Balance bike or stabilisers

[iddybiddymum]

My daughter is turning 3 next month. We're unsure whether to buy a balance bike or a bike with stabilisers?

Any recommendations please?

Definitely a balance bike, there's a website called Cycle Sprogs and a Facebook group called Family Cycling UK which is amazing for advice. We bought a really cheap Apollo balance bike, and then gave in and bought a used Frog for about £120. Ours was riding a pedal bike by 3.5 but there are children on that site riding well before 3! Ours have both just seemed really confident on the balance bikes and then the pedals don't seem to phase them.

Balance bike 100%

My 4 year old was a whizz on hers & learnt to ride a pedal bike in a matter of minutes just before her 4th birthday

Balance bike. They're brilliant. Make learning to cycle super easy. My poorly coordinated, entirely unsporty offspring were cycling properly at 4 after a year or two of balance bike.

Op I hope you don’t mind me jumping in and asking how do you get them enjoying the balance bike? I see kids zipping about on them, but DD1 was never interested, always preferred scooter and still took off fine straight to pedal bike at 4.5. DD2 is coming up 2.5 and also not interested, she’ll stand with it and walk slowly and get fed up quickly. Is it the age? Or we just keep persevering?

We got our boy a balance bike when he was just over two. He loved it from day one and learnt how to do it very quickly. I am so glad we decided to get it for him. Would definitely recommend.

@Merename

Op I hope you don’t mind me jumping in and asking how do you get them enjoying the balance bike? I see kids zipping about on them, but DD1 was never interested, always preferred scooter and still took off fine straight to pedal bike at 4.5. DD2 is coming up 2.5 and also not interested, she’ll stand with it and walk slowly and get fed up quickly. Is it the age? Or we just keep persevering?

They need a light weight bike like a frog, some children balance bikes weight near as much as them.

Balance bike all the way
Frog or islabikes are good makes and you can normally pick up 2nd hand ones on ebay

What’s wrong with a tricycle?

We have an islabike balance bike, and it seems to weigh more than the cheap one DD1 had! In either case not interested. Will just try getting out more regularly.

Balance bike, 20 month old is bazzing about on one. You'll totally skip the stabelizer/confidence issues.

Balance bike. Never needed stabilisers when going up to big bike.

Mine didn't like balance bikes at all and I bought expensive brand one. However they took to riding a bike pretty quickly without stabilisers anyway, both riding quite confidently within a couple weeks.

I'm a children's cycling coach and I would definitely recommend a balance bike over stabilisers. There's the odd exception, but the majority of children learn more quickly with balance bikes. It teaches the most fundamental things first - how to find your balance and control the bike by shifting your body weight. Once they can do this confidently, mist children add pedalling relatively easily and quickly.
Obviously most people older than their early/mid teens started with stabilisers so it does work, but for most, it's harder. Riding with stabilisers is essentially riding a trike, which is quite different, so they alnost have to start learning again when the stabilisers come off. When balance bikes first started to take off I confess that I thought they were a bit of a pointless gimmic, but once I looked into it more I became a convert. I've been coaching children on balance bikes for a few years now and definitely think that for most children, it's preferable to stabilsers.
You do still have to teach and explain though. I've had quite a few parents come to my group saying that balance bikes "don't work" and their children just shuffle along with the bike between their legs and find it boring. But once they get involved with the activities designed to teach them, the vast majority are whizzing around in no time.
At our club our under 5's programme is based on the British Cycling Ready Set Ride system. Anyone can access the materials for free by creating an account on their website - you don't need to be a coach or a BC member - and I'd definitely recommend it to any parent who wants to get a young child onto two wheels.
readysetride.co.uk/

You can buy a pedal bike and take the pedals off to use it as a balance bike if you think your little one will transition quickly to pedals?

Another big fan of balance bikes here. Got one for DC’s 2nd birthday, he’s a total whizz on it now and he’s getting a pedal bike for his third birthday next month.

@Merename my son never started zipping round on his balance bike either, loved his scooter and transitioned fine to his pedal bike without stabilisers at 4.5 years. I think some kids just don’t enjoy them as much as others.