My daughter is 3.5 years old. She has learned to pedal a trike and has been asking for a bike. We are hoping to get her a used bike to start off with, any suggestions of what size works the best for a first bike? 12"? 14"?
Really, it depends on how tall she is and how long her legs are. Go to the store and have her sit on each one. At this age, you shouldn't get her a bike that's too big. She'll probably want to be able to sit on the bike while her feet touch the ground.
It all depends on her height. She needs to be able to sit on the seat and be able to put her feet on the ground.
It really depends upon how tall she is. My advice would be to take her along to sit on the bike before you buy it. Her legs should be slightly bent when the pedal is down.
The best advice I can give you is to go to a bike store (even if you're not planning on purchasing a bike there), and have them fit her.
Our son started with a 12" at 2.5 years. He's completely outgrown it. We're planning on getting him a 16" for his birthday in a few weeks. We've gone to a few bike stores, and that has been the advice from them to accommodate growth, removing training wheels, etc.
One of our neighbors got her son an 18" because it was on sale. He's 4.5, and it's way too big for him. He won't be able to remove the training wheels for a few years at this rate because of how gigantic it is compared to his body.
Better than a 12" with training wheels (just say no to training wheels!!!) is what's known as a balance bike. http://www.runbikes.com/home.jsp
my 3 and half year old granddaughter has a 12 inch bike and my granddaughter who just turned 4 is much bigger so I bought her a 16 inch for her birthday last weekend. Have them sit on the seat at the lowest position, this gives them growing room. They should be able to touch the ground. If they can't they won't be able to catch themselves as easy if they tip over. By next summer, my younger granddaughter may need to go into a 16 inch bike but to have bought it for her now would have been rough.
how tall is she? my 3.5 year old fits great on a 12 inch... though her feet can just touch the pedals on the 16 inch bike... so she could probably move up to that soon. She's 38 inches tall though.. pretty short for her age. her big sister was more like 42 inches tall at 3.5 years, so she started with a 16 inch bike.
Take her to wal-mart and have her sit on the different sizes. Than you can take that knowledge with you when you go to look for a used one.
She needs to be able to sit on the seat and touch the ground so she can balance in preparation for no training wheels. Take her to Wal-Mart and "try" a few bikes on for size.
We skipped the 14". Someone give us the 12" and K used it for quite some time but had a growth spurt this year.
