Balance bikes for 3 year old

Yeah, pretty much. Ours (a strider 12) actually came with a shorter and a longer seatpost. (Long one would hit the ground for a 2 year old, short one wouldn’t have enough insertion for a 3-4 year old.

My daughter only really got into her 12” balance bike at the age of 3 and 3/4. Then quickly graduated into a 16” pedal
Bike.

You could almost just get a 14” pedal bike and take the pedals off for a 3 year old, but I think more sensible to get them a 12” balance bike and expect, if all goes well, they’ll quickly graduate to a 14” pedal bike.

Brilliant thanks for the help.

I’ve our Specialized Hot Walk ready to sell as jnr has gone up to 14” now. Very light and well designed as you’d expect from Specialized. Pm if you want any photos.

A few mates at work snapped my Forme kids bikes when the closure of Moore Large and Co flooded the market.

I ended up turning a few of those into balance bikes.

Banana Bike GT has a decent range of saddke adjustment and is well built with pneumatic tyres and a proper headset rather than plastic bushes.

If you are near Sheffield I have a hot rock 12" converted to a balance bike (still got the cranks etc) you can have for £20

Frog do a Tadpole+ which is bigger.
When my kids were 4 they played on one that size now and again as a lot of their friends (4 and 5) are not riding pedal bikes yet (apparently my expectations of bike riding ability are skewed because all our friends are bikers). I think at 3 the standard Frog Tadpole would still be ok but we sold ours around then so can’t be sure.

I’ll second the get a pedal bike and take the pedals/cranks off if he’s particularly tall. I know a few people who have done this and set it up so there’s little foot pegs on the BB. That way you could afford a fancier 14” bike as it’ll last longer.

Youngest is 3 at the end of the month. He had a hand me down (X6) Isla rothan 12". I've just moved him onto his brother's old early rider seeker 14" with no cranks to let him get used to the brakes. He's wee (25th centile for height) and just fits it.

His descending has improved.  Come the warmer weather when he can get shot of big poorly fitting gloves I reckon he'll be braking then pedaling quick smart.

We've got this Yamaha branded one which we bought on eBay for £95. I like the retro BMX style with the number plate and handguards. You can't tell from the picture but it's a twin toptube which become the seat stays.

It's quite tall. Junior is 2 and a half with long legs and he's just riding it now with the seat slammed so it should last ages.

The only problem is that it's lightening fast compared to his first tiny one so I'm regularly sprinting to catch him up. He has no fear. Yet.

Plenty of 14 inch balance bike options out there .

Worth getting one that comes with a brake it's been invaluable for us and made the transition to a bike easier.

We had jnrsenior on a 12inch balance bike at 1 and she had outgrown it by age 2 . We moved to a 14 bike without pedals for 3 months before she mastered the pedals and she outgrew that in the year. She's currently 4 and on a 20" which up till recently had the gears locked out.

Her brother is 94cm at 8months so concerned the 12inch balance bike will be useless....

Tldr ... Ignore age range given and buy the bike that fits the height of the child

My kids were still stealing the youngests islabikes rothan age 6 and tearing around the skatepark on it with their knees around their ears.

The only problem is that it’s lightening fast compared to his first tiny one so I’m regularly sprinting to catch him up. He has no fear. Yet.

Made me smile - and brought back memories of when my eldest started school. He had a Puky balance bike and I remember giving up chasing him (on foot) as he raced down a big hill on a shared use path on our way to school. Speed is addictive and you might have a long time to wait before fear becomes a problem... 🙂

I had this same issue, started on the frog tadpole 12inch at 3ish and they became super confident on that and super happy on it, when we started going to some of the local pumptracks I noticed it wasnt the quickest rolling bike due to the wheelsize,  grabbed the tadpole+ and they're fine on it and now also jumped to a 14inch pedal. Both are used pending where we go.

As a bike snob, I liked the frogs due to the female axles and also the ability to higher or lower the stem using headset washers as its 1 1/8th not 1inch threaded. I've always picked up the Frogs second hand and then sold them on and not lost money.

100% get on with a brake as it makes the change to a proper bike much more fluid.

My lad went from a tiny cheap Puky, to a Kokua Like-a-Bike (Jackson Goldstone Spec) to a Frog 40 sans crank and pedals to begin with, then added the pedals, now onto a larger Frog with 18" wheels.

I’ve always picked up the Frogs second hand and then sold them on and not lost money.

Buying good quality bikes like the Frogs, used, and then moving them on again after means its cost me next to nothing. The Frogs in particular do seem to have a following. Lovely little bikes.

We liked the adjustment on the Frog, decent length seat post, headset spaces, brakes that work. We started with a Tadpole Mini at 1, sold them 12 months later for what we bought them for (Covid jacked up prices so it didn’t feel like price gouging), got the Tadpoles and then went to 14” Pedal bikes just before they turned 3. We didn’t do the pedals off bit as the twins were very competitive about who could pedal first.

Then we went to Hope Academy 16” bikes for a 12 month and now they’re on 20” Vitus+ with smaller tyres.

Hopefully the sell last longer.