Yay, your child is almost ready, he or she can start learning to ride a bike, what a party! I found it quite a revelation when my children were old enough to start cycling. The world just got a little bigger for them. And it will also cost more, because once they can cycle, you can buy a new bike for your child every few years. Or a second-hand one of course, but I mean a new size bike for your child. And do you know which bike size you should keep for your child? I always thought that was the biggest challenge.
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The reason I find that difficult to determine myself is because you have to take several things into account. You want them to remain confident in cycling. So don't switch to a bigger bike too quickly. But if your child continues to cycle on a small size bike for too long, they will start to grumble more and more. It is not nice to cycle on a bike that is too small and they also have to pedal even faster to keep up with you.
In our case it was perhaps even more difficult with the youngest, because she really had a certain fear of cycling when she was a bit younger. And she still finds some things exciting on the bike. Cycling through a wooden 'gate', for example. That's why it took us a little longer before we started looking at a new bike for her. And I still find it difficult which bicycle size we should use for our child. Actually, she can easily go up to a bigger bike size at the moment if I look at her height, but I still think it's fine because of her fears.
Nevertheless, there are guidelines for the bicycle size that you can use for your child per age. After they have learned to ride a bike without training wheels, this table may be able to help you on your way. Assuming that your child is about average in his or her growth, you can logically use the bike sizes below.
Although I have mentioned the bicycle sizes in the table above, including the relevant age, you should take that age with a grain of salt. And actually you shouldn't stick to the clothing size. The most important guideline if you want to know which bicycle size suits your child well is actually the height of your child at that moment. Because the size determines for the most part which frame distance suits your child best, what the best distance is to the pedals and which bicycle size (inch size) belongs to the wheels.
Whether you are going to buy a new or a second-hand bike, the most important thing to keep in mind is the bike size, we now know that. The length measurement I have indicated above is of course also an estimate, because one simply has longer legs than the other, and it actually depends on that.
If you really want to measure which bike size best suits your child, then you will actually measure your child's leg length. I never let it get that far myself. But if you do want to do it this way, the measurement below will do the trick for you:
Measuring the inseam is simple:stand (without shoes) with the feet about 15 centimeters apart. Then measure the distance from the top of the leg to the floor; this is the inseam and in the table you will find the corresponding bicycle size that fits.
And if you have spent years debating the right bicycle size for your child, the moment comes when you suddenly realize that your child is just as big as you are. Or worse… bigger than you are. That is when other questions suddenly arise, as I recently noticed when I got my electric bicycle myself.
From the moment that I own an electric bicycle, my son, who is fully in his adolescence, has suddenly started whining that he also wants an electric bicycle. But that's a completely different story, of course.
