ByK E-2 Kamo Orange

HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT SIZE KIDS BIKE

When it comes to choosing the right size kids bike, our over-riding advice is 'smaller is better than bigger'. Children learn to ride with greater ease, have more control on the bike and have a lot more fun if they are the master of their domain.

Our overall advice on choosing the right size kids' bike is based not only on Age and Height, but Ability and Personal Confidence.  

It is all too common to see parents using height as the only key measurement for a bike's correct size. Be careful: it can easily be misleading as an indicator. As most kids' balance develops at roughly the same speed, using age with ability is far more relevant. If you can add age, with height, and ability (ability is a hard one to measure but as a parent you must be honest and realistic) and confidence, than you have a really good indicator.

A BIKE IS THE RIGHT SIZE WHEN YOUR CHILD CAN:

• Sit on the saddle and rest the balls of both feet on the ground.
• Straddle the top bar with a comfortable clearance and with both feet flat on the ground.
• Reach the handlebars with a slight bend in the arms when sitting on the seat.
• If there are handbrakes, your child should be able to grasp them and apply enough pressure to stop the bike. 

The most common reason kids have to move up a size on a normal bike is because of the lack of knee room between the seat and handlebars. This forces you to put up the seat and then your child loses interest or confidence in riding because the centre of gravity is really high and hence the bike becomes even more difficult to ride.

ByK bikes have more knee room than other bikes, which helps to lengthen the life of the bike and make the bike handle in a more predictable way.