Am I right to buy a balance bike for my 4 year old son?

[aussieincambridge]

My 5.5 yr old DS has a bike with stabilisers just removed but is really struggling to ride it. We are taking him to the park to get some practice on a soft surface. So I wondered whether to buy a balance bike for my almost 4 year old to get him into the swing of it before getting him a standard 2 wheeler bike, but it is too late at this age??

[Furball]

you could just take the pedals off the bike - which is what we did when ds was a similar age to yours and it helped enormously.

[Backtobedlam]

Probably not worth getting a balance bike as most are age 2+ so fairly small. May be ok for a bit but will probably grow out of it pretty quickly.

[Ilovecake1]

We bought one for our 4 yr old and he only used it for 3 weeks...but he was then able to ride a bike. Best buy ever.

[Bluestocking]

I second lovecake's "best buy ever". My DS rode his Puky balance bike very happily for months but as soon as he got a real bike with pedals, he hopped on and rode away perfectly competently. No running around after him, no agony with removing stabilisers, no fuss, no mess.