for Christmas this year, a 12". I wish I had done it sooner because it's easier than using a tricycle. The tires are better which makes peddling more effective. You need to get the smallest possible bike. 10 or 12". Make sure his feet can touch the ground because at 2.5 might not use the brakes right away. My daughter really got the hang of peddling when I rode my bike w/ her. I bought a cheap Walmart bike for her and I think it's just fine for her at this age.

Here's a thought I had about kids and bikes. We all know that it takes time for kids to learn how to ride a bike, especially with no training wheels! Well, I think that the steep learning curve has very much to do with the gyroscopic effect of the wheels.

The wheels on a bike act like two giant rotating gyros. Gyros are amazing little pieces of physics; they are basically spinning discs that resist movement perpendicular to ther rotation (ie. a spinning bike wheel resists falling to the left or right). You'll notice that as you go faster on your bike it's more difficult to turn, this is due to the gyroscopic effect of the wheels. The bigger the wheel, the more massive it is and the faster it spins all make it more resistant to this change in movement.

Now, compare an adult sized wheel to those on a children's bike. The wheels on a kid's bike are a half or a third the diameter. Naturally they are also less massive. I don't know about the RPMs, but they sure don't seem to be spinning very fast when they're just learning.

So, if you combine all these issues then you'll see that the kids are really having a tough time of it. Their sense of balance may also not be fully developed, which further increases the difficulty of riding on two wheels.

Just something to consider if you ever feel frustrated or worried about your child learning to ride. The very laws of physics are against them. Good thing they don't have as far to fall. ;)

When my nephew was 2 1/2, I bought him a nice Trek 2-wheel bike with training wheels. The problem was, although the bike was well-made, the training wheels were junk. And, every set of training wheels I could find that fit the bike were also junk. That made the bike hard to ride, except on very smooth pavement.

My guess is that training wheels are intended for a few days of use while a kid learns to use just two wheels. They are not designed to be used for a year or two.

My nephew also had a trike that had a seat that could be adjusted as his legs grew. That allowed him a good fit on the trike from age two to age four. Its wide wheelbase made it safe to ride, even on uneven surfaces. The big, fat tires soaked up bumps.

So, for a typical two or three year old, a good quality trike may be a better riding experience than a two wheeler with training wheels. By age four, many kids could learn to ride a two wheeler in two or three days of practice, relegating the training wheels to their limited role of "training", rather than being a permanent part of the bike.

When my nephew was 2 1/2, I bought him a nice Trek 2-wheel bike with training wheels. The problem was, although the bike was well-made, the training wheels were junk. And, every set of training wheels I could find that fit the bike were also junk. That made the bike hard to ride, except on very smooth pavement.


I've had the same experience with the Specialized Hotrock. My 3 1/2 year old is riding the 12" bike with training wheels, and though the bike itself is great, the training wheels are trashed.

My girl is 2.5 and I got her a Hotrock at Xmas. She gets on it once in a while, including her trike, but she's still lost on the steering concept. She can pedal the trike but doesn't understand the coaster brake on the bike. I'm sure at somepoint she'll get into it, since we ride on Burley a lot and she sees me doing rides all the time.

I also agree w/ jeff-o regarding the balance thing. It's a hard thing to teach. In looking for bikes, I also considered the Like-a-Bike. It's WAY expensive but more like a scooter. My theory is that it could help teach balance better than a straight bike. On cycling.tv they had a vid of some tikes (3 yrs maybe?) tooling around on single track and ramps w/ those bikes. They were pretty good. They didn't have to worry about peddling, just balance. Some food for thought.

Also, you might consider getting a bike from an LBS. I've heard of some LBS's that let you buy a bike, then when the kids get older, you can do a trade up. My local LBS doesn't do that, but when I mentioned it, he was up for it.

i read a good review on the like a bike in A to B magazine. The people who put it out bought one for their son.

Get the smallest bike that will fit her and take off the cranks and the bottom bracket and let her use it like a like a bike (cheaper - tho' the like a bike is probably better quality.

She'll get the hang of steering/balancing while pushing it (walking it) along, without the problem of co-ordinating pedalling as well. Once she's done that, re-assemble and away she'll probably go

Get the smallest bike that will fit her and take off the cranks and the bottom bracket and let her use it like a like a bike (cheaper - tho' the like a bike is probably better quality.

She'll get the hang of steering/balancing while pushing it (walking it) along, without the problem of co-ordinating pedalling as well. Once she's done that, re-assemble and away she'll probably go

That is pretty much the method recommended in the book Bicycling With Children.

(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0898865891/qid=1111555932/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-3437370-3652147?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

However, according to the book you only need to remove the pedals. They recommend installing a hand brake first and teaching the child to stop using the brake before going on to the balance step.

Both my teenage sons learned to ride with training wheels at 2.5 and without training wheels at 3.5. They used the same bike - a 12" single speed dumpster find with a rear coaster brake. By the time the second son was ready for the 12", the older son had moved on to a 16". IMHO, it is not necessary to buy a brand-name single speed kids bike. First, if you look around, you can most likely find one for free. If you must buy new, the toy-store bikes are the same as the name-brand bikes. Just make sure the bike has a real headset and BB - not plastic sleeves. One-piece or cotter-pinned steel cranks are fine.

I modified the 12" bike as the boys grew so they could use it longer - lowered the gearing for off-road use and installed a long seatpost. I would also install longer cranks. I had a nice collection of different length cottered and one-piece cranks. I did the same thing to the 16" bikes.

The best way to help a kid learn to ride without training wheels is on a slight downward slope on grass. Start at the top of the hill and hold the seat, running behind the kid as they pedal down the slope...the let go! Do this a few times and they will be riding in no time.

When my son was that age we got him a solid trike with a seat that could be adjusted when his legs grew. Riding that around the block gave him the practice he needed on peddling and steering -- although it seemed like a long time before he learned no to turn too sharply and tip over. Once the seat height on the trike was maxed out, we bought a 10 in. bike and then a 12 in and now he is riding a 20 in.

Training wheels are not high quality items, but we never wore them out. Even though they were on several bikes for a couple of years he didn't get much riding in at first. Once we moved to a house across the street from a school with a big open parking lot it only took him a couple of weeks to start riding without them. I second the idea of X-mart bikes for kids this age. They are cheap and since they will be outgrown quickly that's a plus. Also when you weigh maybe 50 lbs. how much stress do you really put on a bike. And they tend to look cool to little kids which increases the desire to ride.

Small Steps.

Get him a scooter first, it will give him the steering, balance and applying power coordination he will need for when he gets on a bike.

The crankless bike is also a good idea, stay right away from training wheels and you will be a year ahead by the time he is five.

Worked for my two, they both started riding a velodrome at age seven ( and thats not far away from three).