gregaz

So, it's time to buy a new bike for my six year old (boy). He outgrew his Radio Flyer with training wheels, and after looking around on Amazon I am wondering what you guys do? I don't necessarily need / want him to ride a "classic or vintage" bike, but the stuff on Amazon is so ugly, and looks so cheap.

I am wondering what others on here have done? BMX? Some other classic / vintage bikes?

sailorbenjamin

Watch Craigslist. Ask him what he wants. They grow pretty fast at that age so you don't need to plan way ahead. Used kids bikes are pretty cheap, too so if he hates his birthday present then let him pick out a Christmas present. I was sort of operating a back porch bike dealership for a couple of years. You get free kids bikes all the time if you keep your eyes open. I had kids who'd come back every spring to trade up to the next size.
My girls have Electras. The seem pretty solid and have flowers on the seats that match the flowers on the fenders. They also have a lot of adjustment in the seat posts so they'll last a couple of years. $75 was really more than I would usually pay for a kid's bike but they really like them. I hear Giant makes a decent bike, too. I usually say to avoid the Wall Mart stuff but at that age, so long as he likes the color, it'll probably do ok.

browngw 

About three years ago mrsbrowngw and I decided to by our granddaughters, then seven and nine, bicycles. I looked for quality used bikes in vain, and priced new kids bikes at the LBS. We ended up going to Canadian Tire (department/sporting goods) and they helped pick their favorite bikes. We have gone on many rides with them and the bikes are adequate if not special. Last year I was given a 1991 Norco 24" girls bike in mint condition (original price $300) and it went to the oldest. To her, its no better or worse than the cheap bike. As they age and appreciate the finer points of bikes is probably the time to upgrade.

balindamood

Honestly, until they are about 12 or so, Craigslist X-mart bikes have been my fried (for five kids so far). They get left in the rain/snow, stolen (not locked or left on the front lawn), jumped, wrecked, and out-grown quickly. If you are remotely competent on working on them, you can keep them going until they disappear or are destroyed, plus you can teach some maintenance to the kids. By the time they hit 12/13, they are usually big enough to find a small adult bike of decent quality (again used) and they ought to be able to show some ability to actually take care of it. if they don't they don't get another (from me, anyway).

DiabloScott

Bike store bikes - I only have one kid, so the expense wasn't a big deal. She's had a Specialized, two Treks, and now an REI bike.

noglider 

It's true that x-mart bikes can suffice, but I never could bring myself to give them to my kids. I bought Trek bikes at the shop. Lots of money for kids, but that's how I rolled. Second hand bikes are best. Some are very little used.

Fahrenheit531 

I gave my daughter (7 y/o at the time) a Gary Fisher Cosmo for Christmas. You can read the full saga of my search, and an extended discussion on the topic, at my New Bike for 7 1/2 Year Old Daughter thread.

In my experience, there are lots of kid's bikes on CL at any given time, many in good shape because the kiddo didn't want to ride it.

Also in my experience, a box-store Mongoose is a p.o.s. that won't even begin to stand up to the abuse we used to dole out to our bikes way-back-when. Learn from my mistakes and don't go that route.

gregaz

I did a search prior to posting and didn't come up with much, so thank you for the link - some excellent thoughts!

crank_addict

Can still find plenty of classic BMX bikes, tough, made well. Let the energizer kids have at it. The one thing is they have to learn to keep them locked, especially at public parks and schools. Give them a combination cable lock. Our grand-girls love them! If the bike survives, could be a keeper or family hand-me-down. If concerned about theft, then I would go with a cheap big box store bike.

Eventually graduate them to a non-suspension multi-speed bike. All those suspension bikes are heavy and the dampers, pivots are junk.

CardiacKid

I bought a Walmart bike for one of my kids. What a huge mistake. I didn't actually buy it, it was a gift from my in-laws. I ended up rebuilding it. It took more effort than if I had found a bike in the dumpster. Try and find a Schwinn, Specialized or Trek from the nineties. It might take some effort but it will be worth it. Check out garage sales in the nicer suburban areas. You can usually flip them for a profit when your kid outgrows it.

MRT2

My son's first bike was a single speed Diamondback bought from a LBS. Second bike was a Raleigh rowdy mountain bike style, also purchased from a LBS. Third bike was a Trek 800, purchased used from a LBS, and fitted with street tires in place of the stock knobbies. Now my son is 12 almost 13 and he is riding my old Bianchi hybrid.

I think starting out with decent, though not great bike shop bikes was the right way to go. Cost me a few bucks, but the rides we enjoyed together over the years was well worth it.

I hope it also taught my son an appreciation of bikes and hopefully made him a lifelong rider.

not_jason

There's a guy I see in passing sometimes who I don't know in any real capacity, but he always has really great vintage builds. One day I saw him riding with a little girl that I presumed to be his daughter, and she was riding a rather legit all chrome vintage freestyle-BMX of some manner (probably a Hutch or an old Mongoose or something) with a ton of era-appropriate anodized pink parts on it. Well played.

Also answered the age old question of how to best appreciate those old BMXes without having to subject oneself to the misery of riding one.

repechage

Size and attitude are everything. My son needed a bike with 16" wheels when he was six. He rode that basically till he got a 24" wheeled road bike. He does not care what other kids think.

If yours does, then you have another set of conditions. At 6 for me, it was Schwinn or nothing. My parents took me to a number of bicycle shops in an effort to sell me on a different brand. I did prevail. I rode it everywhere.

My daughter did have a say after her first bike with 12" wheels and training wheels. She got what she wanted but I did advise that it was going to be a handful to ride. (low trail, 20" Trek) She could not master it. I had the bike I purchased for my sister decades earlier, a Raleigh Mountie. My daughter reluctantly attempted to ride it, and was riding on two wheels within an hour. She still is unsteady on the Trek. She is confounded that Dad might have been right and the Raleigh Mountie (same basic design from 1960 to 1980) was easier to ride.

Chrome Molly 

I bought a decent condition trek 5 speed with 20 inch wheels of CL, she rode it 3 years and then I sold it for the same $. Once she got more full sized, I did set her up on a Cannondale MTB with road/trail type tires so she could get around the local area.

gomango

When the boys were little, we would go to garage sales for books, Legos and bikes.

I collected many bamboo fly roads on these jaunts, my most serious hobby.

They grew up on a steady diet of cool bmx bikes and mtbs.

We usually paid $5-$25 for their bikes and they rode some very nice classic steel bicycles.

They also ended up with incredible piles of books that they voraciously read and many Rubbermaid tubs of Legos.

To this day, they could care less about fancy new bikes. They both have great mtbs, a Fat Chance and a Bridgestone MB-1.

You would cringe if you new how little we paid for those two.

southpawboston

Trek and Specialized make half-decent bikes for kids. That is to say, they spec half-decent bikes from the same megafactories that crank out the department store bikes and slap their headbadge on them. They're not made by Trek or Specialized, but they're designed by them and not bad. I trolled Craigslist and also put queries out on my local cycling lists. I got my 5-year old daughter a 1990s Trek Mountain KDZ for $20. Not a bad bike! Full chromoly steel frame, cantilever brakes, alloy crankset and Shimano 6-speed (low end Shimano). Can't get that new anymore, and way better than a dept store bike. We also got our older daughter, 7 at the time, a Specialized HotRock 6-speed for $100, almost new. They sell new for $320. Both bikes have held up well and we'll be able to recoup a lot of the cost of purchase when it's time to sell and size up.

+1 to gomango on the books. We would buy box-lots of books for our kids whenever we got the chance. Awesome way to get books! And the crap books that would inevitably be part of those lots, we'd just donate.

buldogge

What age, height, and riding ability are we talking about?
What kind of riding do they do…park…round a subdivision with friends…on the road???

My (just) 8yo son is tall for his age…He rides an older ('94) Kona Fire Mountain with 26" wheels, saddle mostly lowered, and riser bars…He also has a Trek KDR1000 road bike (24" wheels) that he got last year. The hardest thing for him (and most kids) on the road bike is braking from the hoods.

It's all a matter of matching the bike to their riding style and intentions. He prefers to bomb around on the Kona..but…he rode 20miles at the end of the summer on the KDR as well.

-Mark in St. Louis

MRT2

My son wants no part of our road bikes but enjoys riding hybrids and mountain bikes. He is capable of riding 25 to 40 Miles with me and my wife but usually prefers to just ride around "casually" (his words) with his friends.

Standalone 

It's all about having fun and not overspending....

a77impala

My three oldest grandchildren just transitioned to 24" bikes, I got the boys bikes from Yellow Bike, where I volunteer, and the girl's came from Craigslist. A Giant, Specialized and a Trek, with a little effort they have nice bikes that will last until they are ready for adult bikes.
Out of pocket expense, not a lot.

gomango

Absolutely true.

My boys love $25 bicycles.

bres dad

X-mart or used is fine but check the bikes when you get them home or have someone that can work on bikes check them over. For perviously stated reasons (they out grow them, destroy them, don't take care of them) we wanted to just get something cheap so we bought some display models from a compartment store as they would out grow their 12 & 16" bikes, almost yearly. I only made that mistake twice... one had structural issues and the other was basically too small when we got it home (we replaced it less than a year later as our daughter shot up like a weed.) Now both of our older kids have Trek mountain bikes (both bought used at an LBS for a fraction of the cost of brand new). Our 4 year old will have to settle for thrift store & yard sale bikes for a few years (as did our other ones at that age.) The X-mart bikes we bought I still see in the neighborhood as they're passed around to other kids. I fixed a flat on one last week.

jgedwa

As others here have said, I just used whatever feral crap bikes the universe offered up to me until the boys were around 10 or 12 and then they started to get somewhat more decent bikes. But even then, they will beat the crap out of them, so they were never anything special. Both my guys like to ride, but neither is at all interested in cycling in a serious way. I suppose if they were more interested, I would be glad to set them up with nicer bikes. But for bombing around town, I figure everyone is happier if there is less to agonize over middle equipment.

jim

repechage

Inline Cyclocross levers solved that problem.

You are correct in matching the bike style to the kid.

repechage

In regard to overspending, yes it can happen. I spent more than I wanted for a junior road bike, but I knew the criteria. I had to have index shifting. Saddle, crank length and bars had to be proportional. Dual pivots were going to be necessary. I had to modify the brake levers for small reach. So, while it was not cheap it has been of good value. And so far has stayed in decent shape. I am going to have to replace the rear tire soon. At the time of purchase a vintage junior road bike was going to be too big, advantage the sloping top tube geometry.