Are balance bikes a fad?

[BabyofMine]

My girl is turning 2. I wanted to buy her a trike. I LOVED riding round on my trike when I was little.

EVERYONE is telling me don’t get a trike, get a balance bike. They didn’t have these when I was little - or at least I’d never heard of them. I feel like she’ll miss out on the pure joy of whizzing about on a trike.

I know they help to learn to ride a bike better. But I’m not wanting her to learn to ride a bike! I’m wanting her to enjoy riding a trike!!

Can’t I get her a trike for her 2nd bday and get her a balance bike later, in prep for getting a proper bike?!

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Balance bikes are brilliant . They also help with core balance so useful if learning to ski and good therapy for dyspraxia. Enjoy x

My DS doesn't get his balance bike. He got it just before he turned 2 and is now 3. He won't use it. I see other little ones whizzing along on them and my DS just won't sit down on it. He can do a scooter now after a long time practicing, and has a second hand bike with stabilisers he Will sit on and can just about pedal, but he's not that keen. It's just not his thing.

It's one of those things she might love a trike and hate the balance bike. She might not like either. I'd go somewhere and test her on a balance bike - decathlon/ Smyths toys / Halfords ( although they seem to be quite heavy ones in there. )
My DS' balance bike is the £30 smyths one, so if you don't buy something expensive then maybe you can get both?

Do you mean a pedal trike or just a push with your feet one? Pedal ones can be tough to pedal for a two year old.

Mine loves his, word of warning though, they can go super fast

Absolutely yes to a balance bike. Like many PP have said, my dc (nearly 11 and 8) had one, and moved seamlessly to a pedal bike around their third birthdays.

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I bought my ds a balance bike and he ignored it while his mates played on it. Then one day when it was just me and him I saw him start walking it up and down the garden. A week later he was tentatively sitting on it. He’s now getting to where he wants to speed around like the others but hasn’t the stability or confidence yet, but he loves the thing.
As above, the fun is what you’re aiming for- so maybe a trip to smyths or similar to see what she’s drawn to?

We never did balance bikes. Just scooters and a push along trike. Then a proper bike with stabilisers followed easily and quickly by no stablisers just after 4th birthday.

Agree to test out the possibilities with your DD.

Def not a fad.

I think you're maybe remembering the trike as being more fun than it actually is. The trike my boys had had the pedals at the front so you're not in a very natural position for pedalling, it's really hard work.

The trikes with handles for parents to push along are not very good at all. Try pushing one of them up a pavement, it's really hard.

But it's your child, anything that gets her outdoors playing is good. My son's balance bike cost £24.99 so she could always have both.

My DS had both. He preferred the balance bike over his tricycle.

trikes tend to be slow, 'cos there's no gearing and the maximum speed you can get without gears is much slower than you can "run" on a balance bike, I suspect you have a very rose tinted view of how much zipping you were doing, or you lived in a hilly place and had someone to take it up the hills for you, so it was just zipping downhill.

My daughter's both prefer scooters, balance bike (expensive) hardly used. My nephew is a wizz on his though.

All my grandsons had balance bikes. They used to whizz about at quite a speed then all graduated easily to two wheelers without ever using stabilisers.

I thought they were a fad to be honest. My dh bought a second hand one for £30 and my ds learnt to ride on his balance bike then progressed to his normal bike he didn't need stabilizers for more than a week. I think the balance bike gives them confidence to balance.

Didn’t work for dd2 who has dyspraxia. For most kids the balance bit is hard and pedalling comes easily, so balance bikes work well. For dd2 she struggled with the motor skill of pedalling much more - so stabilisers and the “old” route worked better for her.

Does your DD have a scooter?
We got DS a scooter for his second birthday and he took to it brilliantly.
He had been very interested in other children's scooters (at the playground and nursery pick up / drop off) and we felt he wasn't quite ready for a balance bike.
We will get him a balance bike for Christmas I think (he'll be 2y9m).
Never occurred to me to get him a trike tbh. He does have a scramblebug.

Balamce bike then bike and mini micro scooter here.

We have a little kids skate park here and some of the preschoolers are awesome on their balance bikes! They're so much fun.
Both learnt to ride real bikes within a couple of sessions before starting school. They still got to play on trikes at toddler groups/preschool etc. But im sure you could get a cheap one for the fun of it - we had a second hand scuttlebug for fun value.

We liked the mini micro 3 wheeler scooters as they got the hang of that young too.

Any chance you have a friend who has one that your dd can try? Dd had a balance bike that she hated - was never used, whereas she loved her trike then bike with stabalisers

It took mine a few weeks to get the hang of it. The one who really used it a lot rode a pedal bike at just turned three. The other one didn’t use it so much but enough that he was riding a pedal bike before he turned four.

DD had a traditional bike + stabilisers, and DS had a balance bike (which always looked like MUCH more fun). They both learnt to ride a two wheeled bike in the same month - DD was 6 and DS was 3