Recommend a bike for a child learning to cycle.

denbatt

My daughter is 7. She got a barbie bike that we got in smyths a couple of christmas' ago. I have had her out on it several times with her training wheels on but the quality of the bike is terrible. She can't even pull the brakes! The rims are painted even the braking surface! Its a joke. She has had a couple of hard falls and the stupid thing weighs a ton, she is afraid of it now! I have to get her cycling this year so could anyone recommend a good bike for a child starting out? Links appreciated.

diomed

http://www.islabikes.co.uk/

smacl

We've had an old BMX bike that has been through a quite few kids in our extended family over the last 20 years. New tyres and clean up every few years, but light, fun, and solid as a rock.

Zen0

Learning to ride a bike can be hard for some kids. It would be a mistake to think that a better bike will make a huge difference. At least one of my kids learned on a bike like that. It can take perseverance and patience. By all means get a better bike, but be prepared to put in a lot of time. All my kids learned differently. With the first I ended up taking off the pedals and getting him to roll downhill with his feet just off the ground. The second kind of picked it up quite easily. With the third it took some time. Got her a balance bike. She learned that but couldn't translate that to a proper bike. Eventually it was her own perseverance on the Barbie bike on grass which worked for her. She really wanted to learn by then. The brakes on that bike may not have been super, but if set up right are perfectly adequate for learning. For what it's worth we have Islabikes, but they didn't learn on then.

JMcL

Balance bike worked brilliantly for our oldest girl, though she started at 3 - I'm not even sure you'd get one big enough for a 7 year old. I'd say taking the pedals off as Zen0 suggested, dropping the saddle so she can scoot along and letting her freewheel down small slopes would be great for building confidence.

But all kids are different, our 2nd girl is so far showing a lot less enthusiasm, though she does have a bit of a slavedriver personality and demand that things get done for her a lot more than her sister ever did - leads to some interesting standoffs :-)

boydkev

I purchased a Strider Balance bike for our 2 YO He is now nearly 4 and i think they are great.
They have recently brought out a Balance bike for 6-10 YO, Same idea as the smaal version but with Pneumatic Tyres and a brake. They are a bit expensive but the build quality is very good.

http://www.striderbikes.ie/index.php?route=product/category&path=62

maxamillius

http://twistbikes.com/ seem like a good option although maybe not for a 7 year old?!