WTF: £999 Balance Bike

Here at Singletrack Towers we see plenty of high end bikes. Sometimes they’re very expensive, but very beautiful. Hand crafted, limited editions, made with love for the few that want and have the ability to buy them.

Other bikes are very expensive, but they’re dripping with all the latest technological innovation. They won’t necessarily make you go any faster, but if you like and appreciate engineering then these bike serve a purpose. Eventually those technologies are going to trickle down to the humans of humbler means, but you’ll be able to say you had it first, and by investing in that top end kit perhaps you’re helping the riders of the future experience better components for themselves.

But we think we may just have found the line in the sand. The boundary between expensive and excessive. We present the £999 Kiddimoto carbon fibre balance bike.

Even given the relatively small production numbers, that’s a pretty eyewatering amount of cash for a bike without a transmission. Yes, you might like your kids to have cool stuff, but if their balance bike frame weighs just 350g, how are they going to cope when you put them onto their first pedal bike? You’re making a rod for your own back there, and committing yourself to a lifetime of carbon super-bikes. Don’t say we didn’t warn you…

Might they not be better off with something a little cheaper, a little heavier, but just as capable? You can get an excellent quality balance bike elsewhere for £150, even £80. And from the same company, how about the arguably more awesome Evel Knievel balance bike? With the rest of what you save – let’s say you go for the top end £150 number – that £849, what could you do? You could buy a load of other stuff. Or you could buy eight other whole bikes, help change some lives, and still have change left over.

Hannah Dobson

Managing Editor

I came to Singletrack having decided there must be more to life than meetings. I like all bikes, but especially unusual ones. More than bikes, I like what bikes do. I think that they link people and places; that cycling creates a connection between us and our environment; bikes create communities; deliver freedom; bring joy; and improve fitness. They're environmentally friendly and create friendly environments. I try to write about all these things in the hope that others might discover the joy of bikes too.

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