- This blog post is about new trends in children bike segment.
- The influx of cheap consumer goods from Asia in the last 20-30 years has influenced the bike industry as well.
- One of the most influenced categories were the children bikes. The logic behind this was that kids ages from three years until age twelve will grow out their bicycles very fast and switch from one size to another within two maximum three years. Because of this it was not worth to buy good quality bicycles for them. So step by step these bikes were getting cheaper and cheaper until they were sometimes sold below 100 euros.
- As you can imagine these bicycles were not properly designed and the parts that were used for assembling them were of really baaaad quality.
- What did this do?
- First the dealers and service network didn’t have any real profit on them so these bikes ended up being sold in supermarkets and toy shops. Because of this kids bikes were not properly adjusted and there was practically no support or service for them. This made them terrible to ride and kids were not motivated to do so at all.
- For parents this meant lot of frustration.
- In the end for kids this meant terrible riding experience, uncomfortable bikes which are difficult to ride and then there was danger of being hurt by bad quality parts. For example did you try to brake with these bikes? No chance to stop!
- Therefore kids bikes were and still are quite a mess and they are ridden by our own children !
- Luckily in the recent couple of years there are companies that took a chance and developed really good bicycles especially designed for the children. At the same time it was a great timing that many parents were conscious about their kids and were willing to pay more to buy good bikes for them. It was a match made in heaven.
- So what did these companies do to make such a great kids bike?
- First they have made them lighter. Imagine a kid that is less than 20kg in body weight picking up and handling a bike that is 10 kg heavy. It is same like our own bikes were 40 kg . That would truly be a tank for us. So factories used composite materials, lighter alloys and took care of each parts weight to get a lightweight easy to handle bikes.
- Secondly they designed a special geometry for children. There are certain differences between children and adults anatomy. So with much effort they came up with new geometries that made it much more pleasurable to ride bikes.
- Third they took care of so called Q factor. Q factor is the width between pedals which is decisive for the riding position. It determines the angle of the riders legs. The width of the pedals in kids bikes was same as with adult bikes because similar BB’s and chainwheels were used to produce them. Kids having much shorter legs than adults resulted that kids legs were at an bad angle pushing to the side instead of downwards thus loosing a lot of strength. Factories making a new generation of good quality kids bikes developed new shorter BB’s and developed chainwheels with cranks with no side angle together with a few small tweaks to the frame to make all of this possible.
- Fourth parts like saddles, grips, stems, handlebars etc were all redesigned to make them safer so that there are no sharp edges that your kids can get hurt from.
- Finally they provide a good service and support! Some even go as far as accepting a used bicycle and changing it with a new one when your kid grows out of it. What an amazing idea 😊
- In conclusion we all need to support this trend as it is making our kids safe and letting them enjoy riding bicycles now and stimulating them to do so more and in the future !
- Thank you for your attention, make sure to follow 128.bike and ride safe with your kids !
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