We are 100% Focused on Making
the Best Bikes for Kids

I’m Jacob and this is my bicycle company. I have two sons, Jonah and Elliot.  Watching Jonah and Elliot ride bikes is just awesome.  Like watching a sunrise in the High Sierras while eating a fish taco with fresh guacamole and getting a foot massage awesome.

I wanted riding a bike to be as easy, safe and as fun as possible for my sons.  So I researched bikes and teaching techniques.  I started modifying bikes and bolting on parts.  I measured bikes and parts with digital calipers and angle finders.  I took notes.  More than anything else, I watched my kids ride.  I watched them get fast, fall, get up and go faster.  I watched their friends ride.  If a friend didn’t know how to ride, I taught them.

By now you might be thinking that (1) it’s a bit odd for a grown man to be so geeky about kids bicycles and (2) Jacob’s wife must be a very patient woman (she’s amazing).  But without my oddness and her patience there wouldn’t be a Prevelo Bikes, so go with it.

The Prevelo Bikes mission is simple, make bikes for kids that are as confidence inspiring, easy, and fun to ride as possible. All Prevelo bikes are 100% engineered for kids from the start. Our bikes feature exceptionally low minimum seat heights and low bottom brackets. This geometry places the rider close to the ground. We have found that kids feel more confident, learn easier and ride better when they are closer to the ground. The low geometry also lowers the center of gravity making the bikes safer and more agile. Lowering the geometry required us to re-think crank lengths. In conjunction with our low geometry, Prevelo bikes crank arm lengths are optimized down to the millimeter to make sure the rider can pedal efficiently and comfortably. Prevelo bikes cranks also have ultra-narrow q-factors (in regular English, this is the distance between the pedals). A narrow q-factor means that young legs don’t need to be splayed far apart to reach the pedals.

All of that engineering would go to waste if we built the bikes out of cheap metal and components. Prevelo bikes are built light and strong.  All Prevelo bikes frames and forks are made of custom formed 6061 aluminum tubing. Everything on Prevelo bikes, including the tires, hubs, wheels, handlebars, stems, saddles, brakes, shifters and derailleurs is designed to be smooth, reliable and easy for kids to use. All you geeky spoke counters (you know who you are) can check out the detailed specifications for each bike for yourselves.

Finally, Prevelo bikes are built strong.  Kids beat their bikes up in that special way that only kids can, and Prevelo bikes are built to take it.  From the over built drop outs to the thick welds, Prevelo bikes are built to take the beating that every kid's bike deserves.

I hope your kid(s) loves riding our bikes as much as we enjoy making them! Enough reading…get away from the screen and go take a kid for a bike ride!

Ride hard.  Have Fun.

Jacob

  • Jacob circa 1982, California. The world thought fish tacos were weird and bike helmets were unnecessary. The world has learned a lot since then.

  • Jacob's children were Prevelo prototype test pilots. (Jacob wanted to test the bikes himself, but being larger than he was in 1982, the geometry was all off.)

  • We meticulously designed every Prevelo frame to provide the optimum geometry for young riders.

  • We spent a lot of time engineering the Prevelo bottom bracket to position the feet of our young riders close to the ground and to minimize leg splay - both factors that we found make kids more confident, agile and safe on a bike.

  • Prevelo bikes are easy to ride, but they are built to be ridden hard. Because kids are hard on their bikes.