Nash R
I have to buy a kids bicycle (20″). I noticed that pedals in many of these bicycles do not rotate freely in reverse direction. Is that a feature or a bug? It’s useful to have them rotate freely so that you can easily bring to them to starting position when you’re just starting your ride.
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I have to buy a kids bicycle (20″). I noticed that pedals in many of these bicycles do not rotate freely in reverse direction. Is that a feature or a bug? It’s useful to have them rotate freely so that you can easily bring to them to starting position when you’re just starting your ride.
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It’s a feature because most kid’s bikes don’t come with handbrakes. If I remember right, there is a little metal plate-thing on the back tire that you can take off to fix the issue though.
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This is a feature.
Those that do not rotate have “coaster brakes”. The brakes are applied internally by a mechanism when the pedals are pushed back.
This feature also allows the person to coast without the pedals getting tangled into the feet and legs of the rider.
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Unless the bike is a simple “fixed gear” (not likely to find that on kids’ bikes that I’ve ever noticed)……it means that the bike has a “coaster” or “drum” brake in the hub, instead of hand-operated brakes. It’s simpler (and therefore safer) for young kids to ride a bike this way. Plus, it makes burning rubber and leaving streaks on the sidewalk so much easier!
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As others have noted that style of brake is known as a ‘coaster’ brake and is very common with bicycles designed for younger kids. It operates much like a drum brake in that when operated by pedalling backwards small internal plates are pressed against the internal shell of the rear hub. Kids bicycles have coaster brakes because smaller children for the most part do not have enough hand strength or have not developed enough coordination to operate a hand brake that you would see on most adult or larger kids bikes. Yet they do need to be able to stop, hence the coaster brake. On larger kids bikes — with 20″ wheels or BMX style frames — you will often see a combination of a front hand brake with a coaster brake. This is sort of an inbetween bike, if you will, designed to allow the developement of the hand strength and coordination necessary to operate a normal hand brake.
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It is much easier for a beginner at such a young age to manage motion and stopping with their legs and leave their hands for steering.
It’s called a coaster brake, an internal drum brake in the rear hub. It has been tried and true on bicycles for 3/4 of a century.
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Mr g is spot on,no free wheel and fixed is a lot more easy to learn to ride a bike,as i discoverd with my daughter when i swap her bike.
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it’s just a coaster brake, simpler than hand-brakes for children.
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Coaster breaks ARE great for youth bikes however they are also used in other types of bikes. The best example of this is the Little 500 bike used in the annual Little 500 bike race at Indiana University. This is a 57 year old race that has 33 teams sprinting around a quarter mile track for 200 laps. This is a relay race where teams of 4 riders have one person on the track at a time. A focal point of the race is when teams exchange riders. the goal is to keep the bike moving as fast as possible when one team member jumps off the bike while another jumps on. This is where the coaster break comes in… this type of break is used so riders can slam on the break with their legs while they slide the bike to another team member. Check out the race this year at Indiana University on April 12th 2008.
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It is probably a fixed gear bike!
I should know, I had one as a kid and I have still seen them, mainly on very small bikes for toddlers.
It’s easier for a kid to manoeuvre, as they can reverse too! I should mention that they are usually confined to trikes or bikes with stablizers!
In the UK we don’t have ‘coaster brakes’ – they never gained favour here, but they seem popular in the colonies (USA!).
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