Missing the appeal of balance bikes please explain

[Endofmytetherfinally]

Its my LO 2 year birthday party next week and DH wants to get her a balance bike.

But a decent one is 150quid (Byk). I just don't see the point if it doesn't have wheels.

I want to convince him to get a scuttle bug or an actual bike instead.

It does have wheels! It helps kids to learn a pedal bike much quicker.

They are brilliant for building up the balance a child needs for riding a bike. Plus kids get a lot of enjoyment from them. 2 is very young for a proper bike.

They do have wheels, it's pedals they don't have. They mean the child learns to balance, it makes learning to ride a bike with pedals is much quicker and easier. My DS went from a balance bike to confidently pedalling in 3 hours when he was 3.5 years old.

Why not just get a cheaper one? We got a €40 for ours and it was perfect

A balance bike is an actual bike. The appeal is it teaches them to balance first, so it's easier for them to move onto pedalling without stabilisers. Otherwise if they learn to pedal first it takes them longer to learn to balance.

I hadn't ever heard of balance bikes until someone gifted ds1 a little one when he was 18 months. He loved it straight away and he was on a pedal bike without stabilisers the summer before he started school.

They don't work for all kids - mine never took to them but are excellent bike riders now (7 and 9).

There are usually plenty on Facebook Marketplace etc, if you don't want to spend much.

😂 at it not having wheels.. guessing you meant pedals

I agree Op, they are a waste of money

There are two skills to learn to ride a bike: balancing and pedalling. Learning to balance is much harder, so therefore a balance bike teaches that skill and they can learn to pedal quickly. Getting a bike with stabilisers means that the kid learns the easy bit (pedalling) and then finds the balancing bit difficult.

Just get a second hand one? I got a Puky on eBay for about £15.

They are brilliant! My DC had them and used to whizz around on them; they were great fun on skate ramps.
Look for a decent branded one second hand, as they regularly come up.

you don’t need to spend that much a scuttle bug won’t be great out and about much harder work for them to push themselves around on. DS used to wiz around on his on all sorts of surface, grass, pavements, gravel without issue

And while this is fine, mine had a balance bike at 2 and then was excellent at cycling properly at age 3. Which was great for us because as a family we cycle everywhere.

They're fab but like regular bikes you don't buy them brand new unless you have too much money

They do have wheels 😂. Presume you mean pedals.

Kids can’t learn how to balance and pedal at the same time. The real skill in learning to ride a bike is to learn to balance - especially to understand that a bit of speed makes balance easier. Generally, if a kid has learnt to balance on a balance bike, they’ll transfer to a pedal bike with no problem and just be off. Without learning to balance first they’ll need stabilisers - which take away the need to balance at all, so it’ll tend to be a much lengthier process to then learn how to ride the bike properly.

You can always buy a normal bike and just remove the pedals, as long as it’s not too big for them (balance bikes will generally be a much better fit as they are aimed at younger children - as young as 18 months).

We had one from Decathlon, far cheaper than that.

It gets them used to the balance of a bike. DS1 is dyspraxic and went on to get the hang of a bike at 6. DS2 got the hang of it at 4... on the same day.

When you're confident at gliding and balancing on a bike, the pedalling follows on easily.

You don't need one that costs £150. We got a £30 one and it was great. DS learned to balance and swapping to a pedal bike a couple of years later was a breeze.

Dd had one and loved it. Got her balance on 2 wheels completely sorted. She got a 'proper' 2 wheel pedal bike on her 4th birthday and was able to ride it that very day. No stabilisers, no having to run along side holding the saddle.
It was well worth getting. And it was not an expensive item at all.

Not sure what you mean about not having wheels. Balance bikes are just like normal bikes except they don’t have pedals so the child learns to balance and steer without having to add on the extra skill of pedalling at the same time. It’s then (in theory and often in practice) easy to transition to a proper bike and learn to pedal very quickly.
My son certainly did exactly this. He had a balance bike for a while and then learned to pedal in less than 5 minutes when he moved up.
An equally important thing to look for is to make sure whatever you buy is light and handlebars are sized appropriately for little hands. There is also a good resale market with specialist Facebook pages for good quality bikes like Islabikes and Frog etc. Money well spent in my mind and you can recoup a large proportion of it when you sell on.

Ours was £25 from Halfords. Did the job just fine. She was on a proper bike with pedals and no stabilisers by 3

They have wheels, they don't have pedals.

Tea hes kids how to balance, stabalisers don't. Also teaches kids to put their feet down if they are wobbling which is a useful skill when you get a bike with pedals

Another vote for balance bikes! Both my kids rode them to and from nursery from the ages of about 2 1/2 to 4. They were fast! And taught them how to properly balance. Older DS then learnt to ride a proper bicycle with virtually no effort at 4 1/2, without ever needing training wheels. The argument goes that having learnt to balance, turn, and brake properly on a balance bike, you only need to learn to pedal to move to a "real" bike.

£150 sounds steep, though, and 2 a smidge young. You don't want to spend that much money on something that will be too small in a year, unless maybe there are younger siblings or cousins to pass it down to

Where the fuck are you looking for a bike if the ones you're looking at are £150! Balance bikes are on the second hand pages and fb market place constantly. We got ours for free and it ahd hardly been used.

Also scuttlebugs are absolute shite.

There are so many available second hand on FB market place or similar, don’t pay £150 for a new one for a 2 yo. They are good kit - the idea is they teach kids to balance on 2 wheels at an early age, which is obviously important for proper cycling.

No wheels!! 🤣
I’m just imagining it!
They worked wonders for my nephews. Did nothing for my own girls! Can you not borrow one from someone to give it a go before you buy?

My youngest got a pedal bike at 3 he wanted the stabilisers off after an hour and he'd cracked it 😂. It's a shame his observation skills are not as honed as his balance.