These lightweight kids bike brands bypass the local bike shops and sporting goods stores and ship bicycles for kids directly to the consumer. There are several kids bike brands that consistently show up in the top kids bikes lists. Built with impressive attention to the fine details, these brands are all micro-focused on building bikes to improve a child’s riding experience. In fact, the origin stories of most of these brands begin with frustrated parents looking for a better bike for their own kids. Hand brakes on a child’s bike are always preferred over coaster brakes (back-pedal brakes). Unfortunately, the vast majority of kids bikes on the market come with coaster brakes.
For additional details on each of these brands, jump down to our Best Kids Bike Brands below. 700kg, one horsepower, no steering, no brakes, capable of autonomous operation… All this debate (in which I admit I participated) is beside the point, if a hoodlum in the street slashes at you with a knife is it OK if they meant to miss you? The fact is that a large man rode a very large and dangerous (in this context) animal at a small woman on a bike and slashed in her direction with a whip. To me it looks as though the whip strikes the front wheel on a down and back movement. Clearly the entitled snobs think they have the right of way as per usual.
For more advanced or aggressive riders, grip shifters aren’t ideal as they don’t allow kids to shift as quickly. The brands we showcase on this page truly deliver the best kids bikes on the market. We have seen countless kids struggle kent road bike on a cheap, big-box store bike only to hop onto a lightweight, high-end bike and pedal away like a champ. All of these brands sell direct-to-consumer and can be purchased from their websites by clicking on the links below.
Even so, the design on both was a little outlandish for most of our panel testers. You can view just how we did it—and how to try this test yourself with your own sunglasses—in the animation below. These comfy sunglasses are made from acetate, which gives them a more-premium look and feel. They’re easily filled with prescription lenses by an online retailer we like. These sunglasses are perfectly comfortable and look good on just about every face.
With steel frames, Cleary bikes weigh just a bit more than a brand like woom, but these bikes are made to take a beating and will keep on rolling for years to come. To aide in durability, the Cleary’s geared bikes are built with internally geared hubs, which eliminates the need for notoriously finicky derailleurs. Woom’s larger bikes have an evolved design that keeps riding simple and natural, but allows kids to get more adventurous and aggressive as they grow their skills. In addition to maintaining their light weight, the larger woom bikes feature a unique, adjustable-height stem to allow for kids to customize the height of the handlebars.
Unfortunately, they simply cannot compete with our round Kent Wang Keyhole pick, which I will have buried with me. These slightly pricey sunglasses are made from cellulose acetate, which is a little more durable than standard plastic. These sunglasses are easy to wear for long periods of time, and they fit snugly on most faces, thanks to their sturdy metal build. The type of shifters on a bike can make shifting a breeze or a challenge for young riders.
Beyond their striking colors, the Sydney sunglasses’s interesting design sets them apart. Their lenses and frames are more square-shaped and angular than the soft round edges of the cheaper Goodr The OGs. And unlike most other Wayfarer-style sunglasses, they have a keyhole nose bridge, which helps make them look visually lighter and less overwhelming on the face.
A 7-speed bike with a gain ratio range (the spread between the lowest and the highest gear) of 2.2 to 4.45 offers a much more narrow gear range than a 7-speed bike with a 2.2 to 6.7 gain ratio range. Higher-end bikes are built with narrower components that allow the bike to be narrower kent bayside cruiser between the pedals, which prevents splay. With minimal or no splay in a child’s pedal stroke, pedaling becomes much more natural and comfortable. As you can see above, the splay required to pedal on the Islabike on the left is much less than the splay of the Schwinn on the right.
Whereas the Sungait round sunglasses have plastic frames with metal arms, these Kent Wang sunglasses are made from cellulose acetate, which is more lightweight and flexible than basic plastic frames. Despite being bulkier than the Sungait pair, the Kent Wang sunglasses weigh about the same. The Keyhole glasses come in various shades of vibrant acetate or horn (though the latter costs $95 more), and both versions are distinct and striking. For our testers, the glasses have garnered compliments from friends and acquaintances, as well as “Where are those from? While some cheap kids bikes have hand brakes, they are typically hard to reach and very unreliable.
Often built with single-pivot calipers, budget hands brakes are almost impossible to properly adjust and should not be expected to stop a bike. Quickly and confidentially stopping a bike is essential to a child’s safety on a bike. The brakes on kids bikes, however, range vastly in quality and performance. The brakes on higher-end bikes stop faster and with much less effort required by the child. While all kids benefit from lightweight bikes, a few pounds makes an even bigger difference for young, timid, or beginning riders.