Our 3 year old was measured for a 16 inch bike and he is certainly ready! Even though funds are tight, I'm willing to make an investment in something that is well constructed and will help him to learn 2 wheeler biking without too much frustration.
Since I so appreciate the wisdom of all of you fabulous women, I always start here first to get the best advice! I would love to hear if you have a bike that you would "buy all over again" for your child. Thanks!
I second the rec to look for a secondhand bike - kids grow so quickly at this age! Another thing you can try for helping him learn is to remove the pedals temporarily so that he can scoot it around like one of those expensive "balance bikes" - this link shows an example: http://bottleworld.net/?p=179
Always go with a smaller size bike to begin with. Can your son's feet reach the ground while sitting on the 16" bike? Much easier to learn and gain confidence if they can reach the ground w/o tipping. My 3 yr old rides a 12" w/o training wheels. Got him a Huffy from WalMart since it was cheap and he rides like a pro! It's little, inexpensive but the tires are real and it is just like any other bike just smaller. He absolutely loves it and is on it every day.
we bought a first bike for my son from walmart. it was a great deal, or so we thought, until we got it home and discovered it didnt have brakes! after a much more thorough inspection of the box than it got at the store, we discovered in very tiny writing that it didnt come with brakes. WTH?! a kids bike with no brakes!! luckily we have a very flat drive and the kid next door showed our son how to stop sideways without brakes. so, make sure the bike has brakes!!
Our son's first bike was a Diego bike we got at ToysRUs. It worked great and is the ONLY 14 in. bike we could find. He out grew it in a year but it worked well at that time. He is now in a 16 in. bike and we bought a used Mongoose. The only thing I would caution is to not get a BMX style bike. The handle bars are farther away from the seat for doing tricks. We went through 4 bikes before we found this Mongoose. He couldn't ride the others without training wheels without feeling like he was going to fall off. With this one, he was riding without training wheels in 1 hour. As far as the construction, this bike has been VERY durable as he lays it down on it's side all the time and it's still in excellent shape.
I just wanted to second the advice to buy used - kids grown fast and move up in size quickly. We found great bikes on CraigsList (unless you plan to have more kids - you'll be selling yours there anyway).
Also, some of the local bike shops have programs where they'll let you buy a new bike then trade it back in (50% of its original value) for new bikes - you can keep doing this until they're in an adult bike.
If you're son's in preschool, you might want to check with parents of the older kids - some may have moved out of a 12" bike (great starter) that they'd be willing to sell or give you.
my advice,.. DONT buy a brand new one... kids grow quickly, instead, you can get MANY great deals on Craig's list... we bought my son a bike that was listed on there for $20.00 and it was lightly used..
I would recommend that you don't get a 16" bike at 3yrs old. I can't imagine him being tall enough plus I have learned it is so much easier for a child to learn how to ride without training wheels when the bike is smaller - so much easier for them to control & not be scared of or frustrated. My friends twin 3yr old sons learned to ride at age 3 on 12" bikes & my son learned at 4yrs on a 12" bike. My daughter at 4yrs on a 12" bike also. At the most I would get a 14" as I know 12" are hard to find. But it made a huge difference in our kids learning to ride at earlier ages. I know kids at age 7 who still ride with training wheels - I think because they were given too big of bikes & were scared to learn.
We got cheap ($30-$60 from TRU) 12", then 14" bikes for them & once they were good riders we went to a local bike shop & got them 16" & 18" bikes for about $150. We then sold our cheap bikes for $15 or so. Very happy we did it this way. My husband is an avid biker & now my kids are great riders.
Good luck!
Look for a bike with a solid frame, so the bike is heavy (pick up bikes at the store and feel them for weight). The heaviness helps him balance!
My son got a bike when he turned 4, we got him a spider man bike from Toys R Us that he LOVES, it came with training wheels and they put it together! It was $79.99 I think...and so far he has not broken it or hurt himself in the 2 mths since we got it.
good luck, how exciting!!
This isn't in your question and you say he is ready but for other readers perhaps this would be good to know.
When my nephew was having a hard time learning how to ride a bike, my dad read up on it and found that using a scooter first was a great way to learn how to balance and propel a bike.
So we got our son a scooter and then later, there was a cub scout bike hike his 2nd week in scouts. Ohhh dear, we didn't have a bike nor had he ever been on one! Yikes. He went over to a friend's house and rode their youngest son's bike and in a couple hours he was riding (no training wheels) and the next day he went on the bike hike and did fine. So he loved biking and we got an used bike which he loves and is on whenever we let him!
So you moms with kids that struggle to learn biking, get em a scooter first. (Best of all, a new 'razor' scooter is only $40.)
