Advice on first toddler bike please!

[akd]

Hi knowledgeable parents!

I'd be grateful for your recommendations as to the best first bike to buy our daughter for her 3rd birthday. Am wondering about balance bikes but perhaps there are small normal ones with stabilisers that are as good / better?

Thanks for your feedback...

[bawdy-nan]

balance bikes are supposed to be better (for encouraging understanding of balance necessary for later peddling)- Brixton Cycles used to do a part-exchange scheme for kids bikes bought with them (so the necessary upgrades are easier and cheaper - maybe worth popping in to see them?

[akd]

Thanks bawdy-nan, that's really helpful, will investigate.

[Borne]

If you want to try out balance bikes, I highly recommend the 2-5 year balance bike session at herne hill velodrome. Check out their website, its on tuesday mornings and friday evenings 4-5:30 (although friday afternoons end this month). It is ?3 for the session and ?1 to try out their balance bikes if you don't bring your own. Celeste, the coordinator and instructor is very good to talk to and your little one can see others her age cycling too.

[KatDew]

Balance bikes are ace. My three all had balance bikes. All three learnt to ride pedals bikes within a few minutes of trying.

[akd]

Thank you all for your feedback, grateful for your input!

[devsdev]

Balance bikes are great - I extensively researched and the FirstBike is excellent, though pricey at around ?100. We bought for our daughter at 2, but she was ready around 2.5yrs. It has an adjuster to have seat very low and then you can take the adjuster off to increase height. This website is great: http://www.twowheelingtots.com

[montassa]

We bought a strider balance bike.

Excellent bikes and not as pricey as others.

[Carbonara]

Yes, get a balance bike! They are less hard work for toddlers than pedalling along all askew on one stabiliser as they lean sideways, and balance bikes give them the skills to learn to ride a 'real' bike without stabilisers within minutes. Stabilisers actually impeded balancing skills by encouraging them to tip their balance the wrong way.

[akd]

Thanks for those comments, will investigate striders...

[goldilocks]

Has anyone tried using the IslaBike Cnoc 14 as a balance bike (ie by taking off the pedals) for a 3 year old? My daughter has a puky bike but its a bit heavy for her at 2.5 years. I'm reluctant to buy another balance bike as she might not use it for too much longer so was wondering if this might be a good alternative given we could pop the pedals back on when she's ready.(she's reasonably tall). Posting here as thought that if it was an option might be something akd might consider too.

[Convex]

hi goldilocks, that is our plan.

we have a wooden balance bike but our son isn't that interested, as it converts from a trike and re really loves the trike.

he is however very keen on having a proper bike and understands he has to get the hang of balancing first. we are planning to get him a bike for christmas and take the pedals off until he masters it as a balance bike.

if you read the reviews on the islabike website it sounds like a few people have done that so I'm assuming it works!

[bobbsy]

I have just been looking at the same - I have not tried anything yet, but have just found that the micro scooter company also make a balance bike. It says that it only weighs 3.2kg which seems super light.

http://www.micro-scooters.co.uk/scooters-type-micro-balance-bikes/micro-g-bike-plus-green-2.html

Has anyone tried one of these?

[devsdev]

The micro scooter bike looks great, though not tried or seen it myself! http://www.twowheelingtots.com/micro-kickboard-g-bike/ - they gave it a good review (this site really is awesome!).

[devsdev]

By the way - Firstbike have a big sale on if anyone is interested: http://first-bike.co.uk/

[akd]

Thanks for your posts everyone, really useful!