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So my 8 year old daughter can finally ride a bike on her own! yes!! so I wanted to get her a new bike for her bday. She is 54 inches tall so I got her a 24" Huffy cruiser bike. However, it seems she is a bit too short? she cannot get going and then sit on the seat as the seat is a bit taller then where her behind is. Do I get a shorter seat? am I missing something?
You may be able to lower the seat a few inches. The seat post, which the seat is attached to, goes into the seat tube. There's a quick release clamp or a bolt to loosen to adjust the seat height. If you lower the seat post as far as it will go into the seat tube and the bike is still too tall for your daughter, she'll need to wait to grow into it. Sometimes if you remove the reflector on the seat post, you can lower the seat a little bit more, but you'd want to reattach the reflector somewhere else for safety. You can take some pretty bad spills riding a bike that's too large for you...if she can't stop without finding a curb to rest her foot on, for example, the bike is too big and is not safe for her.
Kids bikes from a bike shop generally have a lower standover height, which means you can get the kid onto a bigger bike sooner. One of my kids is 51" tall and rides a 24" Diamondback, but there's no way she'd be able to ride a 24" bike from Walmart. When her sister was that height, she rode a 26" Giant bike with a 13" frame (an extra-small adult bike) but her legs were much longer than her sister's legs are. My younger daughter can get on her sister's old bike, but she can't reach the ground well enough to feel secure riding it.
My daughter is 4' 8". My husband bought her a new bike from a bike shop last week. The ended up cutting a couple of inches off of the seat post that slides up and down so it would be shorter. The seat can still be raised higher if my daughter grows a little. My daughter is almost 13 and I doubt she will grow much. Worst case, we could buy a new seat if needed. It's a nice bike.
Not gonna give a yay or a nay as far as safety goes, but they used to make such a thing as pedal blocks for us shorties.
I'd do some research before buying anything like that now though.
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In order to get some idea how much of a bike you should get for any person, especially little ones, hold the bike in an upright position.
Now have the child put the saddle under his/her arm pit, and then have the child reach with its fingers the center of the crank.
When the child can do that, the saddle is about at the right height.
There is NO absolute need to be able to put at least one foot on the ground when stopped on a bike.
You can slow down and get off the saddle and then put your legs on the ground.
If the bike has a "conventional" seat-clamp (bits that connect rails of the seat to the post rather than a post with a built-in clamp), you might get an extra 3/4" to an inch lower position. Remove the seat from the post, loosen the (usually) 2 nuts on either side of the clamp, remove and flip clamp over so that nuts are above the rails, put back on post and tighten nuts. It's a pain to get the wrench in there but it works.
on a properly fitting bike you should never be able to put your feet on the ground while seated .
the leg should just about be straight at the bottom of the pedal stroke and would never be able to reach the ground seated
This is an 8 yr old who just learned how to ride a bike. What advice will be next...adjusting the for and aft or maybe getting a new stem? Maybe her cleats aren't aligned?
OP, like others said, there is most likely a clamp that'll allow you to raise or lower the seat tube. If you're having trouble understanding what that means just take the bike to a shop and ask them.
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