I get it: you want to buy your child (or grandchild) a bike and you want to do it without spending a ton of money. That’s fair, and really, that’s what we all want, isn’t it?! Unfortunately, buying a Walmart kids bike isn’t the way to do it.
Walmart kids bikes (and ALL Walmart bikes for that matter) are junk. They are heavy, poorly designed, and will fall apart quickly. That doesn’t mean you can’t buy a bike on a budget, it just means that there are better ways to do it. One caveat to this article is that Walmart (no other big box stores we know of) sells high-end bikes under the brand Viathon. They are designed and priced competitively with the other big brands, but do not offer any frame sizes for kids.
Here are 5 reasons why you shouldn’t buy a Walmart kids bike, and 3 better ways to find a good quality bicycle that won’t break the bank.
(And for the record, we’re giving Walmart a hard time here, but this really applies to all big box stores. Don’t buy a bike from a big box store. Buy from a reputable local bike shop, bicycle non-profit, or directly from one of the better kids bike manufacturers).
#1) Most Walmart Kids Bikes are REALLY heavy
Want to know how much a typical Walmart kids bike weighs? Way too much! The #1 best selling bike on Walmart.com, the Huffy 20″ Sea Star, weighs 26.8 pounds. My 6-year-old, who rides a 20″ bike weighs 42 pounds. That means that the Sea Star comes in at 64% of his body weight.
In comparison, I weigh 125 pounds and ride a bike that weighs 25 pounds. That means my bike weighs about 20% of my total body weight, compared to a heavy kids bike that might weigh 50% or more.
That’s a serious problem because kids don’t actually have that much muscle mass and younger kids are still developing their gross motor skills. A heavy bike makes it hard to learn to pedal and ride, and once kids have mastered pedaling, it can make it so they tire quickly. Don’t expect a child on a heavy bike to ride much further than around the block.
When I’m helping parents choose the best bike for their child, I usually tell them to buy the lightest bike that they can afford. In my opinion, weight should be the #1 thing you look for when buying a kids bike. Lighter bikes make it easier for kids to learn how to ride. Lighter bikes are also easier to handle and maneuver making them safer, and are easier to ride longer distances.
That said, you also can’t just look at weight in isolation. Some cheaper bikes are made with low-grade aluminum that’s light but that can easily bend or dent. Other inferior bikes might be lighter simply because they lack components like hand brakes
#2) They are Poorly Designed
In addition to weight, the geometry of a kids bike can make a huge difference in how easy a bike is to handle and ride. Many of the better kids bike brands have invested a lot of time and money into the design of their bikes.
These top-end bikes tend to have a longer wheelbase (the distance from front wheel to rear wheel) which provides increased stability and ease of balance. You’ll also find that they have narrower Q-factors (the distance between the pedals) than Walmart bikes which makes pedaling easier and more efficient. Finally, the geometry of the handlebars can make a big difference. To accommodate for the short wheelbase, poorly designed kids bikes tend to have high-rise BMX-style handlebars that actually reduce control and create a “twitchy” ride for young riders.
Other things that you’ll see on a better-designed kids bike are lower bottom brackets, lower minimum seatpost heights, and shorter cranks.
We have tested A
#3) They’ll Fall Apart Before They Can Handed Down to The Next Kid
The truth is that cheap bikes are usually made with cheap materials. Walmart bikes have lower grade aluminum frames that can bend and crack, have bearings that aren’t sealed and rust, and cheaper components that will break quickly. While they might work well for a while, eventually they are going to start falling apart. In the long run, this makes them a poor investment because they won’t last through as many children.
Higher-end kids bikes, while more expensive initially, can be handed down to two kids or three kids or even four kids. They also have higher resale values, meaning you can often buy a bike, use it for a few years, and then list it on Craigslist and recoup half of your initial investment. It also means that you can
#4) They May Be Improperly Assembled and Potentially Unsafe
Walmart sells bikes but it is not a bike shop. The folks assembling the bikes are not real bike mechanics and they do not have any certifications or professional training.
We’ve seen bikes sold at big box stores with forks installed backward, loose headsets, and other serious safety issues. According to this article from BikeRoar:
Some of the biggest safety concerns discovered were loose handlebars and stems, which are an accident waiting to happen. Other problem areas were poorly adjusted brakes and loose
wheelnuts . Issues like these have already led to serious injury and legal action.
If you do end up having an issue with the bike, you’re also unlikely to get much help. The benefit of buying a bike from a local bike shop or one of the better kids bike manufacturers is the level of customer service and support you’ll receive post-purchase.
#5) They Have Stuff You Don’t Want On a Kids Bike (i.e. coaster brakes and training wheels)
Wait a minute, I hear you protesting, I DO want training wheels. It’s how I learned, you say, and I turned out just fine.
Truth. I learned on training wheels too and I happen to be a serious cyclist who rides my bike EVERY day. That said, just because it’s the way that we learned as kids, doesn’t mean it’s the best way to learn to ride a bike. The fact is that for 90% of kids, they are going to be better off learning to ride WITHOUT training wheels.
Instead of going straight to a pedal bike with training wheels, start your child on a balance bike OR start them on a pedal bike (sans training wheels) and remove the pedals. By teaching a child to “scoot” on the bike first, they learn to balance without the added complexity of pedaling. Then, when you add pedals to the mix, kids tend to learn to ride MUCH FASTER, with fewer crashes, and fewer tears. This is why you’ll find that the better kids bike manufacturers simply don’t include training wheels on their bikes. And yes, it is true that you can always remove the training wheels from a Walmart bike, BUT what you’ll also find is that most of these bikes have been designed to use with training wheels and the seat height is simply too high to use without.
The other thing you’ll discover on Walmart kids bikes is that they have coaster brakes rather than hand brakes. We dislike this for 3 reasons: (1) coaster brakes are heavy, (2) coaster brakes can make learning to pedal frustrating, and (3) the lack of a hand brake keeps kids from learning good braking skills at a young age.
How to Find a GOOD Kids Bike
Let me be clear: just because I’m telling you not to buy a kids bike from Walmart doesn’t mean I’m a snob. Like you, I have to figure out how to pay the electric bills and the doctors bills and the grocery bills and all that. But I also believe that you
Here are a couple of things I would try before resorting to a bike from a big box store.
#1) Look for a used bike on Craiglist or Ebay
Buying a high-quality kids bike second-hand is about the best decision you can make. A really good kids bike will last through multiple children, and depending on the area you live in might not be that hard to find. The key is to know which bike brands you should be looking for before you start your search. One of my friends found a Cleary Gecko for $100 on Craigslist, and turned around and sold it a year and a half later for $100. That means the bike ended up costing her ZERO DOLLARS.
#2) Reach Out to Local Non-Profits and Bicycle Collectives
In Salt Lake City, we have an awesome organization called the Bicycle Collective. They take donated bikes, fix them up, and then sell them for cheap. To be honest, some of the bikes are cheap big box store bikes, but others are really decent bikes for the big bike manufacturers (Trek, Specialized, etc).
If you live in a big city, chances are that there is a similar organization in your area. In smaller towns, makes some phone calls to your local bike shops. Some have trade-in programs where people can trade in used kids bikes for new ones. This is a great way to snag a high-quality used kids bike for a killer price.
#3) Raise Your Budget
I know a top-end kids bike isn’t a financial priority (or a financial
Learn More About How To Buy a Good Kids Bike
Save yourself money, time, and frustration by doing your research before buying a bike for your child.
yeah I guess in Canada it might be a bit different but the bike stores I’ve been to , like sportschek or sportsmart are in the thousands. When you but an assemebled bike youre going to want to tighten everything up, just like if you bought an assembled bbq (Although I dont think i’ve seen anyone going out of a store with an already assembled one, just the boxes where you do it yourself lol) When we went camping we took my sons bike. He, of course, hit a tree. We drove to the nearest town which happened to have a bike store and there was not a bike under a grand. Fine if you make good money but if you are both min wage earners, like myself and my spouse then your kid better have a after school job if they want something like that.
You do know that the bikes that Walmart sells aren’t bikes that Walmart makes right? Some of those bikes are made from well known brands like Schwinn, Huffy, Mongoose, Dynacraft, Kent among a few others. Those bikes are specifically made for Walmart, they are also sold at other stores like Target, Kohl’s AND Privately owned Bicycle Shops. This is known information since I search for bikes not just by brand but name also for my 3 kids at every bike shop that will let me see their inventory online, even Privately owned shops, as I try to get the best bike for the best price.
So it what this article is really saying is that all the bikes found at Walmart are junk, NOT just at Walmart but anywhere you buy them? I can see not buying the ones on display at Walmart since they let people take them down and what not, but Walmart doesn’t have a hand in how the bikes are made since they are made by other companies. Most of them aren’t junk and since I’ve actually been looking online for a bike for my daughter, I’ve been reading each bikes details from all stores, since some are more detailed than others, I’ve found that they all weigh about the same when comparing them to bike brands that aren’t sold at Walmart and in fact some sold at Walmart weigh less. In my experience of buying bikes for the past 17 years, I’ve read many many reviews and stories from friends & family and find many issues people have with the bikes is “operator error”, meaning the person putting the bike together is the reason for the issues with the bike.
In case you missed it, that was pretty much the whole point of this article – even a good bike from a big box store can be badly assembled by the store staff. Some of the bikes aren’t going to be worth buying even if you get them checked over by a qualified mechanic, because they’re just too badly designed or cheaply made to work properly. When I worked in a bike store we wouldn’t sell a bike that couldn’t be set up to work at a basic level of safety and performance; sometimes people would bring in mail-order bikes with problems, and even after I’d straightened the wheels (not always possible) and adjusted the bearings and set the brakes they didn’t pass a basic performance test, which (in the case of BMX or adult bikes) was me riding them around the block and up and down a steep hill. Some of them were really scary, and didn’t even get to the hill – flimsy brakes that bend when you pull hard, levers that don’t clamp the bars tightly, gears that don’t engage properly, bearings that have tight and loose spots … even after we explained to people that we expertly assembled our bikes for free, and offered a free tune-up after a few weeks, they’d still buy a “bargain” somewhere else then get upset when we told them how much it would cost to fix it.
So you do know that the bikes Walmart sells are not the same quality as if you went right to the reputable bike store or what the bike maker intended. Walmart will only pay what they dictate to the bike maker and the bike maker uses whatever means to make the bike at the price Walmart will pay. Cheaper materials, cheaper labor, etc. True with many other brands Walmart sells. Cheaper quality but still using the brand name. A Schwinn sold at Walmart is not the same Schwinn you’d buy at a bike shop. It’s the old bait and switch in it’s truest form, that Walmart is famous for. Awful company that has done nothing but sell cheap crap and put reputable companies that once made sturdy products at the mercy of shoppers who only look at the lower price. Wake up Walmart shoppers, you get what you pay for.
I find the worst parts on cheap Asia bikes are the bearings and tires. The bearings don’t spin properly (which is especially dangerous in handlebar and wheel bearings), and the tires are of the worst quality. These cheap bikes are essentially throw-aways. You are much further ahead spending more and getting a good quality bike that will last years instead of months
Solid advices We’ve so far only employed points #1 (buy used) and #3 (increase your budget), but I’ll keep #2 in mind when my kids outgrow their bikes! Owning good quality bikes really has made such a difference. We started with Walmart or comparable models (hey, any bike is better than no bike!) and two of my kids would literally cry on our way home from a one mile ride to the playground. With lighter and better bikes, we’ve had very few tears, maybe even nine, one rides of up to 25 miles.
i purchased a girls bike for my 8 year old granddaughter’s birthday. it arrived in a big box and i hired a professional
to put the bike together. thankfully he had the tools to put the bike together as there were no instructions or even
a small tool to help. it took a long time to put together as the handlebars and the seat were very hard to tighten.
fast forward to gift given to the child. she rides it and promptly falls head first off of it as the handlebars came of.
she very badly hit her knee and there was blood all over the sidewalk and she couldn’t walk and her parents had
to carry her inside and take care of the badly cut knee. when she was falling, she tried to stop the fall by using her
elbow which subsequently also was badly cut up. and she had a large cut on her upper chest. her father had to
order new screws to secure the bike handlebar and seat and as of today, the screws haven’t arrived.
all this in the middle of summer when the child really wanted to ride her bike.
i would ask around to other parents who have purchased what kind they bought and where. toys r us please come back,
thank you.
My daughter is a new rider (3 1/2) and has asked me SEVERAL times for a Frozen bike WITH A BASKET! (She’s super specific!) for her birthday/Christmas but all the “quality” bikes are only solid colors. I’m only seeing big box stores carry anything with popular themes AND a weight of 42 lbs 🙁 Are there any way to get the best of both worlds? PLEASE HELP!
Hi Lindsey,
Cute. I’m a frozen fan myself. Could you get a pink or purple bike and just add frozen stickers to the frame? You can always add a basket too. Check out this post on “girls bikes” for some ideas: https://rascalrides.com/the-best-girls-bikes/
Good luck!
KB
My friend got this set for her frozen obsessed kiddo: https://www.amazon.com/Bell-Disney-Frozen-Bike-Accessories/dp/B07WN6GWPY Viola! Instant frozen bike. They also sell a frozen bike bell.
There you go! Awesome!
bought a cheap walmart bike for my son, 2 months later the handlebars sheared off and he crashed. Luckely he just ended up with a skinnes knee, could have been a lot worse. the metal literally tore apart. waiting to get in touch wirh kent bikes to see what they will do.
The crankshaft bearings failed in the fourth month. Unfortunately the warranty that I had purchased only went to 3 months. They were made in China & assembled in South Carolina.
All of those bikes are 500+. My husband literally laugh at the idea of spending more than $200 (even that is pushing tbh). Also when you buy a used bike you have no idea how well someone took care of that bike.
He’s not big on buying used stuff generally.
Our budget is probably no more than $185. I seriously doubt I could even find a used fancy bike that cheap.
When I was a kid all of my bikes were the cheap walmart bikes. I enjoyed the heck out of them. A decent functional (but “cheap”) bike is better than no bike at all.
My husband is very mechanically inclined so I trust him to but the bike together himself. Hes even good at building ikea stuff. lol
This just sounds so privileged to me.
It sucks that theres no options between “crappy bikes” and fancy bikes you get at independant bike shops or REI.
I know exactly why he printed this article. We have had adult bikes and Toddler bikes from Walmart I have been excellent!
I’m very disappointed that people have come to the conclusion that you have to do it this certain way. My kids grew up with Kmart/Walmart bikes never an issue. When they got older we would look at better bikes. But why all of a sudden what use to be fine is now taboo? Very disheartening knowing this is what’s getting shoved down people’s throat.
Turn on the TV or social media and see what is getting shoved down people’s throats; there is the real disheartening situation.
One thing left out of this post is timing. If you have to get a bike and your kid is in the top end of the she/size range and is gonna grow out of it in a year, it might not be worth spending $500 on a bike. You can get a medium quality bike at big box stores -just don’t buy the cheapest ones. A 79$ bike won’t cut it but a $200 bike might if you are thoughtful about it. Check with your bike shop and ask how long your kid can ride the bike, be aware of the height when you’ll need to upgrade so you can buy the more expensive bike as soon as your kid is ready for it.
For the past three years, over 80% of Walmarts DO use professional bike mechanics. I know this because I work for an Assembly Service Provider called NW Service Enterprises, Inc that sends properly trained assemblers into stores to build Bikes, Grills, Furniture, etc. We’re safer, faster, and less expensive since we don’t work year-round in one store waiting for a bike to sell and gain much more experience. We go from store to store and build up the assembled inventories for various retailers.
Buyer Tip: Want to make sure you get a bike that was built by a pro rather than a store associate? look for that little “Do Not Remove” QR Sticker or an “Assembled By” Sticker.
For Quality Control, we put little QR Code stickers on the products we assemble to see when an item was built and which of our technicians built it.
Regarding the weight and quality of box store bikes, My kid outgrew three bikes before the tires even showed much wear. To go high-end on a little kid’s bike is just wasteful when a bike shop bike is often 5 to 10 times more expensive. And as you said, Walmart has some high-end bikes once you get to the teen-adult sizes when they might use a bike for many years and heavier use.