If winter has lastly loosed its grip the place you reside and your kindergartener is antsy to roam outdoors, perhaps it’s time for his or her first pedal bike.
After spending 30 hours evaluating 13 pedal bikes on pavement, dust, and grassy hills, we’re judging the REI Co-op Cycles REV 16 Children’ Bike as the most effective first pedal bike for most children.
Light-weight and extremely adjustable in measurement, it comes just about pre-assembled, with detachable coaching wheels, a midrange price ticket, and REI’s respected customer support.
Our choose
This solidly constructed aluminum-frame bike from a trusted out of doors retailer gained testers (and their mother and father) over with its straightforward meeting, {smooth} journey (on and off pavement), and talent to develop with the rider.
The REI Co-op Cycles REV 16 Children’ Bike is a properly designed, mid-price bike from REI, a nationwide retailer run by precise out of doors lovers.
It’s gentle (16.9 kilos), has kid-friendly geometry, and was a favourite of our testers due to its versatility—it comes with detachable coaching wheels and is very adjustable, and its old-school coaster brakes make it straightforward for youths to get going with out a lot fuss. (Children who discovered on stability bikes and are accustomed to placing their ft all the way down to cease may have a small adjustment interval in studying to make use of coaster brakes.)
The REV 16 comes almost fully assembled and able to journey inside a couple of minutes—not like two-thirds of the opposite bikes we examined, which required extra wrenching (or probably a motorbike store go to). The 1.75-inch, semi-knobby tires carry out effectively on dust or pavement, and the 1.5-plus inches of adjustability on the handlebar stem and a seatpost that ranges between 20.5 and 25 inches means this bike will match a big selection of children.
We additionally favored the bike’s gearing, which carried out effectively on reasonable hills and allowed for good acceleration. The paint job, welds, and componentry—from headset to alloy wheelset—are top-notch, as are REI’s buyer assist, warranties, and return insurance policies.
If we had one criticism, it’s that the 17-inch-wide handlebars are a bit slender, which in our testing meant that the bike responded generally too rapidly for first-timers.
Improve choose
Fantastically constructed and appointed, the Woom 3 is super-light, super-zippy, and chock-full of kid-friendly options—for a value.
The lithe, aluminum Woom 3 is remarkably light-weight (13.6 kilos) thanks partly to its wheels, which incorporate proprietary alloy rims and simply 16 spokes every (a lot of the different bikes we examined had 28). The whole lot on the bike, from the saddle to the highly effective linear-pull brakes to the Woom-specific cranks and headset, is kid-proportioned and butter-smooth. The handlebars encourage a extra upright driving place than do the extra mountain bike-inspired and comparably priced Cleary Hedgehog and Prevelo Alpha 2—the Woom’s predominant competitors in our checks—however our children discovered it extra snug, and but it nonetheless allowed them to face within the pedals and journey aggressively when the necessity arose. The bike is so darn gentle that speedy driving is, actually, nearly a given—this was the case even amongst our extra timid testers. Woom makes certain all else is top-notch too: The corporate ships its bikes in containers massive sufficient that ours arrived with the wheels already mounted; the brakes got here pre-adjusted too. You pay a premium for all this, although—it prices greater than twice as a lot because the REV 16.
Additionally nice
This bike excels on or off the street; its highly effective hand brake and beginner-friendly geometry helped our testers journey with confidence.
The most effective first bike for newbie off-road use is the Pello Revo 16″. Of the 13 bikes we examined, this one provided the most effective mixture of trail-ready tires, hill-climby gearing, and geometry that fits each newbie and off-road wants (the next backside bracket, for instance, provides it extra clearance than the Woom 3). Like all of our picks, it arrived nearly fully assembled. Our testers blasted by yards and over pavement atop its fats Kenda off-road tires, raving about how briskly they might go and the way effectively the bike turned and jumped. The Revo’s alloy fork connects to the handlebars and body through a bombproof headset from mountain bike stalwart Cane Creek; we discovered the bike’s small diameter (0.75 inch) handlebar to be an ideal child’s peak for early forays into the dust. The Revo comes with no entrance brake—although you may add one later, if you happen to like—most likely as a result of with a newbie driving off-road, this might end in journeys over the handlebars. As a substitute, it has a strong, easy-to-squeeze Tektro rear brake in addition to a coaster brake.
