My 6 year old daughter has a Trek Mountain Track 60, which I bought having spent some time trying to find a light and simple kids bike. Its a good bike although quite heavy as it has a steel frame, and features an annoylying heavy yet useless elastomer fork. In praise of the bike I do like the fact it actually has good v brakes and wheels and the bits are correctly scaled for kids, although I'm not so sure the robustness of the very unsealed looking BB. Most other similar kids bikes are even worse for silly useless stuff like full suspension with about an inch of travel and even macho looking chain devices which all add complexity and weight.

She's just about got the hang of gears and has even made it round the blue route at dalby, which suprised some other riders, and quite enjoys easy single track and cycle paths, so the bike has furfilled its purpose.

But whatever happened to simple kids bikes? I remember riding a very basic bike then that was nowhere near as heavy. I'm sure theres a market for them, if nothing else from bike pimp parents who now how useless some of the extra features are. Anybody else have the same dilemas about finding a decent kids bike, or am I just a total bike snob for expecting a kids bike to look the part?

I guess it comes down to the fact that kids want whatever looks flash and even those parents who know better end up buying a ridiculous 5 ton mini-full susser under pester power. I don't have kids but suffered the same frustrations trying to buy a bike for a nephew. I ended up getting a BMX as it seemed to me to be the best compromise of simple/tough yet cool. But obviously they aren't much good for putting the miles in. The sad thing is that this sort of cr*p puts kids off cycling for life.

I guess its the same reason shops sell cheapo mtb's to people for commuting to work, yet its almost impossible to buy Dutch or German style bikes that are far, far better for short distance commuting than an mudguardless overgeared Apollo or whatever. Speaking of which, I think you'll find the German or Dutch brands do make sensible kids bikes, just nobody sells them in the UK.

The only solution is for bike shops to aggressively push 'sensible' bikes, but most are just content to sell whatever keeps the kids happy, which in turn keeps the parents happy....