The Woom OFF 5 and the OFF AIR 5 are two cleverly designed children’s bicycles that strike a good balance between proven off-the-shelf components and child-friendly details. Above all, the OFF AIR 5 with its suspension fork is a true all-rounder among children’s bikes.
You can get an overview of the 11 exciting concepts here: kids bike buyer’s guide – 11 exciting concepts at a glance
While the Woom OFF 5 features a light rigid carbon fork, the OFF AIR 5 has a suspension fork that can be adapted to the child’s weight by adjusting the air pressure. With these two bikes, Woom promise riding fun both up and down bumpy trails. The OFF AIR 5 comes closest to delivering on this promise since the front suspension allows it to cope with rough off-road terrain. For kids who like to take a shortcut along a rooted trail through their local woods as they head home from school, this is excellent.
The solidly built Woom kids’ bikes are light and their concepts offer lots of well-implemented details. The q-factor is kept narrow, suitable for children, the grips have a smaller diameter and the rounded stem protects your child’s knees. With the help of tools, you can adjust the reach of the disc brake levers so that it’s suitable for children’s fingers. Excellent! Unfortunately, the rubber grips aren’t lock-on versions and twist easily.
The Woom could also do with a wider gear range. As it is, it’s quite limited and the difference between the easiest and hardest gear is small. A dropper post would be great, especially on the OFF AIR 5 which claims to be the better choice for bombing down hills. Barring that, we’d at least like to have a quick-release seat post clamp so that kids can get the saddle out of the way without needing tools. Dropping the saddle makes descending both safer and more fun. To dampen the chain and prevent it from scratching the frame while riding, you should also pad the seat and chainstay. That’s our tuning tip for the Woom! If you don’t have suitable adhesive tape for the job like Slapper Tape, you can wrap an old tube around the chainstay and secure it with a cable tie. The solid aluminium bash guard that protects the chain and chainring from impacts underlines the level of attention that was paid to designing and building the OFF 5 and OFF AIR 5.
The fork on the OFF AIR 5 is made by Woom in-house and claimed to be specially designed for children.
The short cranks and narrow bottom bracket allow kids to stand comfortably on the bike.
The chainstay protector on the Woom is very thin and doesn’t do anything to keep the bike quiet. We recommend resorting to some slapper tape or an old tube.
The Woom OFF 5 and OFF AIR 5 are really cool bikes for all the easy riders out there! They haven’t reinvented kids’ bikes but they’re just really well thought-through. Due to its increased versatility, we prefer the OFF AIR 5 over the OFF 5.
Tops
- high-quality workmanship
- sensible use of child-friendly components
- wide range of uses from school commutes to forest paths
Flops
- narrow drivetrain range
- seat post doesn't have a quick-release clamp
- frame inadequately protected from the chain
Find more information here: us.woombikes.com
11 exciting concepts at a glance
You can get an overview of this comparison test here: kids bike buyer’s guide – 11 exciting concepts at a glance.
All kids bikes in this group test: Tout Terrain Singletrailer Trailer (Click for review) | Shotgun Pro MTB child seat (Click for review) | Leg&go balance bike (Click for review) | Mondraker Grommy-E-balance bike (Click for review) | Early Rider Hellion 16-kids bike (Click for review) | Woom OFF 5- / OFF AIR 5 kids bike | Woom UP 5 kids ebike (Click for review) | Ben-E-Bike TWENTYFOUR-SIX E-POWER FS kids mountain bike (Click for review) | SCOTT Ransom 600 kids mountain bike (Click for review) | VPACE MORITZ26 kids mountain bike (Click for review) | YT JEFFSY PRIMUS 24 kids mountain bike (Click for review)
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Words: Moritz Geisreiter, Peter Walker, Felix Stix Photos: Peter Walker, Daniel Geiger
