Rose has a strider. It is *very* light. They are as far as I know the only company that actually has a big community of riders and events, rather than just selling bikes, which is nice – they do regular racing and general fun sessions at various BMX tracks around the country. Very fun events too; the first race I’ve ever been to where the start has been delayed for one competitor to have a nappy change.
It is super duper light, which makes a massive difference when I am carrying it home up the hill from the park, and makes it easier to ride as a bonus. I think it is the lightest, and has the lowest standover of the 12″ wheel ones, which made a difference when Rose was 18 months, but may be less important at 2. Friends have a cheap heavy one (Raleigh I think), which was much much harder for either their kid or ours to ride, Rose actually couldn’t even pick it up, even though she could happily ride her strider for miles (Not sure how far the furthest she’s done is, but she did a few miles of downhill under a ski-lift in Italy, and has done 2+ milers here). The solid (very lightweight) tyres work surprisingly well off road. It has nice footrests for the kid to put their feet up on, with grip tape on, which make it easy to scoot with feet right up for a long time.
I wouldn’t bother with the brake, bit of a waste of time, stupid funny design of brake, and you don’t really need it, even on big bmx tracks and things; once they’re 3, you can get them a proper bike anyway, and in my experience braking is quite easy to learn at that point.
Friends have a Rothan. It is okay, bit heavier than the strider, not such a low saddle height, does have a proper brake if you’re intending them to ride it for a long time. It has pneumatic tyres, but the solid tyres on the strider are fine, and it makes it heavier. Other than the brake, I don’t think it is any better.
Both makes have really thought through making it toddler friendly, the Islabikes has taken a much more conventional tiny bike with no pedals approach, but got things like tiny grips and brake, whereas the strider, they’ve really thought about things like the footrests and the grips and the funny brake and the wheels in terms of making a toddler specific bike, but some of that makes the Strider better (the footrests), although the brake on the strider seems pretty stupid to me – Rose had the strength in her hands and skill to operate the small brake on her new pedal bike whereas she never really got the skill to operate the silly foot brake on the strider.