Kiddie bike review

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slowriderz

slowriderz

Joined
Sep 9, 2011
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A very good friend wanted to get his daughter ( 3yo ) a bike for Christmas. He did not want a cheapo wally world bike. I thought it was going to be a very hard task finding one. I scoured the web and finally stumbled across a Morgan Cycles line of bikes, trikes, pedal cars and balance bikes. They looked very cool but from $160-$400 I was a bit skeptical. I picked one up on Ebay for $159 and cannot believe the quality of this thing. The chrome is super, the components are super and everything on this bike is steel!
I currently have the bike torn down painting the tins getting ready for the pin stripe work but will post pictures of the completed bike. Below is the stock image. If you are in the market for a kids bike, this thing is sweeeet!

morgan_41115.jpg
 
I think I read somewhere the average life of a wally world bike is 11 months! :eek:
So if a much better kiddie bike costs $300, and can be handed down or resold so the bike lasts thru 8 kids even with maintenance cost it will be far cheaper in the long run than buying kids an $80 bike every year.
Of course, you would be bucking the trend of disposable bicycles - we all find perfectly good bikes that need a tire or have the chain rusted up.
Maybe they could be city bikes for kids, or issued by elementary schools instead of bus transportation?.
 
how long do you plan for a kid to ride the bike , i find good kids bikes cheap they just need tubes or other stuf that get s ruined do to leaving itsitting in a shed or a garage unused for years !
 
horsefarmer said:
I think I read somewhere the average life of a wally world bike is 11 months! :eek:
So if a much better kiddie bike costs $300, and can be handed down or resold so the bike lasts thru 8 kids even with maintenance cost it will be far cheaper in the long run than buying kids an $80 bike every year.
Of course, you would be bucking the trend of disposable bicycles - we all find perfectly good bikes that need a tire or have the chain rusted up.
Maybe they could be city bikes for kids, or issued by elementary schools instead of bus transportation?.
Click to expand...


I don't think the problem with the wally world bikes is that they aren't tough enough. If they were properly assembled and then properly cared for they would also last years. The problem is they are usually assembled by unskilled workers who neither know what they're doing nor give a d@mn and then purchased by people that do no maintenance whatsoever and leave them outside in the elements. Throw in the added factors that kids outgrow these bikes quickly, that families are smaller these days, (no hand-me-downs), and that the cost of things like kids bikes has come way, way, way down from what it used to be and you end up with 11 month life spans.

There's really not that much involved with making a child's bike. It doesn't need gears or suspension or even handbrakes for that matter. The basic design is about the same as it was back in 1950 and it doesn't even require much raw material. If Walmart and the Chinese could only get their quality control down they really could make these things right.
 
When I get the tins back from stripe work I will show some close up images of the construction of this bike. Overall I am just impressed at the materials. metal fenders guards and tank.
Seeing that this is a 14 inch bike for a little girl that is on the tiny side I think she will get a couple / few good years out of this before needing to move up to a 16.

As for the assembly... this bike came in a box that could have housed a Mongoose beast! everything was factory assembled with the exception of the handlebars, training wheels and pedals being removed. I of course began to break it down immediately to grease and inspect bearing etc.. Everything was well greased from the factory and seemed to have been assembled with some sort of care involved.

Again this is just my basic review of the bike which I thought I would share if anyone was in the market for such a bike.
 
http://www.morgancycle.com/
Looks like they are $149 on website.
They have tricycles, pedal cars and other kiddie stuff too.
Of interest to RRB'ers, they have interesting replacement wheels lights and other stuff!
 
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I'd be mad if I bought the electra new for my boy. I picked it up for him right after his 4th birthday, a little over a year later I think he needs a bigger bike. Sure the seat has plenty of adjustment but the length of the bike is kind of short. I was actually surprised at how expensive kids bikes were for as small as they are. What are most box store kids bikes 60$ compared to a huffy cranbrook at 90$? He has some other bike that grandma for him. The construction of the frame is terrible.
 
Despite how long the child uses it, and the world we live in, how things are treated.. I think it goes without saying many pass up the chance to give benefit of the doubt in some of these circumstances.

[Let aside Walmart employee wages are garbage, and assemblers get paid by Each completed item built, the same can be said for Home Depot assembly line workers, though they seem to have a more head on shoulders prospect of how they treat their employees, the assembly workers are paid by each completed piece.]

If you have the money, and have or plan to have a sizable family, Id say the moneys worth it for something more durable, where two of your kids may be hard on bikes, but perhaps your third isn't, and would cherish it, even for the short allot of time he/she got with it.

I can respect buying used, especially good brands and good condition used at reasonable prices..[cmon, isn't that something we all enjoy?] But where were discussing THIS bike.. I think its a neat bike, and reasonable if the details are as said.. strong, sturdy and steel, with some semblance of care with assembly and proper greasing.

I admire this bike for two reasons;
1. Its really neatly shaped.. little cute tank... nifty color scheme.. THE LOOKS.
2. Its here, and with some dedication for it. Self Interest.

I've quoted before, and I'll quote again, if you love it, it doesnt matter if it was $5.00 or $5,000.00..its your bike and you like it.

[sometimes I feel like that means I think it looks like garbage..but hey..its your bike...but no.. its a good thing. enjoy your spoils, both financially and emotionally.]

I think thats what SlowRiderz was trying to get across.

FZ
 

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