Balance Bike opinions

[eminva]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2457[/ATTACH]

Here is a photo from the days before anyone had heard of a balance bike — my kid on his first bike. He was three. I have no idea how much the bike weighed. I think they had smaller sizes. But then, he was never human sized, as Dirt would put it, then or now (always way over the 95th percentile).

He had no trouble getting around on it. If I knew then what I know now, I would have taken the pedals off and put something protective over the bottom bracket, and omitted the training wheels altogether. It did take him a while to graduate from the training wheels.

Liz

(Yes, he would kill me if he knew I was posting a photo from when he was a little kid).

[KelOnWheels]

Why can’t we have nice things?

http://www.islabikes.co.uk/

[mstone]

@GuyContinental 44663 wrote:

As an aside, there must be a market out there for a kids bike with a weight proportional to it’s size… yes I get that kids bikes get worked but “respect the bike” is already a mantra in my house…

Not enough of a market. Issues are cost, durability, and engineering. One of the major ways adult frames have gotten lighter is by making the tubes thicker at the joints than in the middle–kids tubes are so small that I don’t think there’s a lot of room to do that. Then the cost of making individual components lighter is basically the same as an adult bike–and not many people are going to pay for a dura-ace cassette for a six year old. And then at the end of the day, kids do dumb things that would break a lightweight bike, and the returns/complaints would kill the margins for the vendor. So the market isn’t zero, but it’s in the range of custom-builder volume. (And if you have to ask what that costs, you’re not the target market. )

Oh, and after dropping a couple thousand on a custom bike, the kid will outgrow it in a year, guaranteed.

[mstone]

@KelOnWheels 44689 wrote:

Why can’t we have nice things?

http://www.islabikes.co.uk/

They’ve got some of the nicest kids bikes out there. But even then, their 20 inch is about 65% of the weight of my bike for a kid that weighs something like 15% what I do. The discrepancy is probably worse for “how much can we each lift”.

[Tim Kelley]

@mstone 44697 wrote:

The discrepancy is probably worse for “how much can we each lift”.

I love a good meme.

[jopamora]

Wow, this thread has really grown. I had something written, then work got in the way. Lots of good advice and experiences so far. Here goes my 2 cents.

When the twins were 4 when I took pedals off a 12″ kids bike. They had a little trouble with the weight at first, but after about a month they figured it out.

Their younger sister got a Chicco Red Bullet when she was 3 and the light weight really helped get her going quickly. The plastic wheels did fine on just about any pavement. It was nice that it would fit in the back of the trailer. She rode around on that thing for a good 6 months until I put her on a 12″ bike with pedals. The hardest part after that was getting her to use the coaster brake instead of putting her feet down.

My son just got a Strider for his 2nd birthday. I figured he’d be on it for over a year and wanted something that would grow with him. He likes it, but hasn’t had a chance to ride much. Definitely gonna look into the real tires/wheels when he is older.

Can’t wait until the weather is better so we can all cruise around the neighborhood.

[Tim Kelley]

Has this video been posted yet?

Jack rides to school.

[dasgeh]

@GuyContinental 44663 wrote:

As an aside, there must be a market out there for a kids bike with a weight proportional to it’s size… yes I get that kids bikes get worked but “respect the bike” is already a mantra in my
house…

I wonder if bamboo could provide a solution…

[ShawnoftheDread]

@Tim Kelley 44730 wrote:

Has this video been posted yet?

Jack rides to school.

Mmmm… stagnant pond water.

[baiskeli]

This makes me think of the creative solutions they use for kids with disabilities. Someone invented a slightly cone-shaped roller to replace a back wheel. It doesn’t tip over, and also turns faster when tipping sideways, correcting the tip. They’ve done the camp a few times in Arlington. My daughter did it once (she’s not off training wheels yet but it’s mostly because she’s more interested in Pokemon than bikes).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMrZEuiRMaw

[GuyContinental]

@ShawnoftheDread 44741 wrote:

Mmmm… stagnant pond water.

It’s stagnant pond water in British Colombia, gotta be better than free flowing water in the Potomac…

I wanna start over and live in Squamish…

[ShawnoftheDread]

@GuyContinental 44756 wrote:

It’s stagnant pond water in British Colombia, gotta be better than free flowing water in the Potomac…

I hope that’s not the limits of our options.

[paulg]

I really like the Strider and so does my just turned 3 year old boy.

It’s light and well put together. I (170lbs) have ridden it by standing on the chain stays and it’s solid as a rock. The tires and wheels may look a little cheap but they do the job and hold my weight without any sign of issues.

They have a funny marketing video about how your life would turn out if you rode a tricycle instead. which involves punching your boss and then moving back home due to pent up frustration! Trouble is I can’t find it on the net right now.

[paulg]

Here is the funny strider bike video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPOCwixDfnw

[GuyContinental]

A friend just sent me this:

http://www.earlyrider.com/product/belter/

12.5 lb belt drive bike

His kids (in Vienna Austria) went from the LikeABike Jumper (LINK) to the Belter at under 4.

Of course if you want to do it right, just have Rob English build you a bespoke strider- LINK

[Author]

Posts