driveway years
XJD beach cruiser bike
The slow, upright end of the range, bought by the same families as the XJD balance bike.
One speed, swept bars, fat tyres and a saddle with springs under it. A cruiser is the bike you ride sitting upright with your hands low, at the speed of a conversation, and it is the only frame we make that is as much for the adult as the child.
Five frames, 24 and 26 inch wheels, in cream, pink, green and black. Coaster brake as standard, a hand brake on the front of the 26 inch, and bosses for a front basket and a rear rack on all of them.
Everything on this shelf, with the price it carries today
All 5 on this shelf
Why the geometry feels different
The bottom bracket sits forward of the saddle, so your legs reach out rather than down, and your back stays straight. That is why a cruiser feels comfortable for an hour and a mountain bike does not. The seat is a wide sprung unit with a soft, supportive top, and the grips are non-slip faux leather rather than foam, which survives being left out in the rain.
Thirty-five pound steel frame, rated to 180 pounds, sturdy in the way furniture is sturdy. It is not a bike for hills, and we would not pretend otherwise: one gear and a lot of mass is a beautiful thing on the flat and a miserable thing uphill.
- 24 and 26 inch wheels, single speed
- Sprung saddle, swept-back bars
- Coaster brake, front hand brake on 26 inch
- Basket and rack mounts fitted
- Steel frame, rated to 180 pounds
Out of the box
Front wheel, bars, pedals, saddle, basket if you ordered one, and the coaster arm clamped to the chainstay. About forty minutes, tools supplied, and the only fiddly installation is getting the fenders square. The modular design helps here: fenders, rack, basket and bars all unbolt without disturbing anything else.
Tyres ship soft. Put thirty-five PSI in them before the first ride and the bike will feel like a different machine, smooth over gravel instead of wallowing through it.
Elsewhere
For the child who is not big enough for a 24 inch wheel yet, the kids bikes with training wheels and the balance bike shelves run from 12 inch upwards; for the one who wants to jump off things, the BMX frames.
A helmet belongs on this shelf as much as any other, even at cruiser speeds, and a pad set is cheap. If you are shopping for a toddler to come along, a seat on the rear rack is not something we make, but a trike with a push handle is.
One pattern, from the XJD balance bike up
There is one pattern underneath all of this. Whether it is a balance bike, a kids helmet or a ride on car, the seat is the same soft, supportive PU seat, the grips are the same non-slip rubber, and the wheels are the quiet kind that stay smooth on a pavement slab rather than drumming. Frames are sturdy in the places a toddler leans and rounded in the places a baby grabs, which is most of what the word safe means at this age.
Assembly follows the same pattern. The modular design arrives half built, the tools come in the carton, and installation takes the fifteen minutes between tea and bath, comfortably within one evening. That matters when it is a gift and the child is watching: the thing feels finished, and no adult would be hunting a spanner while a two year old waits for a ride. Every model here is assembled from the same short list of parts.
On this shelf the geometry is upright and slow on purpose, which suits a long flat pavement more than a hill.
- One PU seat shape across the bikes, so a hand-me-down feels familiar under a younger child
- Non-slip grips and rounded bolt heads on every frame on this shelf
- Tools in the carton; installation inside fifteen minutes on a kitchen floor
- Published weights, so you know what a toddler can pick up and right again alone
- Colours and sizes listed as separate rows, because that is how they go out of stock