Total noob

asprilla

Righto, The Mighty Pickle turns two in November and it turns out that one of the parks near us has a decent cycle / scooter track maintained by Mercedes so I want to get her some form of transport for her birthday.

So, the question is; do I get her a scooter, a balance bike or a trike?

I want to get her a balance bike, but they seem pretty expensive for something that she's likely to grow out of it pretty quickly whereas a scooter seems to suite kids from 3' to 5'.

gtvlusso

We have one of these for junior:

http://www.toddlebike.co.uk/

However, I would go down the scooter route......We also have abalance bike that I got seconhand for £35.

EKE_38BPM

Seeing as the track is maintained/sponsored by Mercedes, how about one of these:
With the track ends, you could replace the freewheel with a track sprocket and it is now a fixie! Take both of the brakes off and cut the handlebars down to about 20cm and you'll have a junior hipster's bike!

I'm joking, but I would probably get a normal kids bike and take the pedals or the whole crankset off, thus turning it into a balance bike.

Let the Mighty Pickle get used to balancing and then replace the pedals/crankset. That way you get a balance bike and then it can revert to a normal kids bike once she has her balance (a few hours later).

joelsim

My boy has a scooter that has seen lots of service over the last 2 1/2 years, great value in fact.

We also bought him a balance bike which he got about a year's service out of, which of course is less than the scooter, but what it did was teach him how to ride before he even knew it. He went straight onto a 12 inch wheel bike from this and was cycling on his own without stabilisers within 10 minutes and has never looked back, aged 3 1/2 at the time.

If you can afford it, get her a scooter now and a balance bike in a few months when she is big enough.

rjsterry

Balance bike might be overdoing it at 2. A trike or something like that toddlebike would be better until she's a bit bigger and more capable I'd have said, but YMMV.

asprilla

She's already got stuff like the toddler bike (but with the wheels further apart that she's been using for about a year now. I think she wants to ride a bike; she insists on wearing her helmet and my mitts around the house

ince

Balance bike all the way. Started my eldest off at 18 months, by 2 he was whizzing around on it no prob. We then got him a proper bike which by the age of 2 3/4 he was riding around on. Second son has just turned 18 months and is not starting to show interest in the balance bike .

We went for the Islabike in the end. build quality is great, back brake that little hands can use (and will). Yep its a lot of a little bike, but we all know quality counts and often costs a bit more. On top of which when I did my research the secondhand Islabikes were selling for 80% of the RRP.

Thread below may be worth a read,

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... sc&start=0

joelsim

From this, first time on a balance bike at 2 1/2



To this, second time on a bike aged 3 1/2.

rjsterry

Asprilla wrote:

She's already got stuff like the toddler bike (but with the wheels further apart that she's been using for about a year now. I think she wants to ride a bike; she insists on wearing her helmet and my mitts around the house

My littl'un has a trike, but doesn't use it that much - perhaps due to garden being too lumpy to move about as easily as she might - and she seems much more interested in painting, gardening (well, digging and watering) and swimming at the moment, oh, and feeding the ducks at the park.

I don't want to push it, but there is part of my panicking that she might not like bikes :shock:

OrbitRider

We got our second son one of these second hand through e-bay
http://www.micro-scooters.co.uk/product/gbike--balance-bike/

They are expensive, but from 2 years old, ours loved it. He then rode a pedal bike (without stabilisers) for the first time just before he was 3. The Micro was always admired by many parents on the school run and has since been "borrowed" by a number of our friends for their own kids. The best bit though, was after our son moved onto the pedal bike, and watching all the school mums staring in amazement at this tiny lad zooming around with no stabilisers.

Our older son didn't have a balance bike and so didn't ride a bike without stabilisers until he was 5. I think the balance bikes are great value, even if they are expensive.

joelsim

Cycling through RP with my boy yesterday, I was very surprised by the number of comments about Tom cycling without stablilisers, he's 4 1/4 now and there were still gasping parents. All down to a balance bike IMO.

Gussio

Joelsim wrote:

If you can afford it, get her a scooter now and a balance bike in a few months when she is big enough.

Agree with this. Micro scooter now, Likeabike in a couple of months, then Islabike CNOC in a few years time. You will never look back. Welcome to the good years.

joelsim

When I say, if you can afford it, what I meant was...forego a nifty jersey and splash out on the nipper. I've just got Tom a Specialized Hotrock 16 to replace the crappy spiderman thing he currently has. It served a purpose in getting him interested in cycling, but really it's very very heavy.

joelsim

And if you ever see a better promo video than this, let me know.

http://www.earlyrider.com/video/the-early-rider/

asprilla

Joelsim wrote:

And if you ever see a better promo video than this, let me know.

http://www.earlyrider.com/video/the-early-rider/

Just sent that to the Mrs. I'm fairly sure if she had any reservations that should remove them...

bigmat

Bought my boy a balance bike for his 2nd birthday last year. Thinking of getting him a scooter this year. He just hasn't got the hang of the bike, to be honest he is only just big enough for it, he's pretty big for his age and couldn't get his feet down until 2 and a half. Hopefully he'll get the hang of it in time (he does like being whizzed back and forth on it, but its murder for my back!) but in the meantime a scooter will probably work better.

joelsim

+1 BigMat. 2 1/2 it was for my boy too, although you can get a really small one.

asprilla

I shall be measuring the Pickle's inside leg tonight to see what standover she needs. She's a big fan of tape measures at the moment so shouldn't need any coercing. As of three days ago she was 85cm tall so I think a 38cm standover might be a little high for her at the moment.

joelsim

Get her the WSD version :shock:

ride_whenever

Personally i'd avoid the early rider, there can be issues with the bolts and how they fit together.

I'd go for a puky, not overly dear but use standard seatposts so you can just fit a longer one as they grow. Good range as well.

rjsterry

Out of interest, where have people encouraged their little ones to try out their balance bikes?

Indoors is obviously not a sensible option, and as mentioned, the garden is a little lumpy and come winter would degenerate into a WWI mudbath with little wheels running up and down. Do you just pop out to the nearest park?

joelsim

The early rider is wooden too, so any scrapes are not as good as they would be on a metal bike. Cute little things though.

MonkeyMonster

rjsterry wrote:

Out of interest, where have people encouraged their little ones to try out their balance bikes?

Indoors is obviously not a sensible option, and as mentioned, the garden is a little lumpy and come winter would degenerate into a WWI mudbath with little wheels running up and down. Do you just pop out to the nearest park?

almost 4 year old niece flies about on pavements on it - chiswick park too.

joelsim

Yep, Tom used to ride to nursery in Norf Landan, or at the park.

rjsterry

One more quick one at the risk of turning this into an offshoot of the Family section: while I'm all for spending a bit more to get the quality, is there that much difference between a £100 balance bike and one of the £50-60 versions? It's not as though they are going to be riding miles with fully loaded panniers.

joelsim

Oh I dunno. My boy struggles when he picks up a 12-pack from Sainsburys for me. Bloody weakling.

rjsterry

Good point. We are forever running out of milk due to the littl'un drinking industrial quantities. Perhaps if we set up an account with the local mini-market, she could go and collect her own.

joelsim

Carbon bottle cage to fit pink milk tetrapaks?

ride_whenever

rjsterry wrote:

One more quick one at the risk of turning this into an offshoot of the Family section: while I'm all for spending a bit more to get the quality, is there that much difference between a £100 balance bike and one of the £50-60 versions? It's not as though they are going to be riding miles with fully loaded panniers.

Huge, often proper pneumatic tyres and braking options. Ride it indoors initially (we've had kids learning riding around the shop. But once they can walk then they can go anywhere, you can control them a lot with the saddle height.

arronbond

Scooters for kids are becoming an outdoor craze nowadays. Kid’s scooters are a great way to help your child to begin to learn the art of balance.

kids scooters

ince

rjsterry wrote:

Out of interest, where have people encouraged their little ones to try out their balance bikes?

Indoors is obviously not a sensible option, and as mentioned, the garden is a little lumpy and come winter would degenerate into a WWI mudbath with little wheels running up and down. Do you just pop out to the nearest park?

Our bike is sat in the livingroom ATM. The youngest is just starting to take and interest in it. Picking it up and having a sit on it etc. I find if I do take it out he is just not interested at the moment and as he is not yet doing any more than walking with it there is little danger to property.

Once he starts to do a nit more on it, it will have to be moved outside. But for now, due to the stage he is at it's not an issue.

I think the quality does count as you will be surprised how far the little legs can propel these bikes. We took our eldest son to Llandudno when he was two and half. We walked the seafront there, about three miles in total. He covered more than this as he would shoot off one hundred metres ahead before turning and coming back to us.

On a side note, tyre pressure is also a great way to control the speed. Low psi helps slow them down to start with, then as the skills improve you can up the psi.