What are balance bikes?
Balance bikes are bikes with no pedals, designed for toddlers. How to use a balance bike is pretty straight forward. Some come with brakes and some don’t. Some have air filled tyres some don’t, but the main distinguishing factor is the lack of pedals.
Age range
18+ months, however not all children will be interested in riding a balance bike, see our experience further down. (for more activities for toddlers, click here)
How do balance bikes work?
The child sits on the bike seat as they would a normal bike, but instead of pedals, they use their feet on the ground to propel themselves forward, much like any other ride-on toddler toy. How to use a balance bike compared to any other ride-on toy is slightly different in that they have to balance while they ride.
Why are balance bikes beneficial?
Balance bikes allow children to learn the key skills of balance and steering without having the added complication of pedals. They allow children to ride independently from a young age, developing their motor skills and coordination as well as creating confidence in their ability to control their speed themselves and be experimental.
How does a balance bike help them ride a real bike?
The idea behind it is that the child will hone their balance and steering whilst using the balance bike. Once they can ‘glide’ well on their balance bike ie. propelling themselves forward then gliding with their feet not touching the ground, and can steer without crashing, then they will be ready to transition to a bike with pedals but with no training wheels/stabilizers (as would normally be the case when learning to ride a bike).
Choosing the right size of balance bike
When choosing a balance bike, it is slightly different to choosing a pedal bike. For balance bikes, you want your child’s feet to be flat on the ground when they are sitting on the seat, this is to ensure they have full control when propelling and breaking with their feet. This differs to pedal bikes, as you only want the balls of their feet to be touching the floor when they sit on a pedal bike. Here is a balance bike to get you started on your search.
Safety gear
Although a balance bike won’t reach top speeds on flat ground, a helmet should still be worn as a precaution. Children will inevitably fall over so head protection is sensible. When your child gains some confidence, they may also want to ride their balance bike down small hills, this is where top speeds and thrills can be achieved (nerve wracking for the parents).
Once they transition to a proper bike with pedals, then a helmet plus knee and elbow pads is recommended. Once they become proficient at riding then they can drop the knee and elbow pads.
Our Experience
We got our son a balance bike for his second birthday. Up until this point he had a couple of small ride-on toys which he scooted about on in the house. He started off just slowly walking whilst sitting on the balance bike and slow motion crashing into bushes because he thought it was funny. Over the course of the year he became increasingly confident at riding, he loved his balance bike and would want to take it with us whenever we were out for a walk.
4 months later he discovered that hills were very fun to ride down and he managed to keep his balance with his feet off the ground all the way down. Over the course of the year we let him try ride on toys that had pedals but he didn’t have the coordination to make them go so we held off getting him a bike even though his balance and steering on his balance bike was great.
Time for a proper bike
Eventually when he was 3yr 4 months we bought him a proper bike because his balance bike was getting a bit small. When we bought it, it came with training wheels/stabilizers already attached. Although training wheels are detrimental to progress if the child has already sussed the balance, they actually came in handy for our son as it gave him a chance to get the hang of the pedals (having not been successful so far on other ride-on toys). It didn’t take him long to get the hang of pedaling and after a couple of tries with the stabilizers, we took them off.
We used the towel method to get him started then he was off.
Practice practice practice
Getting out as much as possible to practice made a big difference and just 1 month later he was able to ride his bike independently from taking off to using the brakes to stop. Our daughter on the other hand seems to be a different kettle of fish.
Our daughter is the youngest and since she has been able to walk, she’s been interested in her big brother’s balance bike, then proper bike. She always wants to have a go on his bike and be pushed around (because her feet can’t touch the floor). Due to her inquisitiveness and due to her being too small for her big brother’s hand-me-down balance bike, we decided to get her a balance bike at 19 months old. We got a matching helmet to go with it and although she seems to like the idea of the bike and helmet, 5 minutes after getting it out and suiting up, she wants the helmet off and wants to walk instead of ride her bike!
It’s still early days for her but this is just a word of warning that not all children will take to a bike straight away as they all have individual interests. We hope she will eventually take to her balance bike and will keep this blog post updated if she does.
