Best kids bikes with training wheels

If you want a bike with training wheels, buy the one that is light enough to ride after they come off. Every bike here ships with them fitted, so the only things that separate these four are weight, whether the brand publishes a saddle height, and whether there is a hand brake as well as a coaster.

Read this before you buy any of them

Training wheels are not a shortcut to riding a bike. They teach a child to pedal and steer a tricycle that happens to look like a bicycle, and they actively prevent the one skill that matters — leaning. Plenty of children learn this way and turn out fine; it just takes longer than the balance-bike route. We make the full case on do kids need training wheels.

If you have decided on training wheels anyway — because it is what the grandparents bought, or because your child is five and has never been on two wheels, or because that is simply how you want to do it — then the bike underneath them is what this page is about.

Weight is the thing training wheels hide

With stabilizers on, a heavy bike feels fine: the child is being held up by steel. Take them off and the same bike is suddenly a 21 lb object that has to be balanced. That is the moment weight starts to matter, and it is why we rank on it.

The CDC's median five-year-old weighs about 40 lb. A 21 lb bike is 53% of them — the equivalent of a 95 lb bicycle under a 180 lb adult. The Retrospec at 18.5 lb is 46%. Neither is light, but two and a half pounds at this size is a real difference in whether a bike gets picked up after a fall.

Why the saddle range matters more than the wheel size

Retrospec publishes a saddle height range on every Koda. Schwinn publishes none on any bike in this roundup. That single difference decides whether you can confirm the bike fits before it arrives, or have to guess and hope.

Note what those Koda numbers mean in practice: the 12-inch Koda needs a 15.5 inch minimum saddle, which is a longer leg than most two-year-olds have. A bike marketed at ages 2–3 is really a bike for the top of that band.

Coaster brake, hand brake, or both

Both Retrospec Kodas have a hand-operated V-brake alongside the coaster, with a reach-adjustable lever — so a small hand can actually pull it. The Schwinn Elm 16 has a front caliper as well as its coaster. The Schwinn Petunia 12 has a coaster only, with no lever at all.

On a bike that will lose its training wheels in a few months, a hand brake is the thing that carries forward: it is the brake every bike they own afterwards will have. The argument in full is on coaster brakes vs hand brakes.

The push handle question

The Schwinn Petunia 12 comes with a removable parent push handle. It is genuinely useful for the first two or three outings — you can steer them, slow them, and stop them walking the bike home. It also adds weight, and after a fortnight it lives in the garage. Worth it if your child is at the youngest end of ready; irrelevant otherwise.

What we would actually buy

For most families: the Retrospec Koda 16. Lightest of the 16-inch options, training wheels fitted out of the box, a real hand brake, and the only one whose fit you can verify on paper.

For a three-year-old: the Retrospec Koda 12, on the same reasoning at the smaller size — as long as the inseam clears 15.5 inches.

If a basket is part of the deal: the Schwinn Elm 16, which arrives with training wheels, a basket and a chainguard. See best girls' bikes with a basket for the rest of that range.

And when it is time for them to come off — which is sooner than you think — the method is on how to get rid of training wheels.

At 16 inches specifically — the most-bought size with training wheels fitted — the five bikes worth comparing are on best 16 inch kids bikes with training wheels.