- Adele, parent tester
How easy is the Frog Bikes Tadpole to ride?
The Frog Tadpole takes the components of a trail-worthy mountain bike and scales them down to toddler size for easy riding. High quality features made specifically for the littlest of riders allow them to confidently take on bumpy surfaces.
However, this bike is the heaviest in our best balance bikes list. At 4.17kg, it could represent 33 percent of your young two-year-old’s body weight which could suggest that, unless your child is a bit bigger for their age or particularly keen to get on two wheels, this bike may be better suited to a two-and-a-half or three-year-old to start with.
This shouldn't put potential buyers off though, considering what the design is able to achieve at that weight. The Tadpole's large tyres are ideally designed to manage rough terrain, effectively cushioning any bumps, and its long wheelbase makes learning to balance incredibly easy. Off road bikes need to be strong and there’s no doubt that the Frog’s sturdy frame can take just about anything you throw at it.
Plus, it's nowhere near as heavy as other bikes of a similar design, with most hitting over 5kg – tricky for most younger toddlers to ride and adults to carry. The Puky LR1 (5.2kg), for example, steered and rolled smoothly during testing, but it was far too heavy for our tester, Adele's, two-year-old daughter to ride properly.
In fact, by omitting a footrest, a key feature of the Puky, Frog Bikes have consciously avoided adding weight to the Tadpole's design.
Also, by including a bell and reflectors as safety measures rather than fun accessories, Frog sends the clear message that they mean owners to understand that this is a serious bike, up to the task of taking on challenging cycle trails as a family.
That said, they advise against children riding at dawn, dusk or night so the reflectors seem to have more of an aesthetic purpose than anything else. The bell, on the other hand, allows young riders to get used to the concept of alerting those around them long before they’ll need it.
Our two-year-old tester was approaching three when she tried this bike and she took to it straight away, pelting across her local park. Whether over grass, at the skatepark, on the pavement or on the dirt track, she found no trouble getting up to speed on the Frog Tadpole.
She found the handbrake a bit stiff at first but, with practice, she was able to get it working and found it highly effective. This might present an issue for younger toddlers but certainly shouldn’t be a problem by the time your child is closer to three years of age, which is when they’re more likely to grasp how to use a handbrake and acquire the speed at which it becomes desirable.
The wide handlebar allowed her to easily master the bike's responsive steering – it appeared well-proportioned to her shoulders, increasing the bike’s stability – and the seat was positioned closely to the rear wheel.
The steering limiter, which couldn't be removed, gave our mini tester a broad range of movement with no need to pick up the bike as she would have if it couldn’t easily be turned. Meanwhile, rounded bolts prevented scraping when she dropped the bike (as balance bike learners tend to do, at least in the beginning).
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