She will be 4 tomorrow and has been riding a balance bike for two years. Do you think we can jump right to a “big kids bike” w/o training wheels?
Sure can kids go without training wheels at all ages. My son was 3 my daughter four when training wheels came off. I just bought a cervelo rs for the son now 13 and we are ready to go.
I have 3 daughters, and all were riding without training wheels before their 4th birthday. Not sure what a balance bike is though. Just find a smooth flat or slightly downhill and help balance until they get it. They will love riding much more when they are on a regular bike, at least mine did. Have fun with it!
All kids are different, but now would be a good yme. I have 4 yo twins. One picked up how to ride the big kid bike in less than an hour. The other still doesn’t even want to try.
Not sure what a balance bike is though.
These things are great for little ones to learn how to balance and ride a bike without the high likelihood of falling:
The point of a balance bike is to learn balance. Once that is achieved go to a regular bike. Training wheels are a dumb American helper idea that allows kids to go fast and never learn balance.
Age has little to do with the process.
Agreed that balance bikes are great tools, but they are not necessary to purchase. Just pull the pedals off your kids bike (or preferably one size smaller) and you are set.
Agreed that balance bikes are great tools, but they are not necessary to purchase. Just pull the pedals off your kids bike (or preferably one size smaller) and you are set.
Yep, after a year or so on training wheels with no success I did this and my son who can balance just fine on a scooter, learned to ride in one afternoon. Went to a big parking lot with a slight incline and he was set after about 10 runs without pedals, to then put pedals on and ride around.
Ditch training wheels as soon as possible. They wind up being the cause of accidents for kids instead of keeping them up. It took each of my kids less than one day to learn on two wheels. Just stay with her and help out. It’s a tough first hour or so, but then it’s just great to see your child succeed in this. Have fun and enjoy.
Other than turning the cranks, braking and starting, there isn’t any difference between a balance bike and a 2-wheeler. My daughter was 3 yrs old, less than 30 lbs and less than 3 feet tall when she switched from a balance bike to a 2-wheeler. She was the last child in her German Kindergarten class to learn (most of them rode their bikes to school). Kid’s 2-wheelers sold in the US are very poorly designed. If you can get a German brand like a Puky, the transition is much easier. German kids bikes are geared very low and the bottom bracket is also very low with shorter cranks which allows the seat to be lower so the child can touch the ground with their feet easier.
Other than turning the cranks, braking and starting, there isn’t any difference between a balance bike and a 2-wheeler.
The difference, was huge in our case, as the stand-over height on the 12" with pedals and the 12" balance bike was nearly 50mm. My older son was on a balance bike @~18mos, and switched to a pedal bike on his 3rd birthday. My younger son is now 22mos, and is still not tall enough to reach the ground on the balance bike.
to the OP
The biggest issue with the switch at our house was that he didn’t get the concept of pedaling (turning linear into circular motion). So I jacked up the training wheels, such that the rear wheel was off the ground, and just let him pedal it in place like he was on a trainer. After a few tries like that, I pulled off the training wheels, and he never looked back.
She can try now, but all kids are different. My daughter was much easier to wean off training wheels than my son was and I’ve had her in clip ons and cyclocross bike with drop bars by age 10. She can now ride anything, do a flying dismount/mount, etc. without fear (yeah, she has crashed plenty). My son is pretty much a MTN bike only guy. Very cautious and wobbly and still has to look to shift, brakes too much, etc.
my lil’guy turned 3.5 yesterday and has been on the balance bike for 3 month now. He’s a little dare devil…much to his moms horror:) We have a little grassy hill across the house and he has decided to use it for some trick riding. He gets up some speed and then stands on his seat the rest of the way down the little knoll…haha. So I think he’s ready for the big boy bike and I have heard different stuff from parents. some of the kids pick it up right away while others not so fast. we’ll see…
Quote:
Other than turning the cranks, braking and starting, there isn’t any difference between a balance bike and a 2-wheeler.
The difference, was huge in our case, as the stand-over height on the 12" with pedals and the 12" balance bike was nearly 50mm. My older son was on a balance bike @~18mos, and switched to a pedal bike on his 3rd birthday. My younger son is now 22mos, and is still not tall enough to reach the ground on the balance bike.
**What I meant was, turning the cranks, braking and starting are the extra skills one needs to switch from a balance to a pedal bike. And these skills can be learned very quickly. I agree, standover height on US designed kids bikes is terrible. You’d think at least one company would copy the German design. **
Funnily enough, I took off the training wheels on my younger son’s bike just today, he got it straight away and (no joke) was going over mini BMX bumps following his big brother 10 minutes later. I borrowed a Laufrad from the neighbour, he had one run on that on a light incline, then straight on his BMX and that was that.
They are 5 1/2 and 3 1/2.
They both ride Specialized Hotrocks which I can recommend.
When they can sit on a bar stool and feet touch the ground ;0) okay wrong analogy. All three of my kids were able to ride no training wheels at three. But I did not get them a “bigger” bmx bike till 5. Hoping to get the now 8 year old a road bike as he is readybto ride with dad on short rides.