Balance bike or similar for 8 year old

[youremindmeofthebabe]

hi all, am posting this on behalf of my friend, her son is 8 years old and he has a brain injury that was inflicted at birth, he has a right sided weakness and severe speech and language disorder, is on the autistic spectrum and has a sleep disorder (background information!). She would like to know if anyone had seen a balance bike, or similar for a child of this age? Obviously he would struggle with pedals, but she feels a balance bike may be the solution.

Many thanks.

I'm not sure - the ones I looked at were for much younger children. There may be an SN specific bike for this age group but as is often discussed here, the price seems to quadruple if not quintuple or more once SN is involved. Maybe someone here will have something you can buy second hand ?

A balance bike is just a normal bike without the pedals. Just take the pedals off an absolute standard bike.

just take pedals off normal bike, try and get a light one as possible and one he can place feet firmn;y on the floor. :)

what a good idea !!! We should write a 'Paupers' Guide to SN' book

Thank you very much! We are a little dim, and hadn't even thought of that! Cheers, everybody.

You might also want to consider changing the saddle. The good balance bikes have a different shape saddle that is more comfortable when you're pushing yourself along.

True balance bikes are not QUITE a normal bike minus pedals... They tend to have a more stretched out frame. and limited steering to prevent the front wheel turning right round and touching frame.

So, to emulate with a regular bike minus pedals ( and cranks) make sure the bike big enough for the child*, set the saddle back on its rails a bit further than normal and look for a bike with flat handle bars rather than bars that sweep back towards the saddle.
If limited steering is important to you you need a competent and friendly bike mechanic .

Bike rescue project in York sell some regular bikes pre- altered to be balance bikes

• bike too small won't work well as a balance bike .

How about a trike? dd1 cant pedal a normal bike or balance well on the seat (she has AS and low muscle tone in her arms and legs), we had a man from 'tom cat trikes' come to the house so dd1 could try out a trike and with some extra support around the saddle and straps on the pedals she managed to pedal, they also come with a parent handel which you can stear with. We are waiting for funding and letter from pead to get one.

UniS thats useful to know. We had stabilisers put on a larger bike for our 8 year old but he is still struggling with pedals. His younger sis has a balance bike but its too small for him.

www.kickbike.com/index.php?mid=397

These look interesting, but maybe a bit left field for an 8 yr old who wants a bike like everyone elses.

Tried to post last night, but MN seemed to be down for a while.

Anyway, I saved my post so I could post this morning - hope its of some use. Here it is:

Just a thought, but what about one of these tag-a-long tandems?

A couple of the children at my boys' school ride to school with their parents on them.

I wondered whether they might be a way for him to learn to balance as obviously the person on the front bike would be in control.

I have also noticed that the children who ride them around here often don't pedal, so that means he wouldn't need to worry about pedalling until he was ready and had got to grips with the balance element of cycling first.

This one is a similar idea, but attaches a standard child's bike to a standard adult's bike.

Anyway, as I said, just a thought that popped into my head when I saw your thread.