Jump to content

Recommended Posts

I'd HIGHLY recommend a Specialized Hotrock bike. We bought one for my son's 3rd birthday in December and he'd learnt to ride it on his own, with pedals (no stabilizers) after about a month of using it as a balance bike (we got a bike shop to take the pedals off to start with, then had them put pack on when he felt ready to attempt riding it properly!).


My husband is a bit of a bike geek (read: bmx-er in mourning) so he spend about two months researching the best balance bikes before finally settling on the Specialized Hotrock. They're about ?150 new, but we managed to get a second hand one from Gumtree for ?60 so it's worth looking around. This article on Two Wheeling Tots explains it well:


"Most cheaper balance bikes (including the wooden variety) have taller handlebars, which increases the center of gravity for the rider, thereby making the bike more difficult to balance. So now, not only are the bike hard to pedal, they are also more difficult to balance. Higher-end 12″ bikes however, designed by biking companies rather than toy companies, understand the importance of the geometry of a bike frame and have, in recent years, begun to address the issues. While other brands are superior to cheap bikes, Specialized 12″ Hotrock, is by far the best 12″ bike on the market. In fact, it is the only 12″ bike I recommend to younger kids ready for pedals. By simply moving the bottom bracket (where the crank arms attach to the frame of the bike) slightly forward, they increase the leverage children have on the pedals thereby making their bike much easier to ride. The geometry of other high-end brands, such as Haro, are significantly better than lower-end bikes, but not a good as Specialized Hotrock."


If you want to read the rest, it's here: http://www.twowheelingtots.com/specialized-hotrock-12-review/


Sorry for banging on...in essence my understanding is that you're much better off buying a bike from a bike company rather than a toy company! Also, it seems much better value to buy a bike that you can use with or without pedals in terms of longevity.

Hi there, We too had this dilemma! We found the 'tiny bike' is just brilliant, couldnt recommend it more. Its from fun4kids but we bought it from a site called Mini Social as cheapest we found online. ?44 brand new including next day delivery. Really nice looking, loads of colours, sturdy and the little ones love theirs. Hope that helps :)
Hi - we just bought my son a metal one from Decathlon for around ?30 I think. It's lightweight to carry when he gets tired, it doesn't matter if it gets bashed about and he's gone straight from that to a normal bike without stabilisers. I think balance bikes have quite a small window. My son had his for a year from 3 to 4 so I didn't see the point on shelling out loads of cash on an expensive one.
  • 3 weeks later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • Wow, well served with local supermarkets then…  Agree with ATM.. good c position to been mugged or cloned card - prob why not been considered before. Wasn’t there one outside post office and still  is2where people were abit nervous of using? Hope I am wrong but won’t see me rushing to use it…sure lots of folk will benefit thou. Not a great fan or user of Iceland but when it closed years ago people complained..  Guess they only b look at bigger sites - can’t recall an express one but a pity to those who frequent the store. Strange that Tesco can use it as local but Iceland can’t - guess it is  power of large supermarkets. Personally would have  loved an Aldi or Lidl but  clearly site to small. Only grocery stores left to come are Waitrose, Aldi, Lidl… 
    • I'm paying £31 pcm for full fibre 300, whatever that is. I'm not sure it's a particularly good deal now, but I did a comparison at the time I went onto it, and it was then. I don't have a landline any more, and my mobile is with iD, who piggyback off 3. I don't usually have any problems,  except once a few years back when the whole 3  network (?) went  down for quite a long time.
    • I have Plusnet too.   I recently (August) had some problems with WiFi connection on different days but and the turning off and turning on didn’t work.  The WiFi didn’t work for quite a few hours - overnight in one case but eventually rectified itself.   Would be interested to know how much other people pay for Plusnet. I also have a landline with them as the mobile signal is bad inside house.  That is with EE and I want to change from them to another provider.
    • That's terrible 🤬 Was it the same company both times?
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...