for the same reason people seem to like woom i've tried to avoid it. kinda
fits in line (IMO) with liking rivendell. its a bit off the beaten path.
with that said, we came upon our kids first bike through a buy nothing
group on facebook. the brand is kokua, and it weighs less than most if not
The Woom 3 was perfect for a 4 year old who just could'nt grasp balancing
once the training wheels were taken off. I truly beleive that training
wheels hinder a kid from learning to ride, the balance bikes are the way to
go. The day the Woom arrives I removed the pedals and had the kiddo ride
Folks - thank you so much for all of your incredibly helpful & thoughtful
responses! I've read through each one multiple times and feel so much
better informed now and can't wait to transition to the pedaling years with
my son!
Nick
On Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 3:55:09 PM UTC-5 Nick
I've had three boys grow through countless numbers of balance bikes, 12",
16" and 20" bikes. A few things I have learned:
- I care much more about bike geometry than my kids do. Smaller bikes
are typically worse than bigger bikes. Kid specific bikes (Cleary, woom)
are better than non
Not a direct answer but for comparison information of objective spec and
geometry for a child's bike I humbly offer Brian Chapman's chronology of
bikes for his son, Tully,
Photos of first bike:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chapmancycles/albums/72157712905024887
Oh yes, component specs can also certainly play a factor for anyone wishing
to adapt things further as the kids grow. Our REI balance bike frame takes
a 27.2 seatpost and 1" threaded headset with very short quill stem with
narrow diameter bar clamp (maybe 22.2 but haven't put calipers to it.)
I recently bought a Woom 2 for our son for his 3rd birthday in September.
Our kid is tall for his age (98th percentile), but he still couldn't fit
comfortably on our spare 16" Cleary Hedgehog. Didn't stop him from trying
tho! My impression is that the Woom is a little more upright, better
My just-turned-four-year-old has only been interested in the small balance
bike for a month or two, but now he's advanced to zipping around quite
quickly and easily.
So, I started looking into Wooms and Clearys here in the Los Angeles area.
A shop advised me that while the Wooms are lighter
>
> Oh, one other benefit of some local shops is they sometimes have a
> guaranteed trade in program for sizing up. I actually think that is an
> option for our Trek if we wanted to trade in for a bigger size with a
> credit applied. I still need to look into that as I forget if it was
>
We went from a 12" balance to 16" pedal and that transition worked out well
with one caveat - we used both simultaneously. I'd 100% agree with your
concern with quickly outgrowing a 14" as the seatpost is already maxed out
for our 6+yr old on our Trek Precaliber 16. I'd suggest checking out
Hi Nick and list,
I don't have personal experience with the Woom brand but I can direct you
to this site, which has a great list of "better" kids' bikes in different
sizes and types, along with (crucially) the weight of
each: https://thebikedads.com/
The site's authors have a mountain-biking
I've been happy with Woom bikes too. A couple things I liked
- They have good resell value, I've been able to sell them for > 50% of
what they were new
- They are readily available used. I set a craigslist alert and waited for
the one I wanted
- They are adjustable enough so I could skip
I have a giant 3yo that has been crushing it on their balance bike. I opted
for a 14" Guardian bike based on the reviews from TwoWheelingTots. I can't
believe how heavy it is. Even using it as a balance bike my 3yo is unable
to control it and has lost interest. Wish I would have sprang for the
I will second the Woom series of bikes for kids. The owner has been been
very responsive over the years to my complaints about the early wooms and
now there's very little to fault about them. The joy a kid has on a nice
bike coming down an MTB trail cannot be
beat:
Hi Nick,
The Woom is a great bike. But there are other good kid bikes too. As for
what will work for your kid, it probably depends on his/her size and how
comfortable they are on the balance bike already.
I've got a 3.5 year old kid. For reference, he is smack-dab right in the
average sized,
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