What makes woom bikes so special – Part 1: Weight
This six-part mini blog series is all about our woom ORIGINAL bikes. In our mini blog series, we take a closer look at the qualities that make our woom ORIGINAL bikes so special, how they're different from other bikes, and why children have so much fun riding them – from their first steps on a balance bike to their first long bike tour.
Low weight is a critical factor in giving your child the confidence and comfort that make bike riding fun. Through intensive development, the perfect choice of materials, and reduction to essentials, the two woom founders Christian and Marcus managed to make woom bikes up to 40% lighter than conventional children's bikes and create the lightest series-produced children's bike on the market.
Find out how they managed that feat and why weight is so critical to children's bikes in this first part of our mini blog series.
How important is the weight of a children's bike?
- Weight is extremely important for good handling. After all, your child has to be able to push and lift their bike, easily start riding from a stop, and effortlessly cruise around on it without the risk of them getting frustrated and giving up before they've really had a chance to get started.
- A lightweight bike will also help your child learn how to keep their balance and stop in a controlled way, which gives your child more safety.
In a nutshell, weight is the decisive factor in whether your child takes pleasure in riding a bike right from the beginning and over the long term.
Still, many conventional children's bikes are not much lighter than a comparable adult's bike. This means the children's bike is much heavier in relative terms. Hefty steel frames and unnecessary components can make these bikes so heavy that they weigh up to 60% or even 70% of a child's total body weight. A bike like that is the surest way to kill the fun factor of cycling.
Why are woom bikes so light?
When we developed our woom bikes, it was super important for us to keep the weight to a minimum and make it possible for kids to have fun riding easily and safely. We accomplished this goal on the one hand by using lighter components like the
slender frame tubes made of lightweight, high-quality aluminium,
- the wheels, with their light aluminium rims, narrow stainless steel spokes and lightweight hubs,
- the forged aluminium stem with its lean design and
- the lightweight cranks.
We can also save a huge amount of weight by saying no to components that are not designed for children and doing away with gimmicks:
- For instance, we made a conscious decision not to use any suspension elements on our woom ORIGINAL bikes. Even though many children think bikes with front suspension are really cool, they are of little benefit to children, especially younger children that weigh less than 30 kg and rarely ride on rough terrain, and they just add unnecessary weight.
Various accessories like lights, mudguards, and racks are not standard equipment on our bikes; instead, we let you configure your child’s ride to their very own needs and riding location. And of course, we make sure to keep the weight of our accessories down as much as possible as well.
An overview of our mini blog series
This six-part mini blog series is all about our woom ORIGINAL bikes. In our mini blog series we take a closer look at the qualities that make our woom ORIGINAL bikes so special, how they're different from other bikes, and why children have so much fun riding them – from the first steps on a balance bike to the first long bike tour.
