My lad's approaching his 2nd birthday, and from seeing other kids I'm convinced a balance bike like the Rothan will be the way to go when he's tall enough. Tried him on a 'like-a-bike' today (not tall enough yet), but £125? ouch!

Advice and experiences from STW parents much appreciated!

Why don't you just take the pedals off the bike and when he gets the hang of it put them back on. two bikes for the price of one.

Yes, if he is big enough to get his feet on the ground and scoot, simply removing the pedals from a bike is an option. Might be trickier for a young one, but have taught a number of older kids to ride this way. Cheaper to pick up an old kids bike and do this when he is growing and will move on from the balance bike quickly.

Also those little wheeled micro scooters with handlebars do wonders for the balance, and confidence

Build your own, here's some plans.

http://crumleydotorg.chattablogs.com/archives/038834.html

I've gotten the wheels from the local recycling centre for nowt and I'm just trying to source the double thread nut thing as the local engineering place gave me funny looks.

StJohn Street cycles used to sell wooden Like-a-Bike copies on Ebay.
We bought our little one one for Xmas a few years ago.
He's far too big now but still uses it, mainly to annoy his little brother who's not quite big enough for it yet.
Tesco do a copy of the Rothan for about £35 IIRC.

ridgeback scoot

http://www.balancebikes.org.uk
some nice looking ones on here.

My lad has a Specialized Hotwalk which is great. The Islabikes one looks like it will cope with a smaller child. We bought his for his second Birthday, but he was actually too small for it for about 6 months (he is quite small for his age though).

No stopping him now though!

My lads got a Puky balance bike. (Think its from germany, my parents brought it)
He was 18months when he got it and was able to walk about sat on it. Six months down the line and he is flying on the thing. I think they do an even smaller version as well, so size should not be a problem.

Scoot, as said before

Comes with two seat posts of different lengths for when the child grows and comes with a brake as standard

http://www.pedalscyclecentre.co.uk/products.php?plid=m3b7s15p1825&rs=gb

I ended up getting my eldest an Adams Runner off CRC because she decided she didn't just want a bike for Christmas, she wanted a PINK bike for Christmas 😉 Bought it in the knowledge I knew I'd have to sort it out. I had to pull the hubs and headset apart and pack with grease (they were dry) and I had to take a hacksaw and a shorter bolt to the quill stem to get it to go all the way down. Looking back now I probably should have trimmed the bars narrower too. But, an hour's works and it's been brilliant. Not as light or sweetly finished as the Rothan, but it's not needed looking at again since I sorted it originally a year ago.

Our lads have had a Puky as well, great balance bike, we got it at the bike shop in Ilkley. A friend's lad has an Isla bike though and it will cope with a smaller child than ours.

One of my nephews has a Puky & the other has a Spesh Hotwalk.
They both seem pretty good. The Hotwalk is a fair bit bigger than the Puky though, although they probably do different sizes.

From watching them all playing together, the Puky seems to get more attention – it looks more manouvreable than the Spesh, probably due to it's size.