These bikes will be a hit with your 4- to 5-year-old! In this post, we’ll go through the best 16-inch bikes, our budget recommendations, and most significantly, what to look for while making your decision.
If your child (or even you) enjoys biking, you’ll want to make sure you give them a bike on which they can improve their abilities. However, with so many bikes on the market, it can be challenging to decide which one to buy and how they compare.
To assist you, we’ve evaluated dozens of 16-inch (and a few 18-inch) children’s bikes to discover the finest. We’ve compiled a list of the best bikes on the market–lightweight, well-designed, and made to last.
We’ve included several inexpensive options if you couldn’t afford “the finest.” Finally, you’ll find some advice on picking the ideal bike for your 4- or 5-year-old.
Schwinn Jasmine Bike with Training Wheels — High-End Bike For Kids Ages 5 and Up
Schwinn is the first American bicycle manufacturer. Schwinn has inspired large numbers of people throughout the years, gaining a particular place in the hearts and imaginations of generations of cyclists. We’ve spent more than a century transforming the bicycle business into what it is nowadays, and we’re still not done.
The Schwinn Jasmine Girls Bike with Learning To ride is a compact road bike with a few unique design elements. It has both coasters and a parking brake for effortless stopping, making the transition to a bigger bike with simply a hand brake easier for your youngster.
The bike comes with strong training wheels, and the seat may easily change to accommodate a quickly growing youngster. It also includes a tiny front-mounted basket in the same colors as the frame, allowing your youngster to hold items while riding the bike effortlessly.
Pros
- Brake pedal
- Brake levers
- Basket
- Sturdy construction
- Wheels for training
Cons
- Loosen chain cannot be fixable
RoyalBaby Freestyle Kids Bike
We believe that our young riders are deserving of the best. RoyalBaby is always looking for new ideas. We employed premium materials and technologies to build our bike, including an argon welder and four thicknesses of coating paint, which are common in the luxury car business.
The RoyalBaby BMX Freedom Kid’s Bike is another admittance BMX bike for kids who can get more fun out of riding a bicycle in the initial stages. The RoyalBaby BMX Freestyle bike is intended to cycle on the sand and uneven terrain. It comes in various wheel sizes, ranging from 12″ for a complete BMX adventure to 20″ for a hybrid cycle design.
The frame is simple to put together, and the seat has a quick-release spring for easy adjustability. It also has additional security and safety features such as a bike stainless steel water holder, a bell, and a strong chain guard.
Pros
- Wide selection of wheel sizes
- Water bottle container
- Simple assembly
- Pneumatic tires
- Coaster brakes
Cons
- Bike stabilizers that don’t fit properly
12″ Boys Major Damage/Magna
As its name indicates, the Dynacraft Magna Major Damage bike is built for fun and excitement. This bike, which comes in a bold black and yellow color scheme with “serious damage” written over the frame, is designed to introduce more daring youngsters to BMX riding early.
It is, nevertheless, easily adjustable, enabling it to be used by children as young as eight years old. The training wheels may be removed, allowing the bike to be practical when your child gets older out of the need for them, and they can even change as your child develops.
The Dynacraft Magna Major Damage bike’s main selling point is infinitely adjustable. The adjustable and detachable training wheels and the readily changeable seat height ensure that your child can use this for a long time, even if they are developing quickly!
Pros
- Removable instruction wheels
- Fully adjustable
- Appropriate for older children
- Vibrant hues
- Coaster brakes
Cons
- The front tire doesn’t fit on
RoyalBaby Boys Girls Kids Bike
The RoyalBaby Honey and Buttons Kids bike come in unisex patterns and colors, unique for RoyalBaby. It’s a robust bike for kids that comes in various sizes and with a variety of extras. Training wheels are included on the 12′′ to 16′′ wheel widths, and a kickstand is included on the 16′′ to 18′′ tire sizes.
As is customary with RoyalBaby, all sizes include coaster brakes for ease of use and hand brakes to enable youngsters to learn to utilize hand brakes before progressing to a giant bike with no other stopping options. The bike comes with a whistle and a toolset for quick assembly and accessorization, and the seat is well-padded for convenience even in rough conditions.
Most RoyalBaby’s bikes are designed primarily for females, so it’s refreshing to find one with a unisex appearance, mainly because their emphasis on dual braking systems aids most children’s development.
Pros
- Unisex appearance
- Coaster brakes
- Manual brake
- Strong training wheels
- Extra-strength construction
Cons
- The chain cannot repair.
Radio Flyer Glide & Go Balance Bike Red
The Radio Flyer Glide N Go Balance Bike is unique from many 5-year-old balancing bikes on the marketplace since it focuses on teaching your child how to stay upright while riding a bicycle. The Glide N Go has no pedals or training wheels, so it’s all about training to remain standing without them.
The seat is easily adjustable for youngsters of all sizes and is well-padded for the most leisurely ride. Because of the emphasis on balance, this isn’t a good choice for transportation, but it’s an excellent learning tool!
The Radio Flyer Glide N Go Balance Bike takes a different approach to train wheels a cycle than a traditional bike with training wheels, but it may help youngsters learn quicker.
Pros
- Compact design
- Balanced focus
- Fully adjustable
- Comfy seat and grips
- Bells
Cons
- The surface area of plastic wheels is insufficient.
Buyers Guide For 5-Year-Old Bikes
BMX bikes vs. road bikes
The contrast between racing and BMX bikes isn’t as noticeable in 5-year-old bicycles as in grownup bikes because most tiny bikes already have comparatively small wheels, similar to BMX bikes. Some kids’ motorcycles are labeled as BMX bikes, and these often have significantly rougher tires than others that aren’t.
If you anticipate your child to spend practically all of their cycling time off-road on challenging terrain, this could be a focus of considerable. Still, for the most part, any bike of comparable size will handle similarly.
Wheels for training
Training wheels are beneficial while learning to ride a bike because they provide more support to the bike, reducing falling over. Most smaller motorcycles will have these, but some of the bigger models mentioned above (especially those with 18″ wheels) will not.
While most bikes can fit with different training wheels, it’s worthwhile double-checking whether the bike you want to buy includes them as standard equipment, as some don’t! It is essential if your child is tall because bigger bikes are less likely to come equipped with training wheels as usual.
Bike Balance
Unlike conventional bikes, which come with training wheels, balancing bikes are meant to educate kids on how to ride a bike without them. These bikes don’t have training wheels or pedals, so they’re all about balance. Children trained on balance bikes seem to be more prone to become professional riders faster and more readily than those taught on regular cycles.
However, the fundamental disadvantage of balancing bikes is that they cannot be utilized as a general form of transportation. Even a modest training bike can help your youngster travel around town faster. Still, balancing bikes lack transportation functions and are solely valuable as a learning tool due to their pedal-free design.
Adjustability
One thing that practically every 5-year-old has in common is that they develop quickly. Bikes are costly, so lowering the chances that your youngster may outgrow them sooner than you’d want is critical. Most motorcycles, fortunately, can be modified, with both the seat columns and handlebars being adjustable.
Some bikes are more accessible to modify than others, so be sure the bike you’re considering can have its seat and handlebars unfastened and changed by hand or whether you’ll need to use tools to dismantle it.
Transport
One of the main benefits of 5-year-old bikes is that they’re thinner and lighter than grown-up bikes, making them much easier to ride. Many of them should be easy to pick up and take around with little effort, while some of the more durable BMX models have a heavier steel structure that requires more work to carry.
However, stabilizers add a lot of horizontal space to a bike and make storage difficult. Furthermore, no child’s bike will be as small as a grownup folding bike, yet the tiny weight of a little bike will undoubtedly make a significant difference in its ease of carrying.
Conclusion
When purchasing a bike for a 5-year-old in 2022, there are a lot of alternatives, but with this advice, you can shop with confidence, knowing that you understand the differences between the different designs.
The most crucial aspect is your child’s needs, but there should be a motorcycle out there to meet any combination of those demands. Because the market is so large, you should be able to discover anything with good searching, and this guide is here to help you limit that down.