• Okay both kids (6 and 4) ready to move past the push bikes - the 6 year old for some time now. I'm an avid mountain biker of many decades planning to raise good riders to rip with.

    Half of me knows hills exist and wants them to have gears, other half knows that gears are a mental complexity and doesn't want them to have any yet

    Which way to go?

    I'm almost leaning towards locking out the gears in a reasonable ratio and removing the shifter until they can descend well.

    Overthinking it?

  • Yes. Get them geared bikes. They probably won’t use them to begin with, but then you take them on a slightly more adventurous trip and they have a revelation about how useful being able to change gear is. Once that happens you can’t stop them.

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