What do two year olds dream of for Christmas? A spaceship? A unicorn? Or something even more unreasonable… like full carbon balance bike?
If you’ve got a young one that’s just about found their feet, what better time to get them hooked on biking with this featherweight balance bike. The next generation of mountain bikers can get a head start with the Specialized Hotwalk. At £999, it might seem completely ridiculous, but there’s a lot of thought gone into making this, the ‘ultimate balance bike’.
FACT 9r Carbon – as used on Specialized race bikes 
Grips 38% smaller in diameter for tiny hands 
When they’re tired out, it’s less weight for you to carry…
The full FACT 9r carbon frame uses the same material as Specialized road and mountain race bikes. This has resulted in a nimble 2.1kg bike, that should be light, responsive and manoeuvrable for little ones. The fork and handlebars are carbon, too.
The balance bike has been tested for a 40lb weight rating, so if you’ve got a two year old weighing in at almost 20kg you know they’ll be safe on the Specialized Hotwalk.
Chipps probably remembers bars this narrow 
With no pedals or gears, it’s the perfect first bike
Handlebars and grips affect the rider’s control and, in turn, their confidence. That rule applies on a balance bike just as much as any other. The handlebars are made of all-carbon so they’re as light as possible for optimal manoeuvring. They are 38% smaller in diameter, creating a better grip for small hands. The grip ends are also designed to easily support the bike when resting on the ground, protecting that carbon frame.
Specialized Hotwalk Specification:
- Weight 2.1kg
- All carbon Fact 9r frame
- Carbon wheels
- 38% smaller diameter carbon handlebars
- Rhythm Lite Tires
- One size fits riders up to 35in / 88cm, up to a weight limit of 40lbs / 18.1kg
- £999
“My bike is better than yours, mum!” 
Future pros need quality components from day one
Comments (25)
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Absolutely bonkers.
I genuinely can’t think of a bigger waste of money!!!!
Can I get it on Bike To Work?
Couldn’t justify getting their normal balance bike that was £139, my daughter loved the pink one, but we then went and got a similar one for less than 20 quid off amazon delivered, guessing this is just a novelty model rather than one we’ll see in shops across the land.
Never mind the cost, what a waste of a non reusable/recyclable, fragile resource (carbon fibre), no wonder the world is in so much trouble, thankfully due to the cost there won’t be that many made or is this just a PR stunt! P.s. for the record I don’t ride a carbon bike!
Yeh – something a little grotesque about this.
£999?! You could get some cranks for that!
Rant continues….. to quote Specialized bikes own sustainability policy ‘Respect for the planet. We will seek to deliver the highest performance products with the minimum footprint and longest life.” i’d love to understand how they justify the creation of a carbon balance bike and the associated additional carbon emission impacts from using carbon fibre compared with a recycled and recyclable alloy. Other bike companies are selling alloy balance bikes that weights in at 2.7kg, so the additional cost and environmental impact to save 600g in weight on a balance bike! I’ve not seen many young kids struggling to make progress on a standard balance bike and then pulling up next to their mates to say ‘just imagine the performance benefits I could gain if I could shave 600g off the frame weight’. Absolutely crazy this (and that’s coming from the owner of an alloy specialized mtb)
This is God’s way of telling you, you have too much money! , (alright, Specialized’s way!)
How about you get something classy like a “early rider” brand balance bike for £150 and then give away 12 Halfords balance bikes to kids who don’t have a pony and don’t get to go on skiiing holidays?
Seriously you could really change a dozen under privileged young lives… or you could garnish Tarquin with a bullshot status symbol. Never too young to learn elitist values.
“Daddy why are those children staring at me?”… “It’s because you are riding a £1000 bike and they haven’t eaten properly. They are some of (fact) the 30% of children living in the U.K. who live in poverty. But screw those frightful oiks. James will be driving you to your jousting lessons shortly. And I’m off to shoot a bear in the face”.
I think it’s quite useful really. It will allow you to spot the parents in the playground that you should avoid, negating several weeks of awkward school pick-up chat.
I love it. I mean it’s completely over the top and most kids wouldn’t look after it properly. Money no object though, why not? I personally still wouldn’t even if I was loaded, as there’s no way my kids having a lighter bike than mine mwahahahahah.
The big question is, if this isn’t the S-Works version then how much is the top tier model?
When you thought things could not be anymore ridiculous.
Jackets at over £250.00, shoes at over £150.00, child’s bikes for £999.00 words fail me.
Lets not forget this company went to town on a local bike shop over a name setting the legal eagles on them and then backed down when the social media storm hit.
As said above this evidences a company with perhaps a differing set of values than the ones created for them by the marketing company they employed.
Bonkers
It’s pretty vulgar, isn’t it? Also – interesting fact (maybe not) my cat weighs 3 times as much as that bike…
This thread is full of people not realising this is a marketing exercise and the fact you’re all on here talking about Speciallized means it’s 100% worked.
Bet this has driven more traffic to their website and spocial media channels than any other bike they’re launched this year and they haven’t had to shoot an expensive video or sponsor any top-notch athletes to do it.
Socially distanced high-five-equivilents all round at Spesh HQ.
@cx_monkey Maybe you should get a carbon fibre cat… 🙂
I got a “Cruzee” form CRC for £70. It weighed 1.9kg
Fools and their money…
Good point Hatter, bet they still some though!
20kg 2 year old! Does it eat alloy bikes for breakfast?
I’d say its not quite as good as the £30 one I got for my lad from Decathlon a few years back, because that had a brake, a quite effective one at that. It was cheap but well designed and stopped him quickly, and boy did he need it. The idea of a balance bike without one seems only for people whose kids don’t actually want a balance bike that can go anywhere beyond their own drive.
@Andrew Reay
Joke of the year contender!
Both mine learned to ride on an alloy hotwalk, getting to the point where they would glide along with their feet on the little footrest, lapping a little pumptrack in such a way they were riding riding. Easy enough at that stage to switch them to the hotrock which was identical but with pedals. So the £999 version doesnt even have the best feature of the alloy one ♂️
Doesn’t have a bottle cage. I’m out.
Actually I’m out for a bunch of reasons about Spesh. Them and Trek are two brands I now wouldn’t touch with a very long bargepole and its not down to their bike qualities.
Come on Singletrack, have a word with them raising a few of the comments mentioned here and let us know what the fiercely litigeous asshats they say?
Kind of hypocritical for middle aged men to say this is wasteful, when they’d happily scrap their previous carbon fibre frame for a new carbon frame with a 0.5° head angle change.
At least this will be a useful balance bike for….oooh…maybe 999 years?