Is a balance bike a waste of time?

[jollybobs89]

Looking to get my DD a bike for Christmas she's been asking for a frozen motorbike haha

Anyway she's 3 in February but should I go for a balance bike or a bike with stabilisers?

Any advice would be great!

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MNHQ

Get a bike. Remove the pedals until she's balancing. Reattach pedals.

Balance bikes mean they learn REALLY quickly compared to with stabilizers.

We skipped the balance bike though, and got a bike and removed the pedals to begin with, making it into a balance bike. Once the kids could scoot themselves around happily on that, we out the pedals back on and within a few hours they were cycling.

Ours is hardly used. If you are in Surrey I'll happily give it to you.

We ended up with a scooter!! Bought balance bike and he hated it as it was 'too wobbly' and it's sat for months. (Was for sons 3rd birthday). But he was nervous with heights/climbing/general wobblyness. He loves the scooter as he has more control and can therefore use it indepedantly. So just think about her skills/interests etc. Many a balance bike ends up lonely in the garage!!

Both my children had balance bikes at 3 and were biking pedal bikes to pre-school by the age of 4. Would thoroughly recommend them!

Definitely no pedals - they learn really fast but you can use a balance bike or remove stabilisers and pedals from a regular bike.

Youngest had a balance bike and was riding a regular pedal bike before she was 2.

Neither of mine liked their balance bike.

DS got his first balance bike when he was 2.5, got a proper bike for his 4th birthday - doesn't need stabilisers.

Balance bike. I doubt there is a small enough, light weight enough pedal bike for a 3 year old to be worth removing the pedals. 2nd hand Islabike Rothan resprayed in frozen colours with Frozen stickers might work.

Sorry 2 was a typo! She could pedal her regular bike a couple of months before her third birthday

Balance bikes worked for us. They zoomed round the house and garden when they were about 3 and then it meant there was zero effort involved in learning to ride a bike. They got on them and just went.

Balance bike. We got one for DS last Christmas (and he turned 3 in March) and he has got so much use out of it. Got the hang of it really quickly and it's used pretty much daily. He is more than ready for a proper bike with pedals now.

I advise you not to spend a fortune on it - get second hand or an inexpensive new one - but make sure it's lightweight as it's much easier for them. And if I was buying again I'd probably get one with brakes, DS has ruined his shoes!

Stabilisers are the devils own work! Definitely go for a bike with no pedals. We went for the Uber middle class islabike but they hold their value brilliantly second hand so we ended up getting most of our money back!

They have good resale value. I didn't like chasing mine moving so fast on the BB. They can't go so fast with stabilisers.

We've had to go with balance bikes for our DC, rather than removing pedals, because we couldn't find a proper bike small enough - we're all short in our house! No idea if it helped with learning to ride properly. They all seemed to be great on the balance bike but panic as soon as they were expected to pedal too!

We went balance bike first then straight to pedalling without stabilisers. However it took quite a long time to get anywhere with the balance bike and he spent a long time just walking with it between his legs. We then got him a pedal bike and persevered with no stabilisers and it clicked just about bang on his 4th birthday.

Some little kids do really seem to take to the balance bike, it seems quite varied and probably a bit random. My son did also have the odd go on a pedal bike with stabilisers when he was 3 ish and judging by how he got on I think you might well find that your daughter has trouble with the pedalling motion even when the stabilisers are there to deal with stability. My son just Disney get it till he was at least 3 and a half. They do find it a bit tricky to get the transfer of weight right.
Which is a long way round of saying that you might be better off just waiting for next summer or even Christmas before you get her any bike.

“Just didn’t”, nothing to do with Disney!

I didn’t go for them. The kids had scooters, and then at 4&5 I bought them both bikes with stabilisers. After a handful of go’s we removed the stabilisers and they both got the hang of it in a few days. I know too many people regretting balance bikes.

Balance bike. Ds3 had one last Xmas at 2.5. We're just about to buy him a new (bigger) balance bike at 3.5.

They're fantastic, his balance is spot on and i've no doubt he could ride a normal bike now - but personally I don't feel he's ready for a pedal bike, I don't think he'd be safe enough. So we're sticking with a bb for another year.

DC1 never took to the balance bike so we used stabilisers and it took a fair while for them to learn to ride a bike. DC2 took to the balance bike really well. We bought them a bike (without stabilisers) at the beginning of the first lockdown and they were riding unaided in days. Admittedly DC2 had a more natural sense of balance and an older sibling to copy.

Mine both loved the balance bike and skipped the stabiliser stage. They could both go a pedal bike when they were 4 without any fuss.
Kids are all different though, and you won't know til you try!

@DaddysGirlForLife

Ours is hardly used. If you are in Surrey I'll happily give it to you.

@DaddysGirlForLife Are you open to offers? I'm planning on getting one for DS for Christmas!

Mine didn't like them, declared them 'wobble bikes' and discarded them in favour of their scooters. I donated them to the school.

We also had people come in to the school to provide lessons (although typically DC1 picked it up the week beforehand!) who were strong advocates against stabilisers.

Our toddlers loved balance bikes, then bike with pedals for Xmas after turning 3