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Giant tips on buying your child a bike for Christmas
Giant Bicycles have equipped their children’s bikes with easy-to-use coaster brakes. The coaster brakes, which are specified on Giant bikes aimed at ages 2-4, work by pedalling backwards and eliminate the problems encountered by small children whose small hands cannot operate handlebar brakes effectively.
Ian Beasant, marketing director at Giant Bicycles UK says:
“In Europe and America coaster brakes are very popular: it’s only here in the UK that they haven’t been available. Little children have great difficulty using the traditional hand brake located on the handlebars because their hands are too little to grasp the lever and not strong enough to pull it towards them. The coaster brakes are much more child-friendly, safer and help nurture confidence because the children feel more in control”.
Giant dealer, Tim Peterson, The Cycle Centre London, gives parents additional tips on buying a child’s bike:
• Local bike shops have qualified mechanics to assemble bikes safely. Using your local bike shop also means you have a port of call should anything go wrong. [Buying a bike unassembled is time consuming and potentially unsafe. Should anything go wrong there isn’t an expert on hand to help and a replacement bike will also need assembling.]
• If it’s a first bike, your child should be able to place their feet almost flat on the floor [not absolutely flat] whilst sitting on a bike [unlike adults who should be able to touch the floor with their toes]. This will help your child feel in control: if children feel unsafe and are frightened in the first few days of riding it could take some time to coax them back on their bike.
Giant tips on buying your child a bike for Christmas.
• When you buy a child’s bike make sure the seat is at its lowest position so that you have about 10 or 12 inches of seat post left: this will make the bike usable for longer.
Carlton Reid, editor of Bicycle Business, the UK trade magazine with a multi award-winning website, http://www.bikebiz.co.uk , believes all children’s bikes should be bought from reputable bike shops. He says:
"You love your kids, right? Nothing’s too good for them, right? So, how come so many parents buy the cheapest kids bikes they can find? It’s illogical! A good quality bike bought from a specialist outlet pays for itself many times over because it can stand-up to kid-abuse and will need less maintenance than a supermarket special that will have rubbishy bearings, weak components and shoddy welding. Cycling is a key life-skill, make it pleasurable for your child, don’t be fooled into thinking a cheap bike is ‘good enough’."
Details of applicable models:
Animator 12” [boys] £69
Puddin’ 12” [girls] £69
