Balance Bike Guides
Need some help working our what size balance bike to buy? Or want to know how to transition your child from balance to pedal bike?
Our balance bike guides are designed to answer all of your questions and give you the know how to buy the right size balance bike at the right age and then teach your child to ride.
<balance bike guide articles>
What is a Balance Bike?
Your first question when looking at balance bikes might just be what is a balance bike? Essentially a balance bike (sometimes also referred to as a strider bike or glider bike) is a bike without pedals.
The rider uses their feet in lieu of pedals to propel forward and also to stop, at least to begin with. Bigger models often have hand brakes to assist with stopping at speed and saving a few pairs of shoes.
What Age is Best for a Balance Bike?
The answer to what age is best for a balance bike is essentially any age. We’ve seen babies as young as 18-months right up to fully grown adults enjoy the fun and benefits of striding along on a balance bike.
If you’re wondering when to start with a balance bike then we suggest around 2-years-old to be the perfect age but as we said some 18-month-olds can start to use a balance bike if they are already walking.
We would say the younger the better when it comes to considering when to get a balance bike. You can check out our guide on the Best Age for a Balance Bike for all the details
Balance Bike Vs Training Wheels
A common decision to make when looking at balance bikes is which is better between balance bike vs training wheels. If your child is younger, you may also need to consider tricycle vs balance bike.
Our simple answer to this of course is that balance bikes are better than both training wheels and tricycles because they teach balance which is the most important skill when it comes to learning to ride a bike.
In some cases, training wheels actually teach the opposite of what is needed to ride a pedal bike without stabilisers e.g. they actually encourage kids to lean out of corners instead of into them.
If you want to know about all the pros and cons for balance bike vs training wheels and tricycles then you can check out our full articles.
Transitioning from a Balance to Pedal Bike
Usually, the end goal for balance bike riders is to gain enough skills to transition to a regular pedal bike. The benefits of balance bikes are endless, but the key benefit is that they teach excellent balance, making transition to a pedal bike fairly easy when the time is right.
There are a few models of balance bike that can have pedals added to them, essentially making them convertible balance bike to pedal bike models. In other instances, you may have purchased a regular pedal bike.
If you think it’s the time to transition your child then our transition guide has all the info on most common ages, as well as a guide to teaching them to move from their balance bike to the pedal bike with very little fuss.
