Bike for 5 year old

[AngryScientist]

On the lower end, but REI has a line of kids bikes in their COOP brand. My son has a single speed version and it's really nice IMO, good for a kid to beat around on. i'm sure it is not as light as some of the other offerings, but it is a solid well made bike that didnt cost a lot.

i recommend taking your son to REI that has a big stock and having him sit on a few of the bikes and see if he can pedal them around a bit.

[charliedid]

Light bikes for 5 year olds is so weird, they should last three generations.

Grumble grumble.

Schwinn sure knew how to make kids bikes back in the day.

[Hank Scorpio]

I bought my daughter a Cleary gecko off the Facebook marketplace earlier this year. I pulled the cranks and slammed the saddle so she could use it as a balance bike but she hasn't shown much (any) interest in it. It definitely is on the heavy side and I have been keeping a watch for a used woom or strider. I searched t-town this year for some carbon to lighten it up but the sizes of the components are not common so no luck.

Have you looked at the carbon striders on alliexpress made by tideace or bxt?

[wildboar]

Originally Posted by azrider

My 4.5 year old is in 110th percentile for his height/weight and I have yet to put him on a bike that his hands can reach hand brake.

My daughter was 4.5yrs 5th percentile when we switched from Strider to a Woom 2 and the brake levers were easily reached. They have some scaled down levers on those, they are perfect. Ditch the coaster brake rear wheel they come with immediately and put on the freewheel wheel, they just get frustrated with the coaster brake stopping them all the time. It only took two sessions to figure out the Woom bike after riding on the Strider for a year, it was really cool.

[kiwisimon]

16" BMX! hand brake and tough so they can get passed down for years.
They can also be raced if the young one wants to go fast.

[SeanScott]

I have gone through the bike growing process with my two boys.
The only suggestion I can make is to just get Craigslist bikes or used ones from yardsales or community bike hubs. There are killer used BMX bikes and lots of bikes with gears as well.

There is usually no need to go over $100 for a nice bike and you can usually sell it for just as much when done.
The fastest we went through a bike was the 24" wheel size (typically 9-10 year old) This is where people typically spend too much.
Now both my 8 and 10 are on proper 26" really good quality mountain bikes (again bought for nothing off CL because no one wants a 26) These should last for years.

[kiwisimon]

yep used bmx. Rattle spray paint of their color if kids are fuzzy about the colours

[Bisquik]

Get the kid a cheap bike that you can take the pedals off o do.