Used Kids Bikes: Buyer's Guide UK

Why Used Kids Bikes Make Sense

Children outgrow bikes every 18 months or so. A new kids bike from a good brand costs £280 to £600. That is a lot of money for something your child will have outgrown by the time they have learned to ride it properly. Buying used is the obvious answer, and the market is full of bikes that have barely been ridden.

The maths is simple. Buy a decent used bike for £80 to £200. Ride it for a year or two. Sell it on for roughly what you paid. The actual cost of ownership lands somewhere between free and very cheap. Meanwhile your child learns on a bike that fits properly and works, rather than a £120 supermarket special that is heavier than they are.

One rule matters more than anything else. Do not buy a bike that is too big on the assumption that your child will grow into it. Bikes that are too big are harder to balance, harder to stop and genuinely dangerous. Buy the right size now, sell it when they grow out, buy the next size. Cyclesite sold bike prices make this cheap over time because good kids bikes hold their value. Browse kids bikes for sale filtered by wheel size, or check our bike size guide for sizing across every bike type.

Sizing by Age and Inseam

Kids bikes are sold by wheel size, not frame size. Forget the age labels printed on packaging. They are marketing. Use inseam measurements instead. Stand your child against a wall in socks, press a hardback book up between their legs like a saddle, mark the wall at the top of the book and measure from the floor. That number is the inseam, and it tells you the minimum saddle height the bike must be able to drop to. Our kids' bike size guide does the conversion for you.

Balance bikes (no pedals). Inseam around 30cm to 40cm. Typical ages 18 months to 3 years. The best first bike ever invented. Skips stabilisers entirely and teaches real balance in weeks.

14 inch wheels. Inseam 38cm to 46cm. Typical ages 3 to 5. The first pedal bike for most children. Look for a low standover and a light frame.

16 inch wheels. Inseam 44cm to 52cm. Typical ages 4 to 6. The most important size to get right, this is when most children graduate from balance bikes to proper pedal bikes.

18 inch wheels. Inseam 48cm to 56cm. Typical ages 5 to 7. A genuine size but a rare one, so compare against 16 and 20 inch rather than holding out for it.

20 inch wheels. Inseam 52cm to 62cm. Typical ages 6 to 9. First geared bikes appear here, usually 6 or 7 speed.

24 inch wheels. Inseam 60cm to 72cm. Typical ages 8 to 11. Proper geared bikes, real components, real brakes. The bike your child will learn to love cycling on.

26 inch wheels or small adult frames. Inseam 68cm to 82cm. Typically age 10 plus. At this point most children can fit a small adult hybrid, mountain or hardtail.

Measure, do not guess. A bike that is one size too big is not a bargain. It is a reason your child will avoid riding.

The Brands Worth Knowing

Lightweight Kids Specialists

Frog Bikes are British, lightweight and expensive new (£300 to £500) but hold value brilliantly on the used market. A two year old Frog in good condition typically sells for 60 to 75 percent of new price. The geometry and ergonomics are designed around children rather than scaled down from adult bikes.

Islabikes pioneered the lightweight kids bike category in Britain. The founder, Isla Rowntree, obsessed over weight and child specific geometry for years. The company has now closed for new sales but the used market is huge because parents keep passing them down. Genuinely excellent bikes.

Early Rider specialise in balance bikes and first pedal bikes. Aluminium frames, oversized bearings, premium components. Expensive new, fantastic used.

Woom is Austrian and aims at the same lightweight enthusiast segment. Widely available used in the UK now that the brand has been selling here for several years.

Mainstream Brands That Also Make Good Kids Bikes

Specialized Riprock and Hotrock are the default sensible choice at most bike shops. Widely available used, reliable, properly supported.

Trek Precaliber, Wahoo and Roscoe offer a similar experience. Good geometry, decent components, easy to find used.

Giant XTC Jr and Liv Enchant are sensible value options. Not as lightweight as Frog or Islabikes but solid and affordable used.

Cube Acid and Kid 240 are good value and increasingly common in the UK used market.

Brands to Approach Cautiously

Supermarket own brands, generic Argos bikes and no name cheap bikes from Amazon are almost always too heavy, poorly assembled and unreliable. Children struggle to ride heavy bikes. The sizes are often wrong. Brakes do not work properly. The false economy is brutal. A used £120 Specialized Riprock rides immeasurably better than a new £150 supermarket bike.

What to Check Before Buying

Children crash. Used kids bikes often show it. None of the following should be dealbreakers on their own, but all should factor into the price:

1. Brakes. Squeeze both levers. Do they stop the bike firmly? Are they within reach of a child hand (brake levers on good kids bikes have adjustable reach)? Coaster brakes on 12 and 16 inch wheels should engage smoothly when you pedal backwards.
2. Tyres. Cracked, perished or flat tyres are cheap to replace (£10 to £25 per tyre) but factor them into your offer. Bikes that have sat in a shed for two years nearly always need new rubber.
3. Chain and drivetrain. Rusty chains clean up or get replaced for £10 to £25. Worn sprockets on cheap single speeds can be replaced. Geared bikes with worn drivetrains cost more to fix so check carefully.
4. Frame condition. Look for dents around the top tube, cracks around welds, and play at the head tube (front suspension bikes especially). A slightly scuffed frame is fine. A bent or cracked frame is not.
5. Bearings. Spin both wheels, pedal the cranks with the bike held up, and rock the bike holding the front brake. Grinding or roughness anywhere means bearings need attention. Not necessarily a dealbreaker but factor in £20 to £60 depending on what needs doing.
6. Saddle height range. Can you drop the saddle low enough for your child to put both feet flat on the ground? This is non negotiable for first pedal bikes. If the saddle will not drop far enough, the bike is too big.
7. Grips and bar tape. Cosmetic but cheap. Grubby or torn grips are £4 to £10 to replace.
8. Frame number check. Yes, even on kids bikes. Stolen kids bikes are resold regularly. Running the frame number through our free stolen bike check takes seconds, and it is the one check you cannot do after you have handed the money over.

What You Should Pay

Kids bike prices depend heavily on brand and condition. Use these as rough guides for bikes in good working order:

• Balance bikes: £20 to £70 for branded models (Strider, Early Rider, Frog Tadpole). Supermarket balance bikes free to £20.
• 12 to 14 inch wheels: £50 to £150. Frog and Islabikes at the top, Specialized and Trek in the middle, value brands below.
• 16 inch wheels: £80 to £200 for a good used Frog or Isla. £60 to £120 for Specialized, Trek or Cube. £30 to £60 for older value brands.
• 20 inch wheels: £100 to £250 for premium. £70 to £150 for mainstream. £40 to £90 for older value brands.
• 24 inch wheels: £120 to £350 for premium lightweight models with good components. £80 to £180 for mainstream brands.
• 26 inch wheels and small adult frames: £150 to £500 for a proper small hardtail or hybrid. Good used mountain bike prices start applying here.

Children's bikes hold their value well compared to adult bikes because demand is constant and good bikes are scarce. Buy well, maintain properly, and selling on recovers most of your outlay.

Selling On When They Grow Out

Good used kids bikes are among the more straightforward things to pass on, because every parent eventually needs the next size up and the supply of well-kept ones is thin. List yours on Cyclesite when the time comes. The pattern most parents follow works:

1. Wash the bike properly.
2. Replace worn grips (£5) and any dead inner tubes.
3. Give the drivetrain a clean and a fresh drip of oil.
4. Photograph in daylight with the whole bike visible.
5. List honestly with any cosmetic marks clearly shown.
6. Price sensibly against current listings.
7. Put the saddle height measurements in the description.

That last one is the one almost nobody does, and it is the single most useful line you can write. Every buyer of a child's bike has the same question, and wheel size does not answer it: two 20 inch bikes can differ by 8cm in how low the saddle goes. Measure from the ground to the top of the saddle with the seatpost pushed all the way down, then again with it at its safe maximum, and put both numbers in the listing.

It takes a minute with a tape measure and it does two things. It saves you answering the same message from every enquirer, and it lets a parent match the bike to their child's inside leg without guessing, which is what our kids' bike size guide tells them to do. A listing that already answers the deciding question is the one that gets the enquiry.

Bikes from the brands built specifically for children hold their value noticeably better than adult bikes, which is the whole reason the buy-and-sell-on route works out cheaper than buying new. We will not put a recovery percentage on that. Our price data covers what bikes are advertised at rather than what they finally sell for, so any figure would be an assumption dressed up as a measurement. What we can say is that demand for the next size up is constant, and that a supermarket bike bought cheaply has no resale market at all, which is how a cheap bike ends up costing more than a good one.

Common questions

Is a second-hand kids bike safe?

Usually, and often safer than a new supermarket bike at the same price, because children outgrow bikes long before they wear them out. Check the brakes stop the bike firmly and that a child hand can reach the levers, that the tyres are not perished, that nothing is bent or cracked around the welds, and that the saddle drops low enough for both feet to reach the ground. Then run the frame number through a stolen-bike check before you pay.

What size second-hand bike should I buy for my child?

Size by inside leg rather than age. Children of the same age vary by around 20cm in height, which spans two wheel sizes. Measure floor to crotch with a book held up like a saddle, then ask the seller for the bike's minimum saddle height and make sure it is no higher than that measurement.

Which used kids bike brands are worth paying more for?

Frog, Islabikes, Squish, Woom and Early Rider are the UK names built specifically around children rather than scaled down from adult bikes. They are lighter, have shorter cranks and child-sized brake levers, and they hold their value, so the gap between what you pay and what you sell for is smaller than the sticker price suggests.

Should I buy a bigger bike for my child to grow into?

No. A bike that is too big is harder to balance and harder to stop, and a child who feels unsafe on it rides it less. Buy the size that fits now and sell it on when it is outgrown.

How do I check a used kids bike is not stolen?

Find the frame number, usually stamped underneath the bottom bracket where the pedal cranks meet the frame, and run it through a stolen-bike check before money changes hands. Ask the seller how long they have owned it and whether they have the original receipt. A seller who cannot answer basic questions about a child's bike is worth walking away from.