What Age Range Is A 20-inch Bike For? Are You Too Old?

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What are you looking for?  A 20-inch bike for adults or kids? As they are both suitable for kids and adults. A 20-inch bike means its wheel size is 20. Though the 20-inch kid’s bike and the 20-inch adult bike have the same wheel size, the main difference between them is their frame size.

The first thing you need to know about the kid’s bike is that they are measured by the size of the wheels, not by the frame like the adult bikes. The common kid’s bike starts from 12 inches and ends at 24 inches.

Wheel size is just one factor to consider while purchasing a kid bike. There are some other factors like child height, age, and inseam that also matter for purchasing the best 20-inch bikes for your kids.

What age range is suitable for the 20-inch bike?

Below we have given a size chart for a kids bike for you so that you can know which bike fits your kid most:

Bike wheel	Child height	Age	Inseam
12 inch	30-39	2-4	12-17
14 inch	37-44	3-5	16-20
16 inch	39-48	5-8	18-22
20 inch	42-52	6-10	21-25
24 inch	50-58	8-12	24-28
26 inch	56+	10+

The size chart for kid’s bikes shows that a 20-inch bike is for kids between 6 to 10 years. To be honest, age is not the major factor determining the size of the bike for a kid, because of the variation of the child’s height, torso, and inseam.

For example, a 20-inch bike can fit a 7 years old kid with an inseam of 21 to 25 inches, but for a kid with the same age and shorter legs, a 20-inch bike can be pretty big.

Again note that the same size wheels may also vary between brands and manufacturers.

Most importantly, it is best to buy a bike that fits your kids rather than the one that is too large thinking they can grow into it.

But honestly, a bike larger than your kid’s size is not ideal for your kid. A properly sized bike will be easier for your kids to handle, a lot safer and more fun to ride.

Gears:

You may ask how gear is related to the age range of a bike. No worries! You will know in a few seconds.

A 20-inch bike comes both geared and single-geared. Single geared is a less complicated bike and easy to operate for a kid who is beginning to learn cycling.

But if your kid is a bit pro in cycling, you should get him/her a geared 20-inch bike. It would help him/her to ride more efficiently and easily.

Again how it is related to age range? Let’s say a kid is 8 years old and just learning to ride but again another 7 years old kid is a pro in riding, so whom will you give the geared 20-inch bike? The 7 years old kid or 8 years old kid?

Does 20-inch bike range the age of adults?

A 20-inch bike seems quite small for an adult. But they actually are not! They are definitely different than a kid’s 20-inch bike and measured differently from them too.

So, how can we measure a 20-inch bike for adults then? Adults bikes are measured according to their frame size. What age range is a 20-inch bike for an adult is quite not the right question to ask.

The right question is actually, what height range is a 20-inch bike for in case of adults?

The height for a 20-inch bike incase of the adult can be range from 5.11 to 6.2 inches. And you can’t actually tell 20-inch adult is for the teenager or for a grown-up man of age 25 or 30.

Because the height may vary. An adult who has a height less than 5.11 can’t ride a 20-inch bike, again a teenager with a height of more than 5.11 can ride them easily.

It mainly depends on the height and another factor which is the type of bike. As for different types of bikes such as road bikes, mountain bikes, or hybrid bikes, the frame size chart varies!

Let’s check out a simple chart for adult bike size:

Height in inches	Frame size in inches
4.11 -5.3	13-15
5.3 – 5.7	15-16
5.7-5.11	16-17
5.11-6.2	17-20
6.2-6.4	20-21
6.4 and taller	21+

Make sure to get the perfect size bike for yourself. What’s wrong with the wrong-sized bike? Actually, everything is wrong with it. It is the dumbest thing to do.

But it can happen sometimes and a little error can make your ride uncomfortable forever. So, if you mistakenly get the wrong sized bike, like if it is too small for you or too big, then you can follow the below steps to make it perfect for you.

If the bike becomes small:

Longer seat post: If your saddle is in its highest position, then you can try getting a longer saddle post, but just make sure it has the right diameter.

Longer stem: The stems play an important role in getting the best position on the bike and also the angle of the stem is important too. Getting a longer stem also can improve your bike’s performance.

Saddle: Saddle position also plays an important role in better riding. So try to move the saddle back and forth to find a better position.

If the bike becomes too big:

Shorter seat post: You can cut off the current seat post to make it shorter or buy a shorter one if your seat post doesn’t fit you well.

Saddle forward: If you find it hard to reach your handlebars, you can reach the handlebars by sliding your saddle forward.

Shorter stem: You can look for a shorter stem to get a comfortable ride.

To get the perfect size for you, measure your height and check it with the bike chart. You can also use a bike calculator.

So, do you like math? To get a perfect size we have to do a little bit of calculation, but trust us they are just simple math formulas, not the complicated algebra ones!

1. Measure your leg inseam:

Stand tall near a wall, and measure the length of your leg on the inner side from feet to the torso.

2. Now calculate:

If you are about to purchase a mountain bike then multiply your inseam by 0.685 in centimeters, this will be your frame size.

For road bikes multiply by 0.70 in centimeters and city bikes multiply by 0.685 in centimeters.

For example, if your leg inseam is 65 centimeters, then the frame size for a road bike will be 65 X 0.70 = 45.4 cm.