What balance bike or other wheeled contraption for my two year old?

My little boy will be two next month and I want to get him on two wheels asap. I’m currently thinking balance bike, but which one? Is there a better alternative?He is oblivious, but I’m very excited! 🙂

Islabikes Rothan. A wee bit spendy, but very strong residuals on eBay so works out cheap.

http://www.ridestomp.com/stompeevid/stompeevid.html
Sorry don’t know how to do the linky thing.Our three and a half year old has one of these and loves it. Just about to get another one for number two son.

My two year old’s riding an Early Rider. He loves it!

IslaBike every time. Proper little bike, really well made (would take your weight if your legs were small enough), huge height adjustment and a brake.

Good resale value too. Buy 2nd hand, use, sell.
Let some other mug pay for them new.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/kids-on-bikes-1

Some great looking options there, I can’t wait to see his face! 😀

Depends how big he is, Jimmy was quite small & started at 18 months but the only bike that small was a TinyBike.

He moved onto a Hotwalk wich is a lot more stable.

Isla does look great & resales are high, but I went for the Hotwalk so I could do the go into bike shop & leave with bike bit.

Decathlon- £29. I built it and it is good quality. I really really don’t understand why anyone would pay £100 for a first bicycle, its chattering-classes madness 😉

Must admit the Stompee is looking favourite at the moment for £55 delivered. That said the Hotwalk looks Demo8tastic!Although it has to be blue for my son, fussy bugger!

My lad was on a Halfords bumble bee bike. With stabilisers.

Before he was 3 he was off the stabilisers and doing

I got my little guy a Haro Z10 an I can’t get him of it 🙂

Hora, Jimmy has 5 bikes now ranging from a £2 dump find to the £100 Hotwalk, they are spread between mine & my parents house….

The search continues for the perfect bike. 😉

My boys 22 months old and has just started riding on a Pukey. It seems well built an v light. I’ve adjusted everything to it’s lowest setting.

Picked up a Hotwalk for jnr monkey when he was about 20 months but he was too small for it. Now, nearly months on he’s still about a cm from sitting comfortably. During that time he’s taken to riding his scooter, tractor and trike so much that he’s not interested in giving the Hotwalk a whirl 🙁 Will persevere and hopefully he’ll take to it and find the whole balancing thing really cool – he should because he’s great on a scooter.

EDIT: the Hotwalk really is a lovely piece of kit – a PROPER little bike!

Currently got a Zooom and a Strider. The Zooom is very heavy for an aluminium frame. The Strider is brilliant, very light steel frame, the seat goes really low so they can get on it before they are 2.

I really really don’t understand why anyone would pay £100 for a first bicycle, its chattering-classes madness

Because you sell it for £80 on ebay when they’ve outgrown it. Cost of ownership: 20 quid. Bargain-tastic! 😀

Islabikes are the best built bikes you’ll ever own. Go for

They’ve a really low standover, so they’re soon flying along

+1 for a Strider

My youngest has had a Strider since he was 2 and my eldest used a 12″ bike with stabilisers from 2.5.

See what works for your kid, try out a few in shops?

WE got a Strider for JuniorP as it was the smallest standover (we could find at the time) and he got on well with it.
Upgraded to an Earlyrider classic as a)he won it at the BigBikeBash, and b)it’s bigger, faster, and has pneumatic tyres which are probably the best bit about it!
He loved them both.
Currently eyeing up either an Early Rider Belter, or an Islabikes Knoc 14..

DrP

One of these?

Rothan

Loving the vid DrP!

I really really don’t understand why anyone would pay £100 for a first bicycle, its chattering-classes madness

What binners said.
They are really well built bikes. Just look how nice that Rothan is in the pic.

We bought ours second hand off ebay – in absolutely perfect nick.

When #1 has finished with it it will be passed to (currently theoretical) #2. When they are done it will be resold for pretty much exactly what I originally paid for it.

Nothing wrong with spending money on quality – especially when you get it all back at resale.

The bonus with an Islabike is that if you keep one long enough Islabike will put their new prices up and the s/h value of yours will increase in line – I reckon it’s actually possible to make a profit on a s/h one.

Because you sell it for £80 on ebay when they’ve outgrown it

When you’ve taken off the fees, Paypal bother and contributed to ebay paying their taxes on sales made in the UK to elsewhere? Then theres the hassle of posting it etc. Sorry I think the Decathlon bike is well made. I don’t buy into the milking the chattering classes ethos. Yes its your money and kids but will junior be having a Ti or carbon bike before they are 10?

Mine will… & Probably a KTM, or whatever the hot auto race bike of the day is. So daddy can go & race in the adult class on his RM. 🙂

When you’ve taken off the fees, Paypal bother and contributed to ebay paying their taxes on sales made in the UK to elsewhere?

I paid £100, brand new for Lily’s Rothan. She used it for 18 months, then I sold it on the classifieds on here for £80 to someone who came and picked it up.

Did you factor in the cost of your petrol driving to Decathalon? 🙄

You are a fool!

My son does seem to be quite destructive with his toys, cheaper may be the way to go I think.

yours for only US$2000:

But the Jeff Jones ti trike is really what all the rest in the neighbourhood are getting this year. 😉

That would be a Lynskey ti tricycle.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lynskey-Titanium-Tricycle-/170921304598?pt=Road_Bikes&hash=item27cbb42216

will junior be having a Ti or carbon bike before they are 10

Yeah… I’ve sent both their measurements to a bloke who does custom Ti frames in China 😆

When you’ve taken off the fees

Okay, so maybe total cost of ownership will be around a ten or fifteen quid per child? Sorry I don’t see what the issue is.

Paypal bother and contributed to ebay paying their taxes on sales made in the UK to elsewhere?

?? Not sure what “Paypal bother” is. If you object to eBay then there are plenty of other classifieds available including this here forum.

Then theres the hassle of posting it etc

Oh yeah – major hassle that 😀 if you really can’t be bothered then you just mark it as collection only, job done.

Sorry I think the Decathlon bike is well made.

Hmmm…

versus

The Decathlon one looks alright – but I think it’s a false economy. You could have the Isla for the same overall cost and its a much nicer bike.
(without the Harley style rake as well!)

I don’t buy into the milking the chattering classes ethos.

Good plan. Milk wouldn’t go well with that chip. 😀

I’ve seen the islabikes one and the Strider, and I personally thought the Strider was better, hence we got it. Lighter, lower standover, really well designed (little things like grips, the funny brake that is actually usable by a 2 year old, the very light wheels, lovely smooth frame with no bits to catch clothes on, designed to be easy for them to pick up off the floor)

They also run tons of balance bike events (weekly in some cities) and seem like they are building a real community around their bikes. Which is nice.

Probably going Islabikes for first pedal bike, but I didn’t think the Rothan was as good as the Strider as a balance bike. Obviously I’m biased now, as we have one though.

Yeah we looked at Strider too (as well as the Specialized). They are very nice too.

http://www.stridersports.co.uk

Like all the extras available for it too. Thing that put me off the Strider was that weird foot brake. For me the advantage of the Isla is it comes with a real brake so they can learn to use that before they have pedals to worry about. A foot brake seemed to be teaching them the wrong thing to me.

Plus the Strider cost more and there weren’t any on eBay 😀

Actually you may be onto something Hora. Just looking at the head angle on that Decathalon one, I reckon you’d ultimately graduate from that onto a Hooligan Hardtail with a set of 180 forks on it.

Are you going to be living your own life through your offspring? 😉

hora – Member

Decathlon- £29. I built it and it is good quality. I really really don’t understand why anyone would pay £100 for a first bicycle, its chattering-classes madness

Worryingly, I agree with Nick Hora -on this one. My daughter has the Run Ride. Its not ‘flash’, but it is certainly good enough for the job and she loves it. (Against my instruction, she rode down some steps in the park the other day -I was actually very proud).

It has also taken my weight when I’ve knelt on the seat to demonstrate the finer points of balance bike riding skillz.
It’ll hopefully also be used for child No.2.

30quid up front or 100quid+ with the possibility of selling on for 80quid in a few years’ time?
-Money now is worth more than money in the future.

Admittedly, turning up and getting a Decathlon bike out of Dad’s Mondeo would be embarrassing to the Isla bike & Audi Set (like Binners 😉 ), but I’ve managed with unfashionable bikes and cars for a while now….

The steering rake angle on ours is not as slack as shown on that photo.

It is like this:

I agree on the brake – ours had no problem learning to use that at the point they needed a brake (which was before they were 3 for both my kids). Before they sussed that they just used the old-fashioned form of foot brake. It says on the Strider website “just gripping the bar is a handful for a 2-3 year old hand… their fingers are not long or strong enough to pull a brake lever” which is basically a lie based on the evidence of my kids. What’s more, the whole point of a balance bike is preparing kids for riding a real bike – they make a big deal of that on the Strider website – so why not also teach them how to use a handbrake at that point? Also nothing wrong with the grips on a Rothan, nor is there anything more to catch clothing on, and I’m not impressed with the solid tyres on the Strider – proper air ones have to give a better ride, and despite what it says there I’ve never had to fix a puncture on ours, and can’t remember the last time I even bothered to pump them up.

Of course I am biased as I have a Rothan 😉

30quid up front or 100quid+ with the possibility of selling on for 80quid in a few years’ time?

You’re right – it is only a possibility. You might well get more than that back. I presume you’re also placing no utility on the functional advantages of a Rothan?

(I don’t work for Islabikes or have any financial stake in them – well so long as you don’t count my investment of 4 of them sat in my garage 😉 )

I presume you’re also placing no utility on the functional advantages of a Rothan?

Correct.

Each to their own, the Run Ride is light and smooth enough for the task.
I’m not particularly passionate about the issue!

As somebody, ahem, once said,
“It’s not about the bike”, although I’m not intending to embark on a doping programme.

Stompee ticks all the boxes still, pneumatic tyres, proper brake, pretty light and two for the price of one trendy Islabike. 🙂

30quid up front or 100quid+ with the possibility of selling on for 80quid in a few years’ time?

Paid £80 for our Rothan. I’ll probably sell it for the same.

Even if I can’t sell it on for some reason (e.g. stolen or hit by a meteor, because it certainly isn’t going to break any time soon) then we’re still only talking about spending an extra £25 per child for a bike that is markedly better and hopefully gives a really positive first experience of being on a bike.

I can live with that.