woom OFF 4

Another amazing bike from Woom!

Review of Woom OFF 4: This is my child's 4th Woom bicycle. My son is 5.5 years old. He was introduced to a balance bike at about 22 months. We purchased this bicycle during a sale in advance of him being ready for the bike last year. My son is a very capable rider and we ride quite a bit. We ride in an area with a number of hills; so even on the Woom 3, I almost wish he had some gears. I know learning to shift can be challenging even for adults learning to ride. More recently, he began asking for a bicycle more like my mountain bike so we can (in his words), "Go off-roading." which for him consists of riding on any dirt surface lacking grass. However, I had already noticed that riding on gravel surfaces with the smaller/thinner tires of the Woom 3 could be difficult for him. I knew we would probably try to find a small mountain bike next- hence the early purchase. I wanted to wait for him to be a little taller but ended up giving him the bicycle early a few weeks ago. Although he still has some growing to do, he is handling the bicycle just fine. He is excited to have a bicycle with gears, like dads. He has caught on to which shifter does what very quickly. I still have to tip him off when to shift- but if I remind him, he is peddling more than necessary; or point out that he appears to be having a difficult time on a hill, he already knows which shifter to press. The bicycle is built extremely well as with every Woom we have purchased. The packaging was superb, I mean every bit of the bike was well protected. Some things were padded that probably didn't even need padding. I greatly appreciate the effort since it means you don't have to worry about your bike arriving beat up. Assembly is quick and easy although I preferred using my own tools over the provided ones. I also owned a torque-wrench for this application. If you do not have a torque wrench but have experience with working on your bicycle you'll be fine with the tools provided for the initial assembly. I will note that the tools provided don't allow you to loosen the rear wheel for instance. You're only provided with a 4mm and 8mm hex wrench. You will need a hex key wrench set of your own and other tools if you plan on maintaining the bicycle yourself. You need another 6mm wrench to change flats on the rear wheel for instance. I am giving the bicycle 5 stars because it is an incredibly high quality bicycle. I was however disappointed that the rear tire appears to have a slow leak from the factory. I checked for a leak to see if I could patch it but could not find the leak. I ordered more tubes, which I would highly recommend, because walking into a few stores hasn't yielded good results. I also had to adjust the derailleur as the chain kept skipping on the two larger cogs as my son was riding. These 2 relatively small issues aren't deal breakers, but I must mention them. I would be happier if these issues were not present. Now that some stores are carrying Woom products. In the case of the mountain bikes or other bicycles with multiple gears, I would probably recommend seeing if your local Woom dealer has the bike you want in stock. That way you can take it back to them if you run into any issues you can't fix yourself. I don't know if Woom offers maintenance through these retailers for online purchases but that would be great as well even if only for issues found during the initially setup. I hope this review is helpful to anyone considering the Woom OFF 4 for their child. Woom has consistently provided quality bicycles for my family and I am glad they exist. Lastly, I will mention we have actually done a little off roading. This included some short drops, roots and fairly steep descents on a short trail near our home. The bike worked very well and he seemed comfortable. The larger wheels and tires did what they should do- but if you have the extra coin and are dealing with a more advanced rider...the OFF AIR may be something to consider as well.

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