We know you love biking so much that you want to start your 3 to 4-year-old on the path to enjoying what you love as soon as possible. Hey, we’ve been there too! If your kid barely knows how to balance, then we’d recommend that you start him on a balance bike, but if your kid is like ours and is a special kind of awesome who can now manage a good ol’ pedal bike, then this roundup is for you.
Indeed, we’ve scoured the internet to find the best starter bikes for kids who are 3 to 4 years old. Naturally, we’ve limited ourselves to bikes that offer 14″ sized wheels, because this is definitely the wheel size a 3 to 4-year-old should be riding.
In any case, without further ado, here are the best starter bikes for kids who are 3 to 4 years old.
Hoy Bonaly 14
This can be considered a new product launch from Hoy bikes because the smallest bikes they make used to be 16″ wheel bikes. Well, now they’ve come up with 14″ wheel bikes that incorporate the same high quality that one would expect from a Hoy bike.
Unfortunately, we haven’t gotten our hands on a Hoy Bonaly 14—they’ve only been released this year, after all. We have, however, been able to review the 16″ wheel version. And we can confirm that that was a great bike. It was lightweight, and the components were of excellent quality. The tires were thick, too, which gave us confidence that it won’t damage easily even on rougher terrain.
We also appreciate the addition of a chain guard to protect your child from getting soiled up by the grime. It will also protect against a skirt or a piece of clothing from getting stuck in the chain.
Frog 40
The frame on this bike is made from aluminum, which means it’s durable and lightweight. This bike can definitely be your kid’s daily beater because this thing feels built to last. Indeed, Frog bikes are top-rated among kids, and they’ve been dominating the kid’s bike market for some time now. In fact, Frog bikes are known to have great resale value. Of course, the reason for this is because they are hardwearing.
What can we say, Frog makes good kids bikes, and their customer service is known to be excellent, too. So if you have any questions about your Frog, or need anything replaced, it’ll be good to know that the company employed a slew of people behind the scenes working solely to make customers happy.
We particularly loved the Tektro V-Brakes (rim brakes). They were responsive, consistent, and had great modulation. It is small details like this that add up to give parents confidence in the bike their child is riding.
Islabikes Cnoc 14
Islabikes is another renowned manufacturer of kids bikes, and when you get an Islabike, you just know you’re getting something that will last. Indeed, we’d even recommend that you order this one early if you intend to give it as a gift because Islabikes are often out of stock because of their high demand.
The frame is aluminum, which means it is lightweight and durable. Each component of this bike also screams high quality. And, again, to go back to the frame, there is simply something about how it was designed that makes it easy for kids to balance in. This, of course, is partly a result of the longer wheelbase, but we suspect it also has something to do with the fact that Islabikes has been making bikes for kids for years and have got the design down to a tee.
One reservation might be that this bike is on the pricey side. But, really, if you want a quality bike that will last a long time—trust us, your kid will be too old for this bike long before it breaks—then it is totally worth the price.
WILD 14
Wild bikes are somewhat new to the market—we believe they’ve been launched last 2018—but they’ve been very popular among kids ever since. And, to be sure, there is a good reason for that. One is that it is budget-friendly. Indeed, it’s perhaps the most budget-friendly on this list. And two, for the affordable price, you’re getting a very light aluminum frame and quality Tektro V-brakes, which are known to be very reliable.
Maybe one reservation we have about the WILD 14 is that the warranty, which is 12 months, isn’t as long as others on this list, whose warranties can go as high as 5 years. We’re not sure how to feel about this, but in my personal opinion that is fine, precisely because the price of this bike is so low.
Can we recommend the WILD 14? Yes, we definitely can. You’ll be getting a lot of bike for not a lot of money with this one.
