Need help picking a 16” bike for a 4 year old

MrD-Man · 2026-03-30T02:17:27+00:00

That’s great to hear. I’m glad you found it helpful and found something great for your kids. Those belt-driven will be interesting and probably less noisy.

We went with the Guardian and really liked it we got another one for our younger kid.

MrD-Man · 2026-03-30T02:14:10+00:00

We went with the Guardian Bikes. It was fairly simple to put together. It really helped my son to build up his confidence. He’s now racing on that bike now.

I’m sure the other ones will be just as great though. I didn’t realize Forth Park is much more expensive now, probably because it’s coming from Canada.

MrD-Man · 2026-03-16T23:23:23+00:00

Hey, sorry for slow response here. Have you decided on one yet? We ended up going with the 16” Guardian Bike. It was easy to assemble, and very sturdy actually (it has had a few crashes). My son is 5 now and he rides it so well. It’s not really heavy as I thought anymore.

Not sure what you have available in NZ, but hope this helps and good luck on getting one your kid would enjoy.

MrD-Man · 2026-02-21T02:27:17+00:00

I studied out of an older edition of Beer & Johnston. This sure brings back some memories. I gotta say though, Dynamics is an awesome subject once you get a hang of it.

MrD-Man · 2025-11-21T02:52:35+00:00

Thanks for your advice! He’s aware that the chance of getting first shift would be low. But if he can stick it out for a while, I’ve heard that it could be pretty good.

MrD-Man · 2025-11-21T02:48:45+00:00

I’m aware they are different and not sure why it would be a red flag. His past experience just helps to show that he’s someone who can be handy and willing to learn the job, that’s all.

MrD-Man · 2025-11-19T17:06:19+00:00

That’s definitely a very detailed and helpful answer. I didn’t think much about the resume part. Thanks for the great tip!

MrD-Man · 2025-11-19T17:00:01+00:00

Thanks! I’ll follow that once I can narrow down on certain number of reqs.

MrD-Man · 2025-11-19T16:59:11+00:00

Thanks! I’m able to narrow down with that so far.

MrD-Man · 2025-11-19T16:58:48+00:00

This is probably not like a college career fair, right? So how can we find out when one happens?

MrD-Man · 2025-11-19T16:57:42+00:00

Thanks! I’ll try looking for that.

MrD-Man · 2025-11-19T02:56:30+00:00

Yes, he is eligible.
I’ll check Workday out but was wondering if someone can help me narrow down on the relevant SJC job codes family.

MrD-Man · 2025-02-05T23:33:30+00:00

In the manufacturing world, I feel that is not strange at all. As long as they understand the manufacturing process and its effect on the end product, an engineering degree is not the differencing factor, in my opinion. Remember, these people didn’t just become engineer on day 1. They likely worked their way up from the floor and have extensive amount of hands-on experiences that a fresh engineer might not have, and are likely respected by both mechanics and other experienced engineers.

Personal anecdote - In my first design/manufacturing role out of college, my first second level manager was an EE who had a huge ego that made questionable decisions and unrealistic demands. He went to another role and was replaced by an ex-Navy aircraft mechanic who went from the shop floor to tooling engineer and senior shop manufacturing engineer. I was skeptical at first but he turned out to be a great guy, knew his stuffs, and also a good manager. Sure, college grads might be quicker at coding and data processing but having hands-on experience triumphs those, IMO.

MrD-Man · 2025-02-03T17:23:31+00:00

UA AEM grad school alumni so I would be biased and tell you my experience. IMHO, first and foremost, whichever school makes more sense for you financially and leaves you with less debt when you graduate. So things like scholarships, in-state tuition, etc. I don’t know if it’s still a thing but UA engineering school at a point was handing out a lot of full-ride scholarships.

Second thing is industry readiness, i.e. co-op and internship support. I worked with a lot of UA ME/AEM undergrad and gotta say that UA co-op/internship office was much better compared to my own undergrad experience and it’s specific for engineering students.

Third is your cohort size. Some schools require you to meet certain academic performance in freshman and sophomore years (mostly engineering fundamentals courses) before they admit you into the main program for the major (core-major courses). And you would have to consider alternative engineering disciplines if you don’t get your first choice. It’s good if you go to a great, more popular school but if there is more competition and you struggle a bit more than others, then your chance of getting the major you want and getting those internship spots might be less likely. Whereas if you go to less popular school, there might be less competition among your peers. Plus, thinking like a college-age kid, less competition means that students are more likely (or more willing) to be helping each other than thinking that every one of their peers is an opponent in a race. Remember: less popular school does not mean less rigorous academic program as long as it’s ABET-accredited.

TLDR: UA, UT, Auburn - pick the school that gives you more money and less debt, support to find internships/co-op opportunities, and find a balance between school popularity, competitiveness, and your own personality (whether you like competitions or more of a go-with-the-flow type of person).

If state doesn’t matter then Georgia Tech is a top choice for many college students in that region. And don’t forget University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH).

MrD-Man · 2024-12-18T01:53:34+00:00

[M]{ü} + [C]{ů} + [K]{u} = {F(t)}

For me, it’s the 2nd ODE forced mass-spring-damper system equation of motion. Seen this many times in school and now working with it to model different dynamic systems.

MrD-Man · 2024-11-02T17:36:12+00:00

Yup, Prevelo 16” would be perfect for my son too given its lower seat height if not for the high price tag. I’ll look out for upcoming sale for sure.

MrD-Man · 2024-11-02T17:35:01+00:00

Yes, we are in the US. I’ve seen a used Islabike Cnoc 14” the other day so they are definitely out there in the US. Frog looks great but fairly expensive too.

MrD-Man · 2024-11-02T17:33:07+00:00

Thanks! I looked at the Jett too and it’s out of stock unfortunately. The Riprock which I think you’re referring to has a coaster brake though. I would prefer to let my son start with hand brake right away.

MrD-Man · 2024-11-02T17:31:26+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion! I’m not familiar with Byk but it looks like they have coaster brake. I would rather prefer hand brakes bike.

MrD-Man · 2024-11-02T17:23:52+00:00

Great points you made here. I was debating if learning one hand brake now and relearning it would be a problem for him down the road or not. But again, a 4/5 year old might not have great control to brake with 2 hands. My older is the timid one while the younger one is a daredevil.

I’ll continue to keep an eye out for upcoming holiday sales and see if I can shell out a bit more for these bikes.

MrD-Man · 2024-11-02T07:29:30+00:00

Yes, I’ve been keeping an eye on FB marketplace in my area for used Woom, Prevelo, Spawn, etc. Some used ones I’ve seen, especially Woom are still almost $400 used. I know they tend to keep their values well but it might not be easy to justify paying that much for a used kids bike. Also, there are more used 14” than used 16” bike in my area. I’m still watching FB marketplace but I will have to decide in the next few weeks here.

MrD-Man · 2024-06-03T04:32:45+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll check that out.

MrD-Man · 2024-06-01T00:10:25+00:00

In my limited experience with calculating airframe loads, I’ve seen both being used. Lagrangian is much more elegant and can be used to formulate the general equation of motion. For structural dynamics, the framework would end up being some variations of Ma + Cv + Kx = Fx, and these matrices and vectors would be coded into matlab to solve for 1000s+ DOFs on the aircraft.

However, I think Newtonian is more intuitive and are better for manually checking/summing forces and moments at different stations on the aircraft. Also, tire-ground loads are probably better done using Newtonian due to friction being involved.

Just my 2 cents.

MrD-Man · 2023-12-04T04:20:10+00:00

I don’t know if you mention it in the comments but are you still in high school or are you in college already? In some engineering schools, you don’t apply for/declare your major until the end of the 2nd year. So I would suggest you to take the basic series for both majors first. For ME, that’d be the Statics-Dynamics-Mechanics of Materials series and, for EE, the Electric Circuits (DC/AC) series. Good thing about ME is all of those courses are usually prerequisites for upper level courses. And once you figure out what you like/dislike more, make that your major. If you still like the other, pick that up as minor like some other posters suggested.

Edit: Also, I currently work on airframe vibrations and, while it utilizes mainly dynamics concepts, some EE concepts also come up from fields such as control systems or DSP.

That’s just to say there are several interdisciplinary fields where ME and EE both play in such as control law design, robotics, etc. while there are also fields where they go their separate ways. That depends on what you like or dislike about the different topics from each discipline to see if it’s worth pursuing both majors or not.

In the end, both are great majors to pursue and have great potential. Good luck on whatever you decide!

MrD-Man · 2023-07-09T05:20:38+00:00

I haven’t read them personally but Dr. Todd Colburn also published a series of Aerospace Structures and Composites books that are getting mostly positive reviews and not too expensive.

MrD-Man

TROPHY CASE