The first time I put my 3-year-old son on a ‘balance bike’, he sat silently until a boy rattled past him on a little bicycle fitted with stabilisers. ‘Why can’t I have one like that, daddy?’ he asked me wistfully.
The theory (entirely lost on him at the time) is simple: Remove a bicycle’s pedals and you allow a child to concentrate fully on learning the tricky business of steering and balancing. After all, pedalling’s the easy bit. And when the time comes, the transition to a conventional bicycle is a doddle. Saddle
In many cases, balance bikes aren’t equipped with brakes. Just like the velocipede precursors of the bicycles we ride today, a child’s feet are always near enough to the ground for shoe leather to do a good enough job of bringing them to a stop. Some models of balance bike include a rear brake that’s adjusted to make it hard to skid the back wheel – although casting my own mind back to my own early years, performing a flamboyant handbrake turn-style skid was one of life’s greatest joys.
200 years ago, every bicycle was a balance bike
Balance bikes are, by definition, simple. However, optional features include a stop on the steering to help prevent oversteer and pneumatic tyres obviously offer increased comfort and handling.
There was a time when learning to ride a bike involved little more than discarding rickety stabilisers on a wing and a prayer. Don’t get us wrong, it’s a an approach that worked for generations and continues to be the way most of us start our lives on two wheels. My own son decided balance bikes were not for him and took the stabilisers route without any problems at all. However, balance bikes offer an interesting alternative approach and offer the option of putting a kid on a bike at a really young age.
Looking like a cross between a child’s bicycle and a Dyson wheelbarrow, the Velio by Easy Rider is aimed at children 10-24 months, but be warned; at £250, cheap it ain’t.
Like the idea of a balance but want to save money? Get yourself a small kid’s bicycle and remove the pedals and crank arms. When your child’s ready you can simply re-fit them.
If you’re wondering what became of the little boy on the balance bike, 16 years later he rides everywhere…but remains sceptical about balance bikes.
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We went the balance bike route with my son; he loved his balance bike and transitioned very easily to his first pedal bike at around four years old.
By contrast, balance bikes were rare when my daughter was young, so she had stabilisers. She was about eight or nine when I decided to crack the cycling thing and took her and her bike to a local church yard with a reasonable sized car park (little used) so as to give her a safe environment to learn. Possibly not typical, but I know which route I would choose if I had my time over.
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Childs Balance Bike ETA Services Ltd is registered in England (3314244) and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority – number 313965. Registered office: 68 High Street, Weybridge KT13 8BL