Balance bike

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I cannot sing enough praises of the wooden balance bike. We bought one for my son’s 4th birthday after he was playing with one that his (almost) 3 year old friend had. It took about 30 minutes for my son to catch onto pushing himself along the ground and (gasp) balancing . He can go amazingly fast on this, just with his own Fred Flinstone foot power. He can turn in wide circles. He can slow himself and stop (again, Fred Flinstone style). He lifts his legs up and dangles them out to the side to show off his balancing prowess.
He recently asked us when he can have a bike with training wheels.

Um. Never.

Why not?

Because training wheels would be a step backwards !

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26 Comments

  1. These actually work!!! We just taught my daughter to ride without training wheels in two afternoons by taking the pedals off her bike and doing the fred flintstone thing! She is 5 so she got it pretty quick, but Im going to check out one of those balance bikes for my 3 year old. Thanks for the tip!

  2. WOW! Why didn’t I think of that. Too bad my kids are past that stage. I sure would have come in handy with my 6 year old. We just took her training wheels off!

  3. Wow, what a cool bike. I have not seen one before, but I love the concept.

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  5. Hi CC,
    That looks like one amazing bike for a young child. I will have to remember to be on the look out for that one in a few years for Puddin Toes.

    Thanks for stopping by my blog and the B-day wish!

  6. Where have I been? I’ve never seen one of these little bikes. Thanks for sharing.

  7. I’ve never seen such a creature. Crazy. Yes, training wheels would definitely be a step backwards;)

  8. My son just got a tricycle. Its been hard but he loves to stand on it. The peddeless thing sound like a great idea even if I cant spell it

  9. I wanna get one of those for my 3 year old. My 14 year old still refuses to ride a bike because she fell when she was little trying to ride one.

  10. I hope they make these things big, since I have two SEVEN year olds who don’t want to learn to ride since they had nasty spills.

    SEVEN!

  11. There’s a little boy in the park who zips around on the Design Within Reach expensive version. It’s good to know there is a less expensive option!

  12. We got one of these balance bikes for daughter! It was going really well until my sister-in-law scuppered my plans by arriving on the doorstep with a pink bicycle with stabilisers. Once daughter had seen it, what could I do, be the mean mum that won’t let her have a pink bike? I’m really miffed!

  13. Ah, the memories. Our neighborhood had a homemade “balance bike” (a small bike with the pedals removed) that was passed from child to child as needed. It generally took about half a day on that bike and a slanted driveway and then they were ready for their 2-wheeler. All my kids learned to ride 2-wheelers when they were 3 or 4.

  14. Oh, I love those. I wish I had tried them with my kiddos, but we got them bikes with training wheels instead. They look so cool, and what a great concept!

  15. This thing rocks! Remember those old plastic horses, white with a red saddle and yellow reins? On wheels? Welcome to the 21st century, huh? This is too cool, thanks for sharing!

  16. Those are really cute!! Too bad my inlaws just bought my son a bike with training wheels.

  17. I am so looking into these–my son has balance and bi-lateral coordination issues. I know this might not help with the bi-lateral but the balance–wow.
    I thank you so much for sharing!

  18. Thta bike is adorable. I have never seen it before.

  19. Wow, I’ll have to think about this for my sister’s fifth birthday (coming up).

  20. Anonymous says:

    I’m glad to know about the Target version of this! The pricey one is kind of crazy but I see kids all over Lincoln Park in Chicago on them. As soon as our 3-year old is tall enough for our small bike, we’ll be taking the pedals off to teach him, since our older son learned so fast yesterday!

    Thanks for letting me know you had this post about the pedal-less bikes!

  21. Whoops! That anonymous comment was from me. ๐Ÿ˜‰

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