Hello,

Want to get my son his first proper bike this summer and I wonder if anyone had any good advice. I have seen these (balance) bikes which don't have pedals or stabilisers so they learn to balance on two wheels.
Or is it better to get a (normal) bike with stabilisers and that he learns to pedal first before balancing?
Any advice is very welcome.
Cheers!

No pedals all the way.

Check out my the 3 year old at Glentress

He's now graduated onto a bigger bike with pedals and first time on it today at Glentress he was super confident cos he knew he'd already done it loads of times on his balance bike.

no pedals here as well. littlelister got his Rothan 2 christmases ago and by last summer was belting around feet up no bother…led to this little incident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZR0w2cvl9k

he got a Cnoc16 this christmas and is pedalling it no bother after 4 months. he's only 3 and a half: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foxnU0ogCjk

Buy a Cnoc and take the cranks off. Best of both options.

You don't even need to take the cranks off – just the pedals. My lad is 3 1/2 and is on a ridgeback mx14 minus pedals. He has got his balance sorted but has no idea what to do with the pedals. Wondering whether to bung the stabilizers on so he can get the pedalling sorted….

no pedals will do him best, its more important to teach the child the main skill of cycling 1st, balance, find a local sports center thats running a course called Balanceability or bikeability http://www.balanceability.co.uk/ its a really good course that im involved in teaching, see a really good progresion in the children, you dont need to do the course but if you read about it im sure you can find some "drills2 that you can do to help you boy improve and learn alot faster

i'd gopt for the normal bike with pedals/cranks removed, get the balance sorted and off you go, the lbs owners daughter has a balance bike in the shop which the littlun goes for every time she comes with me,

althoguh that said my littluns bike has stabalisers on and she Loves it, Gets some good speed up lol! balance is getting better as i bend the stabalisers up a bit here and there to stop her relying on them!

M6TTF I had the same problem with my lad. We tried the stabaliser route, but it felt like it put him back a couple of months, I'id say avoid that if you can! But if you do want to try getting them peddling, try putting the stabalisers too low so they push the back wheel off the ground, then it's like an exercise bike for practising peddling without worry about messing with their balance skills.

Here is standard pushy dad link to you tube vid of the boy in action first on like-a-bike

And then peddling

on_the_rivet
wondered if it was you with your 3 year old son at Glentress on Saturday morning as well ? if it was, he was fantastic – never seen anything like it as he was pedalling not just on the flat but also over the logs – even when he fell off, cried a bit got up and went at it again – won't be long before he's racing