1st Kid's Pedal Bike: Trek Precaliber 16 v BYK E-350?

[BanyanStreet]

Hi Everyone,

We are purchasing a first pedal bike for our daughter (turning 4yo). Tossing up between the Trek Precaliber 16 and the BYK E-350.
I wondered whether anyone has experience/feedback about either of the bikes please?

She looked relatively comfortable on both bikes while doing laps of the shop (with training wheels!) and has been riding a Strider balance bike now for a few years. She seemed to be sitting a bit more upright on the Trek. She is average height but petite frame. Could put her foot down on the ground on either bike.

I have never purchased a pedal bike for a child so not too sure what I should be looking for. Happy to pay a bit extra and don't mind if she grows out of it fairly quickly - there is a younger one who will inherit it. Just want something that will be easy for her to handle and help her enjoy riding.

Any help you can provide will be much appreciated.

Cheers

[MattyK]

Check the kids bike section.

We have an E-350, very happy with it. Maybe the only thing I don't like is the rear coaster brake, but they all have them. (It works just fine, but it prevents getting pedals quickly to a starting position. My son never uses it to stop anyway, the hand brakes are fine. He learned to use a hand brake on the balance bike).

ByK's are very popular and will keep good resale value.

The Trek lacks a quick release on the seat post. That will annoy you. Also the rims are painted, so even if it had a hand brake it probably wouldn't work well...

[ValleyForge]

+1 for MattyK

There are several of us who have posted our experiences with various BYKs in the Children's Bike section - just probably need to look through the posts.

[Mububban]

Hi Everyone,

We are purchasing a first pedal bike for our daughter (turning 4yo). Tossing up between the Trek Precaliber 16 and the BYK E-350.
I wondered whether anyone has experience/feedback about either of the bikes please?

She looked relatively comfortable on both bikes while doing laps of the shop (with training wheels!) and has been riding a Strider balance bike now for a few years. She seemed to be sitting a bit more upright on the Trek. She is average height but petite frame. Could put her foot down on the ground on either bike.

I have never purchased a pedal bike for a child so not too sure what I should be looking for. Happy to pay a bit extra and don't mind if she grows out of it fairly quickly - there is a younger one who will inherit it. Just want something that will be easy for her to handle and help her enjoy riding.

Any help you can provide will be much appreciated.

Cheers

I'm biased as my kids have ByK bikes and I think they're great. That said, the Trek looks like an "old school" design of kids bike - very short in the cockpit and the rider gets squashed into an upright position with very little knee clearance.
The ByK bikes have more room for the rider to grow and still fit the bike before their knees are knocking on the handlebars.

The images may not be exactly to scale but you can see the difference in the designs.



Trek's RRP is $289 vs ByK $339, for that little difference I'd go the ByK.

[im_no_pro]

+1 for the Byk

[MattyK]

If you are somewhere not-flat, see if you can stretch to the auto 2 speed E-350… My boy struggles up the hills. You will get your money back when you sell it.

[Mububban]

I think they even do a 3 speed in the 350 model now, if that had been available at the time, and with hindsight, I'd have bought that for my son. He knows how to stop pedalling for a moment and it'll drop down into "granny" (assuming he's going slow enough) but losing precious momentum when going uphill isn't ideal

[ValleyForge]

I've converted two E-350s to RD which was a lot less straight forward than I thought it would be - my travails are posted on the forum somewhere. It can be done, but as I live in hilly Brisbane, internal gears aren't going to cut it.

[MattyK]

What no Alfine 11 Di2?

[ValleyForge]

What no Alfine 11 Di2?

Maybe after her growth spurt.

[Mububban]

I've converted two E-350s to RD which was a lot less straight forward than I thought it would be - my travails are posted on the forum somewhere. It can be done, but as I live in hilly Brisbane, internal gears aren't going to cut it.

Link?

[ValleyForge]

I've converted two E-350s to RD which was a lot less straight forward than I thought it would be - my travails are posted on the forum somewhere. It can be done, but as I live in hilly Brisbane, internal gears aren't going to cut it.

Link?

Can't seem to find it - the issues are that the rear wheel ends up being bespoke to get the narrow rim and the offset right. You need to be careful with the RD cage as it ends up too low, and the RD needs to be compatible with a separate RD hanger plate. I went with Shimano/Revoshift 8 speed BTW. Both bikes now live interstate so I can't post photos.

I originally had thought I would have enough in my tranche of "stuff" to do it one weekend. Alas no.