Stabilisers needed for small bike with 5 speed gears

mystic_bertie

im not sure if this is in the correct section but here goes, i got my girl aged 6 a bike with 16" wheels, it also has 5 speed gears so theres the 5 speed gear mechanism at the back, i bought stabilisers from halfords but they dont fit due to the gear mechanism at the rear wheel, its a raleigh bike and i dont see anything suitable on the raleigh website.

just wondering if anyone has come across stabilisers that fit over the gears at the back wheel.

hope someone can help

anonymousie

I think that at a 16 inch bike size the physics of it are not very stabilizer friendly- we had a 14 inch on max height adjustment (would have placed the saddle at about the same height I think..).

Because the child was relatively big and high up the bike was very "tippy" on stabilizers and eventually bent them a bit before DS was scared off by the constant falling- we gave up and took the blooming things off (and the pedals too for a bit) and he scooted and then rode before too long ( he was 6 but tall).

If you can find them they will need big "out riggers" to combat the tippiness.

If your DD is at all on the "you'll grow into it" size perhps drop down to a smaller bike and get her riding without before you move up- it is very difficult IMHO to learn on a bike that is even a shade too big for you, but once they can ride they want to go up higher!

mystic_bertie

anonymousie wrote: »

I think that at a 16 inch bike size the physics of it are not very stabilizer friendly- we had a 14 inch on max height adjustment (would have placed the saddle at about the same height I think..).

Because the child was relatively big and high up the bike was very "tippy" on stabilizers and eventually bent them a bit before DS was scared off by the constant falling- we gave up and took the blooming things off (and the pedals too for a bit) and he scooted and then rode before too long ( he was 6 but tall).

If you can find them they will need big "out riggers" to combat the tippiness.

If your DD is at all on the "you'll grow into it" size perhps drop down to a smaller bike and get her riding without before you move up- it is very difficult IMHO to learn on a bike that is even a shade too big for you, but once they can ride they want to go up higher!

hi thanks for the reply
the bike is a good size for her with the seat fully down, she can reach the ground well, i will bear in mind what you have said, i doubt i will find stabilisers to fit ver the gears, i was hoping to use them to get her used to pedaling and steering and braking with the bike, then try without stabilisers once she had got used to the other things with the bike, looks lke it will need to be done the hard way and with a lot of patience

*debbie*

Hi, when my son was 6 we bought him a new bike, hoping he would get the incentive to ride it. That didn't work, until his 18month younger sister learned to ride hers. He then WANTED to ride, but still kept falling off (a horrendous summer of grazes all over!) until a friend gave us her son's tiny outgrown bike. In no time at all, my son had learned to ride.

For some reason or another, I think it is much easier to learn on a tiny bike. Perhaps see if you can beg, borrow (or scrounge from the local tip) a tiny bike just for the summer until she has learned to ride.

Lorian

Mechanism at the rear wheel? Can you take a photo? they are pretty much a universal fit.

Is this her first bike? If she had a smaller bike with stablisers before then it should only take a few sessions with parental assitance to ride without them anyway at 6/7. Long clothing and elbow pads recommended :-)

It helps if they already know how to use the brakes!