Balance Bikes for Toddlers

[Grandpa's Spells]

https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-balance-bike/

Some of you all have been having kids or grandkids, for those that show interest I’d highly recommend getting them a balance bike. My son got one when he turned two. He’s a couple months away from three but just rode a normal two wheeled bike, with pedals and without training wheels, for the first time yesterday. No biking in winter here.

The premise behind these is kids get good and pushing with their feet and putting them on footrests to glide, learning balance. Training wheels on bikes teach kids to pedal, not balance. My son learned pedaling on his trike, balancing on his balance bike, an picked up a two wheeler in about 5 minutes once we thought he was ready. It’s a little shocking seeing a tyke righting a “big kid bike.”

Little ones have low centers of gravity making it an easy way to learn. When he wanted the pedal bike, we talked about how falling is how you learn and it’s part of it. He had a couple spills, said “that’s how I learn!” One fall he got a little hurt but wanted on the bike within a minute.

Partly he’s able to ride at 2 because he’s tall - big kid bikes only get so small an I had to take the reflector off to get the seat low enough, and he can barely touch both feet. Super determined though and he got through it.

[JimZipCode]

Co-sign the usefulness of balance bikes. It's kind of a miracle how fast they learn to ride when you ditch the pedals to start.

My son just graduated to a 24" bike this year, seven speed. My neighbors got a balance bike for their little one this past Xmas. I'll find out which brand they went with.