I grew up on and beat the crap out of a huffy BMX bike that went through two of my older brothers first. If it broke I learned how to fix it and if I would have had a younger brother it would have been handed down to him. Point being you don't need to spend $400 on a bike for a 6 year old.

Don't let the bike snobs on here scare you away from an x-mart bike for your kid.

How are we bike snobs? I guess im a snob because at 7 my mom bought me a Gary Fisher Mudpuppy that costed around 200$,was ridden hard, and properly taken care of, and I eventually outgrew it. What we are trying to say is that you might as well spend the money on a high quality bike that will outgrow the child rather than a POS X-Mart bike-shaped object that will last for a year tops, even less if not taken care of.

Oh no don't believe the people who work on the things everyday. We're bike snobs and have a secret hidden agenda to get you to buy a quality bike rather than a boat anchor.
Don't like it log off and go to Wal-mart

Heh. I had a Magna a couple of years back. It's from toysrus right? I weighed a ton, but it held up fine. As long as your daughter's not doing anything too extreme and is just riding on streets then won't break on her. If you're actually going to take her on trails tehn i suggest getting a better quality bike.

How many people that refer to people as "bike snobs" do you think have actually ridden/owned a "real" bike. I used to think it was pointless to get a good bike too until I finally rode some and got mine, now I'd never get another cheap bike.

There are a few here that think that if you own a LBS bike over say $500 you're an elitist or "bike snob". Personally I don't start on that until you get to the guy's with the high end Colnago and De Rosa dust collectors. The guys that do a 10 mile ride once a month.
If you're really going to ride it, then spend the money. More power to you, but if you're going to let it sit.............

I have the same opinion of anyone who lets their bike just sit around regardless of its price.

no one is saying not to get good bikes. But if your young and dont ride the hard trails is there really a need to have a expensive bike especially for a kid? I mean do you all go out and buy your kids BMW's, Infinities, Mercedes for your 16yr old because they are good cars

I'm 15 so I wouldn't know about buying my kids anything, but all those cars you listed are reputable brands, which also are required to meet certain safety standards. The bikes are not only heavy and crappy, but also unsafe in many situations. Kids use a lot of things they aren't intended for and would have no problem taking their bike which is "not suitable for offroad use" off road and maybe try jumping it, that is when they are even more dangerous. Also, the crappier something is, the more discouraging it is to use it.

I'm going to answer this with a question. Would you start your daughter with a Corvette ZO6 the day she got her license, or would you get her a little 4-cylinder to get her used to the road? Thats how I look at it.

I understand your point MadHatter, but it doesn't really apply here. My question for you is, whould you start your daughter ina 200 dollar P.O.S that didn't have seatbelts or would you buy her that nice 4-cylinder thats say 3-4 thousand? You are comparing two perfectly safe cars, i'm comparing a safe bike and an unsafe one. It's not the matter of money I'm talking about, if it was I would entirely agree with you, but my concerns with those bikes are safety issues, you can't put a price on someones(in this case your daughters) life.

What the heck is his 6 year old gonna do that a little huffy can't handle. A magna is not a quality name brand and will tear up if you dont take care of it, but so will any other bike. What I'm saying is buy the ****ty 100 dollar bike and have it tear up in less then a year and buy a new one, compared to buying the 400 dollar bike and have it put through weather extremes and get tore up the same way. Just get her a little two-sprocket bike one gear for all they never go bad unless the chain comes off then its hell gettin it back on but what else does a 6 year old gotta do? Chances are and I dont mean to be sexist or anything but when I was that age I didn't see ONE girl riding a bike offroad or anywhere for that matter

MadHatter, after reading some of your other posts it seems as though safety isn't a real concern of yours, so I think I understand why you are not getting my point. Also with the whole buying her a little four cylinder comment. First those cars are not as safe as a larger car due to their small size. Second, having a small car would make her suck at driving anything larger, so starting with a larger car would make her learn to drive better while keeping her safer.

I would understand if she was riding down a mountain or something. I would agree wholeheartedly but chances are the most she is gonna do is ride up and down the neighborhood street

I'd really like to see a 6 year old break a STEEL FRAMED bike. Seriously !!!! These are for 6-10yr olds, not the KONA Mountain Biking Team or any MTB team for that matter.

So you would want your daughters bike to fall apart beneath her? Also a 400 dollar bike is not what i had in mind, 2-3 hundred maybe. A good bike will not have any problems with getting torn up due to "weather extremes" if you don't leave it in the rain. If you take care of it, it will last.

how long does a bike for a 6yr old need to last Till their 16 or what lol

I'm not refferring to the frame snapping. I am talking about mechanical defects such as bad brakes and/or other components. RubenZ, I'd like to see you snap a steel frame(while riding it). Say your daughter is riding down the street and her brakes fail on her, she has no means of stopping and could potentially injure herself or possibly even be killed. If it is a difference of a hundred dollars, I would definitely be willing to spend the money. Would you not get your daughter a helmet and just tape a metal bowl to her head because well, shes not gonna fall hard if she does at all, so whats it matter.

safety is not a big concern for me I've taken just about the hardest wrecks you can take on a bike including blacktop, dirt, mailboxes, trees, ramps, hills everything even broke my collar bone jumping off a go-kart one time but a 50 dollar huffy isn't just gonna crack and break off a front tire while riding down the street their not that damn dangerous

between 6 and 16 a girl or boy will probably have gone through 4 sizes of bikes. say you buy the good stuff at like 200.00


200 x 4 = 800.00 on bikes between the ages of 6 - 16 they may even go through more sizes, kids at 6 to like 12 grow like a MOFO.

You could probably buy them 80.00 wal-mart bikes every year and still be under the price of 4 good bikes. Thats a STEAL !!

10 bikes for the price of 4 LBS quality bikes.

You said yourself, 6-10 so thats a good 4 years right there.

Looks like you need to take a trip back to math class there genius, 10 x 80 is 800 also.

you could pay 1,000,000 dollars for brakes it still isn't a guarantee that they will pull through theres still a small chance but hell its apart of growing up I ride my bike with no brakes right now every where i go my poor soles do the stopping works for me I lost the front brakes just recently on that monster crash i had on a jump about a week ago

its ok MadHatter he'll never understand as he probably never had to pay for anything himself. . .


I have 25 cousins, boys and girls. I've seen cheap wal-mart bikes get handed down to like 2 generations and 10+ years of use. I've never seen a bikes brakes give out, or frame break or whatever. Why because like I've tried explaining, little kids arent going to be jumping of 10foot building and blazing down Mt Everest.

Also, to consider size is really a one-sided thing. Toy-store bikes do not come in sizes, LBS bikes do. So to say that they grow out of a bike every three years all you are doing is sayin that your child would only have a properly sized bike for 3 years.