Comment by analog31
3 days ago
The typical quality of kids bikes in the US is appalling. I wouldn't trust a bike made with hand brakes unless I could adjust and maintain them myself, which I can. But a lot of parents can't. And the weight is inexplicable, given how much smaller they are.
Oh yes it may very well over half your kid’s weight. These things are ABSURDLY heavy.
This makes starting hard (an already hard problem when learning), it makes falling off worse because there is so much weight pulling down, and then they get pinned under all that weight so it can be hard to get up again. It makes walking the bike uphill physically impossible so if it is hilly you can't actually go out for a ride.
There will be at least some people out there whose road bike weights less than their toddler’s bike.
My kid's first bike with pedals was the Specialized Jett 16" at 8-9kg, that's absurd. Her newer bike is a more reasonable 5.6kg.