by Safety Third

Created on: February 17, 2007   Last Updated: October 10, 2011

When buying a bike for your child, there are many things to take into consideration. One of the most important, obviously, is safety. To keep your kid safe, do not, under any circumstances, buy a Walmart bike. The people who build them are paid on a per-bike basis, and therefore build the bikes quickly and often poorly. Even if you buy a Walmart bike, take it apart, and rebuild it to actual bike specifications, the components are still weak and will likely break under any serious riding.

Now that you haven't bought a Walmart bike, the next thing to consider is bike fit. For mountain bikes, your child should have at least three inches of clearance from the crotch to the top tube (the tube that goes from the handlebars to the seat). For road bikes, you don't need as much clearance because you won't be stepping off as much, but it's probably good to keep about one inch of clearance for beginners.

Also important is the reach. The reach is the distance from the handlebar grips to the seat. The easiest way to test this is to actually have your child sit on the bike as if he/she was riding it and ask if it's comfortable. Often times taller kids will want a longer reach to compensate for their long torsos. Road bike reaches tend to be longer than mountain bike reaches because of the simple fact that road bikes are designed to be aerodynamic.

It may not seem that important, but on all bikes all people want to be pedaling with the balls of their feet on the pedals. Not only does this transfer more power to the pedals, it is less damaging to your knees. This is the best way to determine where the seat should go on both mountain and road bikes. You get a weight on a string (plumb line) and put the string on the knee when the leg is extended to the lowest part of the pedal stroke. The center of the weight, which should also be a direct line down from the knee in a vertical line, should be at or at least close to the center of the pedal.

There are lots of other things to consider when purchasing a bike, but they aren't as important unless your child becomes serious or starts racing bikes.

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