bike for 3year old girl, any recommendations?

[Gingerbics]

Grandparents want to buy DD a bike not sure whether to go for balance bike or normal bike (Halfords have really good sale on at moment).

Thought with a balance bike you'd need to then buy a proper bike, but with normal bike it should last a bit longer.

Not sure if stabilisers are a good or bad idea so really open to advice, suggestions, top tips!

Avoid stabilisers definitely

Many buy a normal bike and detach the pedals to use as a balance bike. Then reattach as the child gets confident.

A few threads on this, eg: recent useful one

I disagree with the assumption that a balance bike won't last as long as a regular bike.

Our DS had a like-a-bike Jumper balance bike shortly before his 2nd birthday (he's now 4). We thought that we would justify the expense by handing it on to DD who is 1.5 years younger and not bothering with scooters.

We now have one for each child because it has been so good. So good in fact that there is no rush to pedal. I think we have probably another year out of DS' bike. They can do loads of stuff on them that they wouldn't be able to do if they had to pedal. We show them YouTube videos (e.g. this one) before we go out and they attack the skate park or the bumps in the woods confidently.

We paid £90 for both, first new from ebay shop, other one used on ebay. They are now (gulp) £150. It's a huge outlay but I think we will get really great value from them but not all balance bikes are equal. Ours are light enough to carry which allows us to use them as our principle means of transport (buggy ditched around 20 months) with an Ergobaby sling as backup.

Pros are: 3.6kg - really light, not hard to carry (plus child / back from school / on top of buggy); rear suspension & big chunky tires allows them to ride over bumps; 2 seat posts supplied gives good height range.
Cons: causes arguments with friends whose bikes aren't as good ; expense.

In summary: our bikes are brilliant and I cannot recommend them enough. I am confident that our kids have excellent riding skills and pedaling is a mere detail for later. Did I mention they were really light?