Child’s first pedal bike - skip 14” and go straight to 16”?

If they can touch the floor easy it helps with confidence. You don't want to go too big for the first bike, with the hope they'll grow into it. Get something they're going to be comfortable on and accept they'll soon grow out of it.

Don't discount disc brakes - easier for small hands to have control without death grip.

And it all depends on size and strength. My daughter is small for her age (25th percentile) and a 16" bike straight off a 12" balance bike would have been unmanageable.

What's the driver to leave him on a balance bike and jump to a 16 rather than the natural jump for learning Is he abnormally tall for his age or is he an older user of a balance bike ?

Putting him.on too big a bike to learn is a bad idea.

Fwiw my daughter's 4 and on a 20" bike . We went 12-14 -20

If they are big enough then totally skip 14s. Unfortunately my kids get their height from their mother.

I’d definitely go for a Belter over the others as they’re so much lighter and not chain to get grubby

Thanks for the replies so far,

I bought him a frog tadpole mini for his first bike, and by the time he showed it any attention he’d already outgrown it (luckily I had the earlyrider ready to go)

he’s coming up to 3 y/o, slightly big for his age and has only recently started to roll on his balance bike rather than walking around with it

he’s non verbal atm still so it can also be hard to explain/teach him stuff  ( doesn’t use the brake)

he does absolutely love it though, and will ride round the garden for an hour straight or do laps of his grandparents house

We got my daughter a 14", took the pedals off and let her scoot around on it like a balance bike. By a decent used one and it'll likely retain it's value so you can just trade up from size to size without much ongoing outlay.

My eldest is on his 14" belter at age 5 1/2. He's getting a bit big for it now but the slightly longer geometry makes that less of an issue. I've seen similar sized kids on steeper 14" bikes finding the handling a bit challenging.

We had two and knew they would be small for age (though the eldest was bang on average by 3) and they got a lot of use out of their 14" wheel bike. Youngest is still on it.

The eldest used it without pedals first but the youngest not so much - she was older by the time it would fit her so was starting to pedal.

My boy was on a frog 40 at 3.5yrs old.  Riding great.  In my experience I would strongly advise against disc brakes till they are old enough to brake sensibly.  Both mine had the habit of yanking on the front brake hard when they wanted to stop fast, with v brakes I was able to dial off the power so it was less powerful than the rear brake and stop the face plants.  Eldest is now 8 and I’ve just upgraded him to disc brakes, still had a few moments.   Only reason to skip the size is either your kids big, or you want to save some cash.  Btw I have a frog 48 that needs a new home if you are near southampton.  6 year old has just moved up to a 55

My daughter is almost 5 and still using her Frog 40 but looks more comfy on her twin Brother’s Hope Academy Belter 16. He’s a few cm taller, but still a long way off the 20” version so it looks like another 16” wheeled bike for us this summer.

mine started on Tadpole Minis at 1, then a Tadpole and Benin at 2, and they were on a CNOC 14S and Frog 40 at about 3y 10m  the CNOC 14s was a bit smaller than the frog 40 so when he grew out of that we ditched the CNOC and gave her the frog.

The hydraulic disc brakes on the Belter are great (probably overkill) and much better than the Frog’s rim brakes. The only person dumb enough to cut their fingers on a disc brake (not their bike) is me even though I have 2 preschoolers.

I really like the Hope Academy bikes but I think you don’t notice the benefits until they’re 20” bike.  But I will say that when he ripped the hose out of the brakes in a series of rather spectacular crashes Hope posted a replacement part out the same day for me to swap over (who knew bleeding Hope brakes without the right bleed kit was so easy?).

The boring answer is that it depends how big he is when he's ready to move up.  Our eldest didn't show much interest her balance bike for ages, and was definitely big enough for a 16" when she was ready.  Our youngest was ready for a pedal bike before he was big enough for a 16" (handily, we had his sister's bike to check this) so he got a 14" bike.

You can buy and sell decent kids bikes 2nd hand without losing much, so if you see a good deal on a 2nd hand 14", and you think he might be ready soon, I'd take it.

Sounds like you might have some time before he's ready to progress anyway, so don't rush it. Let him get comfortable with feet up coasting, steering corrections without feet down etc.
If you can, i'd add a hand brake to the balance bike
Once he's got balance biking sorted (See Jackscon Rides to School where he's buzzing down the road) thats when you can transition up to pedals.
I'd advocate for typical size progression though. Balance - 14 - 16 - 20 - 24- 26 - 27.5 - mullet - 29

I guess it mostly depends on size of your lad. My daughter is a small 6 year old and is still on a Cnoc 14  (I think). She’s had it 1.5 years so far - I think she’s beginning to look a little bit big for it - but because it’s quite long it’s still ok at the moment.

I was keen we wouldn’t try her with stabilisers so she used the cnoc as a balance bike with the pedals off for a while - then one day she just asked to put the pedals on and with a few sessions she was off.

There’s a good islabike video on how to help them - you don’t hold the bike at all - you hold them under the arms so they have full control of the bike. Don’t try teaching them on grass as it’s hard to pedal - needs to be tarmac.

At their weight v brakes are absolutely fine - back in the day they were a revelation on power to us as adults.

I’m hoping to go from 14” to 20” - got my eye on the Vitus 20+ in red but they were out of stock last time I looked.

Quite a variety in frame sizing I thought, there are 16" wheeled bikes that size up smaller than 14" wheeled bikes.

Following on from a 12" Kokua Jumper balance bike we had a 14" Black Mountain Pinto as it covered all the options as progressing to brakes and pedals.

Followed by a Puky 16 which was fairly brief, but needed, in-between bike to the current 20" which is a Scott Scale with good stand over for confidence.

Like most here, I'm quite happy with buying and hoarding bikes so have got all the sizes so far to get best fits and progress when ready. I've bought secondhand focussing on lightweight and always had friends keen to buy the bikes as they've been outgrown.

You can buy and sell them second hand without losing much money so don't get ahead of yourself and buy something too big.

We had success with our 3yr old on a Woom2, first with the pedals off and then when she started lifting her feet up as if attempting to pedal, put them on and she was riding within a week.

I was keen to get her on next size up but reading measurements on larger bikes im not sure it's needed right now.

We went through a 12" Isla rothan
14" seeker cranks off
14" seeker cranks on
Currently on
16" seeker

Unless they're tall I'd say go through the sizes

Well it hasn't done my lot any harm, scoot bike to 16" wheeled bike, then 20" then 24" then 27.5" and the eldest is on a 29er now

Son#1 went from mini balance to balance to 14in (frog 43) to 20in,  so skipped 16in, and also skipped the slightly smaller frog 40.  All good.

A Pivotal dirtjump saddle and seatpost knocks about 3cm off the minimum saddle height compared to standard railed saddle and seatpost.  Pretty useful jump if anyone's in a hurry for the next bike!

Pedals off for the at least the first few goes on the first pedal bike is a big help.   Then they can get the hang of how the bigger bike handles and steers before sussing out the pedals.  Weird steering and first goes at pedalling is a lot all at once!  Didn't do this with son#1, but just did with son#2 and it's definitely helped skip forward.

Also., I skipped 27.5 and went straight from 26 to 29er.  Can still ride a bike, just about.

Both ours have gone straight from an Isla balance bike to 16" wheels. An Isla CNOC 16 in the case of the #1, and #2 got a Hope Academy 16 (basically an Early Rider Belter with much bling). They both moved around 4yo mark but didn't really get the hang of pedalling properly until 4.5yo. #1 child moved onto an Isla Beinn 20 (before they did small and large) and he's now onto a 14" frame/26" wheel OnOne 456, which I suspect isn't going to last much longer because he's growing faster than I can keep up with.

However, they are both among the tallest in their respective groups at school so it was a fairly easy transition. As others have said it's always much easier to remove the pedals (and cranks if you can be arsed) and let them use it as a bigger balance bike to begin with.

I bought him a frog tadpole mini for his first bike, and by the time he showed it any attention he’d already outgrown it (luckily I had the earlyrider ready to go)

he’s coming up to 3 y/o, slightly big for his age and has only recently started to roll on his balance bike rather than walking around with it

OP, I am just ahead of you, child was 3 earlier this year, but picked them up a tadpole mini which they outgrew before they could learn it, onto the tadpole and its been a long path from walking to watching them now fly around on pavements, pumptracks and skateparks, but this only happened post 3 really.

I was aiming to get them pedalling by the end of the year, but then saw a "rival" child was off and running so started looking. I wasnt sure between 12 or 14, they are really comfortable on their tadpole and havent outgrown it, I also BMX which is a smaller bike, I decided I was going to keep them on small wheels to keep their confidence and started looking at 12 inch pedal options, most of them suck though as they have coaster brakes, inch headsets, etc but the Specialized Riprock was winning and can be had second hand for £80 or less. I then googled best 12 inch kids bikes I saw some american brands and then saw one of them on ebay.

I am now the owner of a Cleary Bikes Gecko 12 inch pedal bike we had a rough start with it, the child was keen but didnt understand pedalling, was too eager and rolled all of a foot into a unit on his first ride, but after giving them minutes here and there they are off and pedalling after a few weeks, its the best thing I've ever seen...(dont tell the wife). I'd say find a 12 inch pedal and offer your child both but primarily keep them on the balance bike with odd suggestions of them riding the pedal bike.

Second post, I think they'll be on the 12 inch over the summer, there will be less biking time over the winter and come spring they may have grown enough to go 14 or even 16.

On disc brakes, I also picked up the Orange off road balance bike which has a Dominion A4 brake on it and first use on a fire road nearly ripped their arm off! They've got used to it now, I will say, the disc brake has much easier motion for tiny hands vs the v brake on the tadpole.

Totally depends on the kid's height when he's ready to move onto a pedal bike

If he's either big for his age, or slower to learn/ want to cycle then you might be better with a bigger one.

Our kids were both tiny and learned fairly early so we got 14" Cnoc