My sons 3rd birthday is coming up soon and was wanting to get him his first bike…been looking around and I am seeing a few of these wooden bikes like this one:

http://shop.18bikes.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s473p659

whats the general idea behind them? are they any good, or just stick with the norm?

I went with an islabikes rothan instead. Gets him used to brakes as well as balancing.

Also a fierce s/h market to move it on in and recover a significant amount of the intial cost.

We have had our sons wooden bike for well over a year and he really enjoys it. Now has very good balance and loves racing down big hills! Although a bit scary for his parents 😉 He is about to become the proud owner of a Hotrock 16.

Go for the Rothan instead. Fab machine.
Gets more use than the wooden one we bought ours.
The shop nr Ludlow is worth a visit. They have a test track… 🙂

Both daughter (now 7) and son (3) have got great use out of our wooden lik-a-bike, and my daughter learnt to ride a pedal bike in an hour or two, having mastered the art of balancing years before. I'd keep it simple and get one without brakes, myself.

Jerome…

I asked a similar question myself before Christmas. Lots of good advice here:

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/kids-wooden-bikes-advice-needed

i have both, imo the rothan has the edge on quality and as far as learning to ride on is better. regardless of which one you choose they will have fun on anything that you give them….they are kids after all!!
so its down to personal pref and resale value vfm etc etc.

but if it were me it'd be the rothan

Do it, no question about it, they are worth their weight in gold. Both my boys used ours. Both riding properly before their fourth birthdays.

My lad had a Rothan at 2, by 2 1/2 he was zooming down hills with his feet in the air, he's now on a Cnoc, never needed stabilisers

ace that pretty much settles it then, should be a happy chappy!

Thanks for this guys, my son will be getting a Rothan as soon as he is old enough. Do you know if anyone makes helmets suitable for toddlers?

Specialized helmets are good fit – my 2 year old has one and thinks it's cool.

We got a small Giro helmet, black with red flames, I think that you can get them from Islabikes, as well as the usual suspects