Very excited

[quint]

Ordered DD1 the Islabike Rothan at the weekend and it arrives tomorrow!! How sad am I.

it is gorgeous though, wish I'd known about them when dd was younger.

what is this I havent a clue!!

Erm...it seems to have lost its pedals

lol MrsDior

All the children have them here in Germany and they're all cycling by the time they're 4/5.

is it too small for a five year old?

We got given one of the wooden ones by a relation who lives on the continent where they are very popular. Ds loves it. And now goes very fast, and can balance for 20m or more if going down hill. And needs to wear a crash helmet for it (have done one header into fence when I was particularly glad he had it on). When we do move up to a bicycle with pedals, we will not be using the stabilisers as at least he will be able to balance very confidently.

(Ds 2.11)(Got going recently in better weather - park too muddy for much proper practise earlier in winter)

ummm...could you not just take the pedals off a "normal" bike for a similiar (and cheaper) effect? Although I do think the wooden mini balance bikes are lovely!

she already has a bike with stablisers. its just i'm impatient for her to learn how toride properly so we can all go out together, and she doesnt get left behind, or th eboys gof ar ahead.
o h well.

You can take the pedals off some ordinary bikes, but not all. tbh, it's not really worth buying a teeny bike and taking the pedals off - by the time the child has got the hang of balancing etc confidently, they will probably be ready for the next size up anyway. This has been our experience, anyway, with both our kids.

Are they any good?

DS1 had a trike which at 4 and a half he still can't pedal.

I was thinking of getting something similar for Ds2 (2 on Saturday). Will he get any play value out of it or will it be too difficult?

How has your DD got on Quint?

Ds is now whizzing round the park - its FANTASTIC!!!! At last I get to go at a reasonable rate - and significantly faster than most of the parents who have 4 and 5 yos with bikes with stabilizers.

It works by having the saddle relatively low so that they sit on the saddle and walk along - or when they get confident, striding and running and taking their legs off the ground and free wheeling. I literally spend my time jogging round the park now, particularly on downhill stretches. Although, as it doesn't have brakes but works with their feet acting as brakes, its not very safe for steep bits.

Afaics its easier than the scooters as you are using both legs and sitting down and it has bigger wheels.

Ds has been using it properly for about 1 month now and doing fantastically - really good balancing, good steering etc. And he is not yet 3. Saw a 4yo doing really well on a similar bike recently too.

pukka, how about a tow-along/trailer bike? We got one recently it's fab, something

like this

although we got one bit cheaper than that...

we used a regular bike dilbertina and took the pedals off. Yes, it wouldn't have made sense to buy the bike just to do that with but we happened to have the bike anyway. It's now doing the rounds amongst our friends who have young children as a stop gap bike to get them used to balancing.

It's arrived and is fab!!!!

DD1 was very excited when she saw it and has been on it a couple of times round the house - I want DH to make sure its all fitted properly and that its right for her before we let her out on it (they will do a full refund if necessary and it hasn't been outside - somehow I don't think its going back).

All the other bikes we have looked at have been so heavy, this is really light but still looks like a bike.

With regards to age, I think 5 is too old but it goes more on size. DD1 is 104cm with a (I think 43cm inside leg) so she is at the top end of the scale, she will probably only get 6 months out of it but by then her little sister will be big enough and she should be able to move onto the next bike.

I would recommend giving them a call as they are very helpful. I think they have also had a lot of business from here

You can adjust our wooden one - currently set quite low - need to be a lot lower than normal bikes as you need them to be able to stride along whilst sitting comfortably.