The Pedal Club Size Guide

Welcome to The Pedal Club size guide!

The whole premise of The Pedal Club is to give you, the parents, flexibility when dealing with your children's bikes by exchanging them as your child grows. Therefore, the size of the bike doesn't matter, right? WRONG! It's always important to find the perfect size regardless of how good The Pedal Club's service is!

Yes, this is a fairly comprehensive guide when it comes to sizing your child for a bike (though we say so ourselves) BUT we must make it clear that it is not an exact science and we implore you to contact us if, after reading this, you are still unsure.

The first thing to note is that there are three key variables when it comes to sizing your child for the most suitable bike:

  1. Age
  2. Height
  3. Confidence/Ability

Children's bicycles are measured entirely by wheel size. When you hear one of our experts allude to a 16inch or a 20inch bike, this is merely a reference to the diameter of the wheel.

When choosing the right size bike for your child it is simply a case of looking at the general guide below and applying the three key variables to that guide. Take this example:

Customer 'my son is...'

  • 5 years old;
  • 90 cm; 
  • Learning to ride

Age

Height (cm)

Bike Size

Bike Size (ByK)

1-4

<85

Balance

E-200L / E-250L

2-5

75-90

12in

E-200 / E-250

4-6

85-110

16in

E-350

5-8

105-130

20in

E-450

7-11

125-150

24in

E-540

11-13

145-160

26in

E-620

 

In this case the customer's son sits comfortably in the 16 inch bike bracket on both age and height. However, we would actually recommend going for a 12 inch bike. Why?

Because the customer's son is just learning to ride he will have a lot more control over the smaller bike.

Remember, as soon as the customer's son has mastered the 12 inch or has completely outgrown it, it's an incredibly easy process to swap it in for the bigger model, even if at that point he still needs training wheels attached.

Once the bike has been delivered it is important to check the bike is definitely the right size for the child. This can be done in three easy steps:

Step 1: check they can straddle the top bar with comfortable clearance and with both feet flat on the ground.

Step 2: check they can sit on the saddle and rest the balls of both feet on the ground.

Step 3: check that they can reach the handlebars with a slight bend in the arms when sitting on the seat and if there are handbrakes that they can grab them and easily apply enough pressure to stop the bike.