Kids love cycling: Get on your bike this summer

Need help choosing the right kids’ bikes? Save £££'s online and instore from Halfords. Stay at Home dad, Mark Jennings reviews 2 children's bikes.

Jacob and Amber on their bikes

As it seems that finally the British weather is starting to warm up, there's no greater way to get the kids fit having fun in the garden by updating their old cycles with the latest great models and fantastic offers at Halfords. Our 9 year old daughter, Amber, is growing up fast and our 2 year old son, Jacob, is getting more and more boisterous and mobile. So when I checked on the bike situation in the shed, Amber's was far too small and rusty, plus this would be our sons 1st proper bike. When it comes to piece-of-mind, you can always trust Halfords to deliver quality, safe products.

The cycle recommended for our maturing pre-teen was the cool looking Apollo 'Krypt' Girls Mountain Bike. Our daughter's into 'Green Day' and 'Blink-182' at the moment so she loves the Gothic-Style decals which perfectly harmonize with the metallic silver/purple paintwork. With a good spec for a childs bike the 'Krypt' boasts front suspension for a smoother ride, 18-speed 'Shimano' gears, front disc breaks for complete but careful breaking all housed on a solid steel frame with 24" wheels!

Amber on her Apollo Krypt Girls Mountain Bike from Halfords

Our daughter found this very easy to ride and with a change of gear for the grass, was whizzing around the garden in no time at all and this well made bike gave her total confidence immediately. Now when she comes home from school after her homework she asks if she can go out and play on her bike instead of her games console, so that makes us very happy!

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Our little boy's choice of bike was the adorable Apollo 'Firechief'. What budding trainee wouldn't be thrilled to get straight into the action on his wicked bright red Fire and Rescue wheels complete with siren, megaphone and emergency toolbox!

With safety in mind, there’s full chain and mudguards so busy fingers don't get dirty or trapped, front and rear brakes for extra confidence and detachable stabilisers for eventually when your little one has enough firmness to try two wheels only! Our son was fearlessly straight onto this bike encouraged by the brightness and interest in the extra gadgets. It's recommended for ages 3-5 so when his little legs get a bit stronger I'm sure he'll be off in no time at all!

Jacob on his Apollo Firechief Boys Bike from Halfords

Apollo Firechief Boys Bike - 12" WAS £159.99 NOW £69.99 SAVE £90.00 www.halfords.com

Helmets have become a necessity especially when it comes to the safety of our children and Halfords have got a range to suit every age and style. For our daughters bike the MET Crackerjack 'Pink Hearts' Bike Helmet goes well and is very in tune with her age group. Well fitting, It features an anti-pinch buckle, a safe-t-twist retention system for easy adjustment and an LED rear flashing light! And for our sons bike the Apollo 'Firechief & Police Patrol' Bike Helmet, with it's action and emergency scene decals makes it the perfect match. It has a dial-a-fit system so is easy to adjust without stress, adjustable straps under the chin and plenty of ventilation holes to keep them cool. He loved it so much he screamed his head of when i was time to take it off! Both helmets of course conform to EN1078 safety regulations.

MET Crackerjack Bike Helmet - Pink Hearts (52-57cm) WAS £34.99 NOW £27.99 SAVE £7 www.halfords.com

Apollo Firechief & Police Patrol Bike Helmet (48-52cm) WAS £17.99 NOW £14.39 SAVE £3.60 www.halfords.com

Halfords also offer a FREE 'Bike Build & Safety Inspection' on all new bikes which you can see all about this in this short video, so you really don't need to worry about all those nuts & bolts, seat heights and tricky gear adjustments.

Prices are web exclusive - Save While You Shop on All Bikes. Spend £100 save £10, Spend £200 save £20, Spend £400 save £40, Spend £600 save £60. Discount Applied in Basket. The offer ends Tuesday June 11 2013.

Boardman makes 'light work' out of cycling...

Being a keen cyclist (when I get the time and weather permitting) I always look forward to getting out for a cycle ride in the countryside, but I didn't realise how out-dated my old mountain bike was, until I went on a 30 mile bike ride with my brother. Yes it had lots of gears, disc brakes and full suspension, but it weighed an absolute ton! I was using twice as much effort to pedal than he was, yes, you could say I'd be burning calories faster, but it totally took out the enjoyment of the ride. When looking for a replacement cycle, one of my main priorities was that it not only had to be lightweight, but also strong as I'm quite a big guy. The Boardman Mountain Bike range fits this bill perfectly...

Boardman Bikes are a British bicycle manufacturer, founded in 2007 by the Olympic Triple World Champion and World Record Holder cyclist Chris Boardman. He's described the Boardman Mountain Bike range as - "At the heart of each Boardman hard tail MTB is a high quality UK designed and tested XC specific frame, built with custom butted and carefully profiled tubing. Combine this with a top spec component package from the world's leading brands and you have a versatile bike, as much at home on the race track as it is on your local trails." Chris Boardman MBE.

An excellent example from this mens hard tail MTB range is the 'cboardman COMP' with it's honest value for the more earnest cross country trail rider. Weighing in at 12.5kg total, the lightweight 19" alloy frame is constructed of triple butted aluminium tubing and has an exceptional high strength to weight ratio. The custom tube profiles are designed expressly for the forces and performance measure of off-roading.


I was instantly impressed by the fluidity from the ride of the hi-spec 'Suntour Epicom' 120mm air-forks which made for an effortless and comfortable ride across rough terrain. These forks have the option of adjustable rebound damping and lockout which returns the fork slowly to it's natural ride height and slows the springs down to help them absorb impacts more.



This combined with the two 'Avid Elixir Juicy 3' hydraulic disc brakes make for an assured, reliable ride in all weather conditions.
The SRAM X5 gear levers are ergonomic and precise, shifting the 27 gears cleanly and definitively, giving you confidence whilst putting the power down through the 26" wheels. The 'cboardman COMP' is a good looking quality bike and you won't be disappointed with the spec.

The MTB range is only available to order from Halfords or direct from Boardman stores. All Boardman bikes are fully built by Boardman mechanics and can be delivered free to your home ready to ride (with a free 6 week safety check), they only require a twist and tightening of the handle-bar and the fitting of one pedal.

Rear Seat Entertainment at Halfords

Keeping your young ones entertained in the car can be pretty impossible sometimes, especially on long car journeys.

Once you've got completely sick of playing eye spy and your eldest has flattened the battery on your smart phone it's time for a different tactic.

The Next Base SDV49AC twin in-car DVD players avaliable from Halfords are ideal for such occasions because you can either both watch the same film, or, as in our case with children of different ages, two different films.

With headphone sockets on both, we elected our eldest to wear hers, whilst our toddler sat glued to the screen, listening to Waybaloo until he fell asleep!

The SDV49AC 9" screens are are LED backlight high resolution panels with 800 x 480 RGB true colour pixels, which gives you brilliant picture quality even at wide viewing angle.

The thing that I loved about this slim player is that it supports a number of disc and formats including DVD, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, CD-R/RW, CD Audio, XviD, MPEG4, MP3, DivX, JPEG, JPG, which means you don't have to just ruin your best Disney DVD's.

You can not only play your home recorded DVD's, it has a USB and SD slot for playing your movies taken straight from your PC. You can also listen to your favourite stereo MP3 music and even 'rip' CD's to MP3 format, instead of having to go through the rigmarole of starting up your PC.

Set up is very easy depending on your car. After charging both units with the supplied mains adapters your ready to put them in the car. The head restraint mounting kit comes with both units and only takes 5 minutes to fit.

The rechargable battery last for over 2hrs, but If your going on a long journey, I recommend fitting the 12v power lead (supplied) into the cigarette lighter to keep it fully charged. As I said earlier, the players can either work independently or with an AV cable (supplied) taken from 'master' player to the other so the same film can be watched. Both units also come with headphones and remote controls to keep those little ones happy.

The SDV49AC is a good quality, easy to use player and excellent value for money, especially if you buy online at Halfords.com

Price: £199.99.

Please visit: www.halfords.com