I’m looking for a good 16” bike for relatively short term use for our 4 and half year old son. He rides a 14” Early Rider belter which we love, but has outgrown it.
I’m trying to solve two issues I find a little odd - firstly there seems to be no such thing as an 18” kids bike, which seems strange to me as by the time a child has fully outgrown a 14” they are well into the range for a 16” and it’ll only last a year at most. And secondly the stupid law in Australia means all the stock 16” bikes have a coaster brake, which in my humble opinion could teach bad habits and would just have to be unlearned later. Our kids have ridden the Early Rider with front and rear brake since they were 3 so I feel a coaster brake would be a step back.
With our daughter who is now almost 7, we skipped the 16” size and went straight to a 20”. She just about was big enough to ride it, but it was such a big jump it set her riding back a bit and I don’t want to repeat that mistake. We love the Early Riders and I think will buy him a 20” one in about a year, but they are very expensive (over $1000 with shipping to Australia) and can’t be bought here (partly due to the coaster brake law I’m sure), so I’m not really keen on getting one as a short term fix.
I’d love to hear any solutions people have for a good, lightweight 16” kids bike with front and rear brake that’s not going to cost four figures. And I’d be quite open to a second hand option and happy to pay postage. You’d think it wouldn’t be hard to find, but I’m out of ideas!
I have an answer Base Bike 16. It’s an Australian company trying to build lightweight quality bikes, no coaster brakes, short cranks, slack geo, and it’s about $600 and weighs 7kg.
Full disclosure, I was given this bike as a long term test by Base Bike but it is a very good bike.
ByK use oversize 18” wheels - in this size you’re looking at the E350.
Most are coaster brake though (as well as dual caliper/vee brakes). I suppose you could either replace or gut the rear hub?
I do recall when my kids were that small that ByK briefly did a “race” model that I think removed the coaster brake. They were all in a yellow and white colour combo from memory if you find one on the used market.
Closing the loop for anyone who may be interested.
I looked at all the above and was most tempted by the Base bike options. I think they look great value and quality. But my son had a bit of a freak out about the larger frame and 20” wheels. The saddle heights are pretty low on the Base which pushed him well in to the 20” range for the fit even at 4.5 years old, which strangely pushed me towards the problem I was initially trying to solve (of 20” bikes being too big for a 4 year old).
All that measuring and comparing (re)convinced me the 16” Early Rider range was the best fit and my wife found that Currumbin Cycles in QLD have procured an extensive range of them at much cheaper than the self import prices: Search: 43 results found for "early rider" – Page 2 – Currumbin Cycles - with free AU delivery.
I just ordered him a Seeker X16, which looks to have plenty room for saddle height increases but will be otherwise a great fit. Oddly we ended up where I initially wanted to go, but with a lot more confidence and about a third cheaper than I initially feared.
Thanks all for the help and I hope others find this useful later.
