Looking for some advice:

It’s about time our 2 and a half year old got a bike – she seems keen. However, I know that it is de rigueur for those who are middle class and/or cyclists to reach for the most expensive balance bike possible.

However, after visiting shops she doesn’t seem to like balance bikes, and gravitates to the ones with stabilisers and can ride them slowly across the floor.

Leaving aside the social stigma attached with such bikes, many seem to be very heavy and have ludicrously high gears (32×16!?). Any recommendations?

Or should I just get a balance bike and make her/hope that she takes to it?

balance definitely. I coach kids and those that start on balance bikes are way ahead of those who used stabilisers

Out of two nieces, the first never got on with a balance bike and was straight onto a pedal bike, she’s now onto gears and the occasional blue trail at the age of 5. the second loved her sister’s balance bike so much they bought her another one and she’s still on it at the age of 3.

Get her the one she wants. The happier she is on it the more she’ll ride it.

Totally depends what you want out of it…

If you want her to be able to ride a bike fairly well, fairly soon then get a balance bike.

If you want her to be think she can ride a bike very soon then get stabilisers

I’d try a balance bike first, thing is you can leave them in the house to play on which my 2yo did for a while, then outside then a cnoc 14 with no pedals. One day she saw someone pedalling, asked for her pedals to go on which i did, by the time i turned back around she had ridden off !

Totally depends what you want out of it…

I want her to enjoy using it, and want to ride it.

It’s not about a competition with other small children (and the associated parental smugness).

I might just get both and see how we go.

larry – as I said in the first response, from a coaching perspective, kids who start on balance bikes develop much more quickly, in general.

Thanks for the input. I’m not fussed about coaching, more enjoyment. I’m sure she’ll learn to ride a bike one way or the other.

I perhaps should have phrased the question:

“has anyone found a way to way to persuade a toddler that a balance bike is better than a stabiliser bike”

I have experience of this exact issue from yesterday. I cannot emphasise enough how much of an advantage a balance bike is in the child’s enjoyment.

I was taking my daughter out yesterday (Exactly 2.5yrs old) on a pedal bike for the first time, she’s been on a balance bike from 18 months. Straight away she was enjoying the pedals and not worrying about falling off.

At the same time one of my neighbours was getting his 4yr old daughter to pedal without stabilisers, she kept falling off as she’d spent a year not learning the principle of balance.

Parental willy waving aside, my daughter was enjoying herself far more. I will give her the option of both (a balance bike is still fun at that age) but I wouldn’t dream of stabilisers.

My experience, you should, of course, do what you’re happy with. 8)

edit: You’ve updated the question – I’d take her out with other kids on balance bikes, kids love to copy others having fun. A 2 yr old on a balance bike will rung rings round a 2yr old on stabilisers, MUCH more fun whizzing around everyone’s legs than wobbling along at 5mph on stabilisers!

It’s tricky, once my little one decided she wanted pedals that was that, but she had managed to get a good scoot on a balance bike before that point.

To be honest my main mistake was teaching her how the brakes worked first. She’s riding OK pedalling without stabilisers now though, so it’s all good.

“has anyone found a way to way to persuade a toddler that a balance bike is better than a stabiliser bike”

Yep, give them a balance bike and keep them blissfully ignorant of the existence of stabilisers.

My daughter (now 6) hated her balance bike, so rides around, very happy, very slowly with stabilizers. My son (3) loves his balance bike and screams around the place, including ramps and pump tracks with no fear at all. He’s equally happy but has more bruises!

Thanks for the replies above.

I think I’ll get a balance bike then and we’ll try that for a while. Good point RE: other kids. Seeing other kids on their scooters had a very positive effect on her using hers.

A key part of the equation that hasn’t been mentioned yet is a trike. I think that’s an important part of the process.
Up until a certain point, kids will generally be too floppy to use a balance bike, and as above, it will just piss them off. That’s where the trike comes in… the kid can happily zoom around on it and learn to pedal. They can make progress and be happy.

When they want to move onto a bicycle then put them on a balance bike. When they master the balance side of things then the pedalling action they learned on the trike is transferable.

Et voila.

Putting them on stabilisers (aka a quadracycle) is just a blind alley

While balance is undoubtedly better some kids might not take to it. Sweajnr has had a balance bike from 2 and he barely used it. “Broken dad – no pedals”. So at age 3 I got him a bike with pedals (Spawn Gremlin). He tried that for a little bit but couldn’t balance. So now I’ve taken the pedals off it and am hoping he takes to it this summer at 3.5 with scooting. He just doesn’t get the scoot along method even when friends are doing it right next to him.

I suspect though at some point my patience with watching him suffer / fall / not get it will be exceeded and I’ll fit stabilizers.

Edit: I’m not sure Trikes help. Sweajnr has trikes at his daycare and loves using them so wobbling around on the balance bike seemed slow / pointless. I have no doubt if I fitted stabilizers to his current bike he’d be off like a rocket as he can do pedaling / steering just fine.

Show her this, think my boy was about two in this, he’s definitely enjoying himself!

[video]https://youtu.be/dTkW90pGpK0[/video]

It really makes no odds long term.

When they want to and what they enjoy is all you have.

I was “disappointed” when my kid showed zero interest in cycling but he just wanted to play with the other kids on scooters. Had the other kids had balance bikes then he would probably have wanted that… had they had stabilisers then he would have done that.

He showed zero interest right up to age 5… then he started school.. met kids with bikes and he hasn’t stopped since.

Age 5 he asked for a bike and I told him if he could ride one without stabilisers he could have one. 2 minutes (tops) after trying he was riding and next week he got his first real bike…

That’s 2 years ago … in the meantime we had lots and lots of fun riding progressively further, faster and more technical.

How you judge “ahead” or “behind” is a bit subjective but he’s now racing and beating not only his age group but the under 10’s as well and he enters whatever open events he can.

I couldn’t get him into a club 2 years ago now he is easily beating the kids he would have been “learning” with (and the ones an age group above) and we did EVERYTHING wrong according to the British Cycling way.

Counter to that he learned to swim from a few months old… his mother then pushed him down the formal route … and yep he can swim but he has no interest in doing it competitively or even recreationally. (I only got him back swimming at all by saying he can’t start learning to surf until he can swim a mile)

I don’t think balance bikes are good or bad … I just think they make no long term difference and equally no difference as to when you can go out actually riding with your kid. If your kid like it then go for it… but I wouldn’t push them to a balance bike because you’ll be riding with them any sooner.

Once you get past that part and you can now ride with the kid I think the formal route (from what I’ve seen) is probably bad in some ways as what really counts is time on the bike riding what you want to ride.

The local club seems to spend a lot of time riding round cones whereas we are off riding trails … I know its way more fun for me riding some trails with the kid than watching him ride some cones and under a limbo but I also think its way more fun for him and ultimately isn’t that what matters.

He’s putting up with swimming at the moment… but I know he just wants his mile cert so we can surf this summer, otherwise he’d rather go to the dentist than a pool.

Balance bikes all the way if you want your daughter to grasp balance from an early age and progress continually.
If you’re more looking to bimble about the culdi-sac for something to do and watch her rely on the stabilisers and the bike leaning to the outside of the corner due as she ‘steers’ the bike then that’s fine.. if it gets you and her outside then thats still a win so crack on.
If your hope if to end up (in the near term) being able to go on father and daughter rides then start with a balance bike. Sure she’ learn either way, but with stabilisers you have to learn twice and unlearn once.
That’s far more learning that necessary.
Need to make it exciting then accessorise – in addition to the advise above to get her out with other kids she can aspire to be like.

I should qualify my earlier comment about my nieces – the first hated the balance bike and was straight onto the pedal bike without stabilisers. Neither of them had stabilisers, just one started straight on pedals and the other didn’t.