Daughter has mastered the balance bike easily, but just wondering what the consensus is regarding the next step. She homes in on the various stabilized equipped bikes she comes across and seems to be able to pedal them after a fashion, but it seems a bit of a backward step to get a bike with stabilizers. Is it a case of getting a bike without them and persevering?

Daughter number 2 went from flying along on her balance bike to a 16″ Specialized Hot Rock. They’ve a really low standover. No stabilizers required. Be prepared for a bit of frustration from them, and just let them do it in their own time,. Having said that, she was quite bloody minded as she wanted to chase after big sister 😀

I think stabilizers would probably undo everything they’ve learnt on the balance bike

Isla Bike Cnoc 14.
They’ll pick up the pedalling bit in no time – and then off they go.

Get her a bike and take the pedals and/or the cranks off. Let her use it as a balance bike for a bit. Worked a treat for my lad. 5 years old and did 7 miles the other day….

binners – Member

I think stabilizers would probably undo everything they’ve learnt on the balance bike

+1. She’ll need a little help to figure out pedalling, my lad got the hang of it with just a couple of trips round the block.

Took him on a 3 mile spin bu the river at the weekend, and even had a little diversion through the forest. I think I was more chuffed than he was.

I would’ve thought that going from a balance bike to a bike with stabilisers would totally defeat the object of the balance bike? Both of my nephews went straight from a balance bike to Ridgeback MX14’s (with the included stabilisers removed) and within quarter of an hour they were both pedalling around like they’d been doing it for years! Much to the amazement of all who witnessed it!

My boy was trying to wheelie the balance bike, so I thought it was time to unleash him on pedals. 4 minutes on his islebike cnoc 14 and he was riding, ( choke the tears back ) the balance bike gives them everything they need to ride I really wouldn’t bother with stabilisers. Just start them on the bike in a nice field and get ready to be beaming

Ps don’t forget the camera

Stabiliser bikes aren’t very stable, most of the time old style trikes would be better as they are more stable more of the time. The balance bikes generally make for a reasonably smooth transition.

Our daughters’ progression was Like-a-bike to Puky LR1 (balance bike with footboard) to Isla Cnoc 16. I was amazed at how well the balance bikes had prepared her for the pedal bike.

Depends how big they are. My 3yo is too short to use the Cnoc 14 as a balance bike even with my mod to make the saddle go lower than standard. He’s been having a go on it with stabilisers to get the hang of pedalling (bought those as older brother refused to go near it without as it was “too wobbly”, despite being a whizz on the balance bike), which has taken him a while to get beyond going really slowly. Had a go at pushing him round on it while he balanced the other day which he really enjoyed, which shows the stabilisers haven’t made him forget all that (he still rides the balance bike more than the pedal one).

Got my daughter one of these with 20″ wheels and took the stabilizers off

http://www.saracen.co.uk/bikes/2012/jnr/bella

She’s 5 and was getting a bit big for the balance bike. She now happily rides along the pavement….. didn’t need the stabilizers

Assuming the balance bike has 12 inch wheels (most do) then the easiest transition is to a 12 inch wheel pedal bike.
The only problem with this approach is they will soon be too big for the 12 inch wheel bike and will need to go up to 14 or 16 inch wheels.
Not a problem if you are prepared to buy second hand bikes and then sell them on as you can usually do this at little or no cost.
I can recommend the Specialized Hotrock 12 inch (and the 16 inch after that).

Balance bike followed by Santa Cruz V10, surely??

Some kids I’ve known with balance bikes have gone straight onto pedal bikes without stabilisers.

I don’t think pedalling is that hard once they have the leg strength / leg length – our kid is fine on her balance bike (good for a couple of miles now), and has a cheap tricycle in the garden too which she appears to have just got the legs to pedal, pedalling doesn’t appear to be very difficult.

I can’t wait till she’s big enough for a pedal bike – she’s already talked about wanting pedals, but is too short still but we’ve talked her down to ‘when I bigger I have pedals’ along with various other things filed under ‘when I bigger’ – ‘when I bigger I drink wine’, ‘when I bigger I drive car’, ‘when I bigger I go flying people’ (she wants to go paragliding).

There is also the other wheeled vehicle option – you can get a unicycle for 35cm inside leg measurement, which would fit most 2.5 – 3 year olds. Apparently it is much easier for little kids to learn than adults. http://www.unicycle.uk.com/blog/small-unicycle/

Joe

As above, don’t use stabilisers. They just slow down the acquisition of balance, which your daughter has already mastered.
Get a bike that is small enough to allow her to sit comfortably with both feet on the ground, remove the pedals and let her use it as a balance bike initially. When she is comfortable with that, try putting one pedal on, and encourage her to scoot with one foot on the pedal. When she can scoot and glide confidently with one foot on a pedal and the other foot up, fit the second pedal and get her to place both feet on the pedals while scooting, and from here it should be a fairly straightforward transition to pedalling. Encourage her to keep her head up and look forward when doing all this, because the natural tendency is to look down at your new pedals to work out what is going on, resulting in wobbles and steering problems.

Cnoc 16 with the seat at its lowest @ 3.5 years old they should be ready to rock.

My eldest learnt on a balance bike but would not let me take his pedals off his new ridgeback, so I left the stabilizers on so he learned to pedal, then took stabilizers off and he was fine, took him 30 seconds to go from pedalling with stabilizers to no stabilizers on a downhill grass slope.

My lad had a bike with stabalisers as well as a balance bike while he learned to pedal, as long as they still play on the BB they won’t lose it. As soon as they can pedal properly, whip the stabaliser off. My lad is 4 and rode about 4/5 miles of the upper green loop at Dalby the other week on a 16 Carrera Blast. so my method seemed to work.

As above, don’t use stabilisers. They just slow down the acquisition of balance, which your daughter has already mastered.
Get a bike that is small enough to allow her to sit comfortably with both feet on the ground

Now there’s the problem – what if such a small bike isn’t readily available?

Cnoc 16 with the seat at its lowest @ 3.5 years old they should be ready to rock.

I doubt it for most 3 1/2 yos. Ours is a bit of a shortarse, but he’s almost that old and he couldn’t even reach the ground with both feet on a 14 with the standard saddle/seatpost. Even older brother who is relatively tall for his age didn’t fit a 16 until he was over 4.

It seems I’m far from the only parent who’s kids have learnt with a balance bike and a pedal bike with stabilisers – the older one did that and was pedalling without stabilisers at just over 3 1/2. Now at 5 1/2 he’s ridden over 10 miles, does jumps etc. and has better bike handling skills than kids a year or two older than him at the bike club he goes to, so it doesn’t seem to have done him much harm.

There is also the other wheeled vehicle option – you can get a unicycle for 35cm inside leg measurement, which would fit most 2.5 – 3 year olds. Apparently it is much easier for little kids to learn than adults. http://www.unicycle.uk.com/blog/small-unicycle/

Though it doesn’t seem to mention in that blog how the 4yo it was for got on…

I have seen vids of 3yos on a unicycle, but whilst it might be easier to learn for somebody that young (which is doubtless true), the issue is still whether they have the dedication to learn – learning to ride a unicycle involves a lot more failing and falling off than learning to ride a bike does and I don’t think even my 5yo yet has the dedication needed (though admittedly some kids are better at sticking with things than him).

Our eldest went straight from balance bike to 14″ pedal bike at 3 1/2ish – took him about 30 seconds!

Now our little one is 2 and can actually ride the Cnoc14 (Proud Dad), but I have to be there to catch him when he stops as he’s miles from being able to touch the floor, even now I’ve put smaller tyres back on and chopped a bit off the seatpost so it goes right down.

Can anyone measure exactly how low the saddle can go on a Hotrock 12 for me? It’s probably not worth it for the short time before he’s grown enough for the Cnoc14, but I’d be really interested to know if the Spec is much lower than the Islabike.

Though it doesn’t seem to mention in that blog how the 4yo it was for got on…

I have seen vids of 3yos on a unicycle, but whilst it might be easier to learn for somebody that young (which is doubtless true), the issue is still whether they have the dedication to learn – learning to ride a unicycle involves a lot more failing and falling off than learning to ride a bike does and I don’t think even my 5yo yet has the dedication needed (though admittedly some kids are better at sticking with things than him).

Yeah, we’ll see. I’ve only bought one because she was asking for her own one, and it seemed like a fun idea. I know of 3 year olds who learnt to ride, so it must be possible. With the balance bike, she got it quite early (18 months) had a look at it, then didn’t really play with it for a few months, then suddenly got really determined at about 21 or 22 months, and was riding well at 23 months (to the point that at 2.5 years it is probably her main way of getting round our small town). I’d expect similar with the unicycle – she’ll have a play, put it away, but then at some point decide she wants to ride. The good thing about a 12″ being that with a bigger seatpost / frame it’s an okay learner for up to 6 or 7 years old anyway.

Incidentally, there is a guy in the Netherlands (Simon Koorn) who does unicycle teaching who says that 2 or 3 is the best age, because they learn much quicker, as they have the balance skills, but haven’t learnt much about physics and gravity and don’t have the general intuition that a unicycle shouldn’t be possible that older kids have.

Joe

Cnoc 14 then a Cnoc 16 as soon as they can fit on it. Bigger wheels = more stability

Both my two went straight from balance bike to Cnoc 14 at age three and a half. The Cnoc then lasted each of them just about long enough to change to a Beinn 20 Small.

IIRC the notes from Islabike that came with the Cnoc 14 say that most kids will be able to ride between age three and a half and four and a half.

My lad went from an Islabike Rothan to a Ridgeback MX14.

He struggled with the concept of pedalling and you could see it was frustrating him but the stabilizers helped him overcome that. Once he was rotating the cranks rather than just pumping them the stabilizers were off and he was away.

His first ride!

Yeah, we’ll see.

Is that your cut-down uni then? 😯

The good thing about a 12″ being that with a bigger seatpost / frame it’s an okay learner for up to 6 or 7 years old anyway.

Though at 5 1/2 my oldest is just about big enough to fit on a Hoppley 16, and surely at that wheel size bigger is better as it’s more stable and rolls better (have discussed this one with Roger at UDC – said I’d get mine a uni when he was big enough to fit on the 16, and then realised he already was 😳 ) An average 7 year old may well fit on a 20.

Incidentally, there is a guy in the Netherlands (Simon Koorn) who does unicycle teaching who says that 2 or 3 is the best age, because they learn much quicker, as they have the balance skills, but haven’t learnt much about physics and gravity and don’t have the general intuition that a unicycle shouldn’t be possible that older kids have.

He may well have a point – after all they learn to walk when they’re about 1, and as I point out to people when discussing how difficult it is to learn to uni, that’s at least as difficult a thing to do. I still think it depends on their dedication and staying power to not just discard it though – on that basis my 3yo might stand a chance where my 5yo wouldn’t, but I feel in no rush to get them on unis (even if the oldest has suggested he wants one). Though the intuition that a uni shouldn’t be possible must be a lot weaker in kids with parents who ride, where it seems a perfectly normal thing to do, even ones a bit older than 3 (my 3yo certainly thinks it’s perfectly normal in the same way riding a bike is).

Isla Bike Cnoc 14/16 would get my vote. Both of my girls got their balance sorted on a balance bike and then progressed to a Cnoc 14.

Our youngest (now 5 1/2) went from a balance bike to a Cnoc 16, now on a Beinn 20 and can happily ride the Blue at Llandegla (with a little assistance up the hills!)
Our eldest didn’t do the balance bike route, but went with stabillisers… took much longer to get him riding without – but he’s flying now 😀