How to Shop for a Bike for Your Kid

All the experts we consulted cautioned against buying the cheapest bikes you could find at a big-box store. That’s because many of the mass-market discount bikes are of dubious quality, and the parts aren’t always easily adjustable. That matters because after that initial fitting with your child at a bike shop, you’ll want that store to refine all the touch points when you purchase a bike. 

Those changes can include the reach to the bars, swapping out the saddle for one with a better fit, both width- and lengthwise, as well as adjusting seat height, and possibly the brakes and shifting components—all of which matter to the comfortable and safe operation of the bike. A cheap bike that doesn’t have common or adjustable parts will make it difficult, if not impossible, to change or swap these parts. So even if you chance into a bike that works for your kid right now, it won’t be able to grow with your child, and you’ll end up shopping for another one within a year or so. 

A high-quality new bike will cost you $400 to $600. That is the rough range of a new kid’s bike that’s adjustable and lighter weight. But a good bike can also return at least part of its value on the resale market. Justin England is the director of business development at the Pro’s Closet, an online retailer that buys and resells bikes. He says big-box store bikes have “zero resale market. They go straight into a dumpster once your kid outgrows them.” But the flipside is that England says his company does resell bikes from well-known, reputable makers, such as Giant, Specialized, Woom, Cannondale, and Trek. England adds that a decent bike for a child will last through generations of kids because “you’ll sell it to a friend or resell it on Craigslist. That also means that it’s a sustainable product, as well as giving you a return on investment.” 

That also means that you can save even more money by shopping the used market (more on that below), where a typical high-quality bike can go for $250 to $450.