woom  ORIGINAL 4 Kids' Bike

I got this bike to review in conjunction with my 7 year old and I was blown away by how well engineered this bike is for kids. To preface; I’ve raced USAC for years in multiple disciplines and have spent years working as a professional bike mechanic. I’ve seen a lot of bikes in my day and a ton of bikes designed for children. Outside of a few, super high end boutique kids bikes, I’ve never seen anything in the ballpark of the Woom 4. There are several key factors I loved so I’ll go over them one by one. First, the weight. The woom is light, real light. Now, this is not a “speed” or “climbing” bonus, it’s a, “kids a light and have not developed their muscles so a heavy bike for them is a serious control and safety issue” bonus. I’m honestly not sure how they got the bike this light. Clearly, it’s a nice aluminum frame and the wheels I’m sure contribute as they use a slightly narrower, higher quality tire and the spokes a thinner and of higher quality metal than you typically see on kids bikes. I would estimate this bike is at least 20% lighter than anything else on the market offered by the big brands. I’m serious, you can’t walk into a speciality bike shop and buy a lighter kids bike. It doesn’t exist. It’s really hard to overstate how important this is for small riders. Second, easily adjustable geometry. The big thing is the “vario” stem. With one tool and 10 seconds, you can adjust reach by around 100mm and stack by a similar amount. Again, that might not sound like much but it’s huge. Inches of reach and stack height adjustment means this bike will last and grow with your child much longer than bikes with traditional stems. The seat post clamp uses a quick release as well and is a tooled adjustment which is great for gradually raising the seat to an appropriate height as your child becomes more comfortable on the bike. Third, the microshift rear derailleur is really nice! Typically when companies add gears to a kid bike, they use the cheapest components you can get which honestly, are mostly fine for that level of riding. I would rate the microshift as probably three rungs up the ladder from the stuff you often see. The difference is it can be adjusted more easily and precisely in the first place, it will stay in tune longer and shifting performance is more consistent (faster, more precise shifts, fewer chain drops). A nice RD isn’t critical by any means but in my opinion, it’s a really nice touch. Fourth, brakes designed for little kid hands! They’re a super short throw and they’re cantis which works out to a ton of easily accessible stopping power for small hands. These are high performance brakes. Finally, this is just a well made bike. It comes almost fully assembled and even if I wasn’t a professional bike mechanic, I can’t see anyone having much trouble putting this together. It’s just a nice bike. Honestly, gobsmacked. If they made this exact bike scaled up for adults, I would love it as a townie and I would expect to pay at least $1000 for it. I will say, there is one decision They made with this bike that I disagree with; grip shifters. I get it, it’s very intuitive way to approach shifting for a novice but the issue is, it also takes a bit more effort for little hands and wrists to move. My son has been riding the bike for over a month now and he’s just getting confident with it. I may actually swap it out to a standard lever style shifter. But that’s a small issue and overall, this is a wonderful bike. If you want a bike you kid will want to ride, that will last and just avoids many of the pitfalls even “nice” kids bikes falls into, get a woom. It’s not a sized down adult bike, it’s a kids bike from the ground up and it shows. As I mentioned, my son has been on this bike for just over a month now. We ride to and from school five days a week and do the occasional weekend ride as well. Forget what I have to say, it’s HIS favorite bike by a country mile. He loves how light it is and how efficient it is and he just thinks it’s a cool looking bike!

This bike is over priced and does not work. The microshift gears are too tight and it is impossible for children to shift gears. I’ve been a big fan of Woom bikes for years but their quality has gone way down (several recalls in the past few years)while their prices go up. Go with a cheaper bike brand. You will get the same quality.