The joy of riding a bicycle is something of a right of passage for children. The freedom, the independence and the confidence delivered by bicycles is priceless. As a parent there a few things that rival the joy of watching your child make that first ride without training wheels.

Having said that, there's one thing that always leaves me frustrated. Why do children's bikes usually have such bad brakes? When my children go out riding I want them to be able to stop their bikes before they roll across a busy road, that's just common sense. The previous three bikes I've bought for my children have had brakes so poorly designed that you couldn't properly slow the bike even if a gorilla was squeezing the lever. Relying on the back-pedal brake to skid to a stop isn't a good strategy either. The ByK bike's brakes certainly looked the business but the real test was going to be how the kids stopped under stress.

Recently I took delivery of two ByK bikes and it seems all my prayers had been answered. The bikes ticked all the boxes as a safe and stylish bicycle that the kids wanted to ride all through the school holidays.

The first thing I noticed was the light weight. Until now my kid's bikes weighed twice as much as my adult bike, a phenomenon I could never understand. These ByK bikes were as light as a racer and when you consider that my son's last department store bike weighed as much as he did, that has to make a difference.

The quality of finish on the ByK bikes was excellent, with everything being noticeably higher quality than what we've bought in the past. But the biggest surprise was the brakes. It came equipped with both front and rear hand brakes as well as a back pedal brake. These weren't novelty brakes either, no these were proper brakes like you'd get on an adults bike, mated to proper alloy wheels and proper adjustable brake levers for smaller hands. The guy in the bike shop said the brakes even have modified spring tension to suit the younger rider and you can tell that the designer, Warren Key, has invested a lot of brain-power in the ByK bike range.

Whilst I approved of the ByK bike, the real test comes when the children go for a ride. My daughter, who has ridden to pre-school and big school since she was four, climbed aboard the ByK E450 'Girls' model and quickly pedalled away. She returned with a big grin and exclaimed "it's better, much better". After a few laps of the park, the family set off for the shakedown run. It became obvious very early on that she had much greater control and confidence on the ByK bike. Crossings and tricky turns were dispatched with ease and her speed was something we had to reign in a few times. It seems that the much lighter bike was allowing her to pedal away like Cadel Evans and leave the family in her wake.

So how much is it? I paid $199 for her last bike, though half of that probably went to the movie producers of the bike's cartoon character. This ByK bike retails for around $330 and you really feel you're getting three hundred and thirty bucks worth of bike. The quality and design of the ByK are so much better and the confidence of having brilliant brakes makes the extra dollars irrelevant. Add that to the expert service you get from a proper bicycle shop and I actually got a bargain.

Two things I think it's important to mention are the value gained by buying your bike from a proper bicycle shop and the value gained by buying a helmet your kids will actually wear and will actually protect their head. The department stores have bikes that they'll sell you for $150  and you have to assemble them yourself or pay extra to have someone assemble it for you. I've seen too many department store bikes with the front forks on backwards and the handlebars and brake levers all over the place and I don't think that's a good idea. Buying from a proper bicycle shop ensures that the bike will be assembled properly and the seat and hand controls adjusted to the correct position for the height of your child. Buying a proper helmet while you're there adds to the appeal of the new bike and ensures you get the right advice too.

The ByK E450 bicycle performed well above expectations and earns a MySchool 5 Star rating.