We have a balance bike graduate!! MMBiT (Mushing Mtb'r in Training) number 2 is so much more petite at this age than her older brother was, so average height and weight brother did fantastic on his average weight, quality kid specific brand bike (Stampede Sprinter 14). He loved how it rode and looked, we loved it as parents for the ease of use and perfect intersection of quality meets budget...but just-on-the-charts sister who's still solidly in US girls 3T going toward her 4th birthday in about 3 months was out of proportion enough with the weight to have her otherwise great balance thrown off on the few times she asked to try it. I just knew she was capable of pedaling by herself, and I've Been there with the short girl problems - still there LoL So I got on the list to be notified when the Early Rider Seeker 14 was back in stock!
Her first real ride was all I had hoped for for her (Oh, my heart!). She really did just play with the pedals by hand the day before and flintstone it a bit, then played like that again at the trail for maybe 10 minutes. Then she just said, "I'm ready to pedal now!" And she was :D Chat gravel, even a fun puddle to coast through, and the sprinklers turned on! Doesn't get much better than that for a first pedaling ride! We'll let her have a few more outings at this seat height (which we didn't even need The lowest height, wow!), then move it up a touch more to give her more pedaling leverage for starting completely solo and for going up hills :) Oh, the places she will shred on this fun little bike - and I get to watch all of those firsts and falling more in love with bikes and nature and trails, all over again!!!
I was tempted to go for the 16", being not significantly heavier than this and with a minimum seat height that would probably match where she is after a few more rides on this one, But this is the perfect fit/spec bike for her Now. And when she gets to the upper limits of it, then we can figure out what the perfect 16" is for her size and skills then, since she will also not be able to skip straight to a 20" with gears and disc brakes like her brother did at 5 and change.
I knew based on the info on Early Rider and the reputation of their 16" Belters that the Seeker 14 was exactly what we wanted as a mostly off-road family, and that it should allow her petite self to just hop on and pedal off Right Away without any fuss or frustration...but, Ah, the burden of the ones trying to plan the bike budget for a family of kids and adults for now and into the future lol Great choice was confirmed the second I pulled it out of the box though - the weight savings was obvious, which is great since it was definitely the biggest improvement we were after. I just got happier as I did the last bit of assembly and dialing in - I mean seriously, presta valves on 14" wheels, so that you don't have to try to pry out the standard valve stem that keeps punching back into the rim when you try to put the pump head on?!? And as the designated bike washer/luber/fixer in the household, I can't over-emphasize my excitement about the belt drive!!! I'm not sure what age others expect their kids to be responsible (without You needing to remember to remind them) for at least drying off their chain after each ride, but my kids aren't there yet. With the sometimes chaos of coordinating kid bike rides, I'm glad to be able to add a new pedaler Without adding another chain to take care of yet :D I can't help but drool over how Smooth all the bearings are too! Hot dang, max efficiency for all of her younger sibling and shorter person determination :) I even think the brakes are really nice to work with, which I was really surprised by since I generally find cable, and especially rim cable brakes, an annoying but appropriate for some applications evil (I think I just hate all bike cables, but I can't afford for them to be obsolete yet! LoL). And we already knew we love the tires - same brand and tread pattern that I got for older brother's 20" bike, and would have gotten for the other 14" bike had we used it for her. She's so excited to be shredding with us on the trails, and she'll definitely have more grip and cush for happier, longer, fun family singletrack rides!
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