how a blanace bike works

ageis

Am new to the concept of balance bikes so bear with me.

I'm curious to know how this can help them develop their balance?

From what I read on the stickey thread, their feet are flat on the ground, so woudn't that influence the how the bike stands?

Like I've said I learnt how to ride a bike on stablisers/ my dad holding the seat for me.

fenix

I think the idea is that you scoot along - so you'll find the balance point when your feet aren't on the ground.

imafatman

They push the bike with their feet and then free wheel with their feet off the ground. It's not rocket surgery.

drlodge

...or event rocket science.

mugensi

And it really works, both my children learned on balance bikes (both of which I made by stripping older bikes I had bought cheaply from classified adds off their pedals, chainset, brakes, etc) We let them use the balance bikes from when they were 3 yrs old and after a few months scooting about on them tried them on their bikes without stablizers, both were pedalling without a problem within 15 minutes.

fat daddy

MugenSi wrote:

And it really works, both my children learned on balance .

didn't work for mine ..... she was awesome on the balance bike .... but its a mental thing, she is scared to crap of the bike with pedals ... its got stabalisers on it now, but she has to get off and push it if there is a crack in the pavement :?

Just bought a tag-along to get her out the house, she loves that, especially drop offs, berms and the pump track :roll: god forbid there is a crack in the pavement though

Still, shell get there in her own time

tangled_metal

Mine got a balance bike at 2 then a bike with stabilizers at 3. We tried without stabilizers but he wouldn't use it. He used both balance bike and bike with stabilizers until nearly 4.5 years then just took to pedal bike without stabilizers.

The balance bike was a kind of walking bike for him. He got the idea of scooting along then balancing with feet up, but he didn't like that so just walked it everywhere.

Basically up until he decided for himself that he wanted to ride a bike without stabilizers a balance bike wasn't being used as it should be so I don't personally rate them. I think it's better to find what interests your child. Scooter, balance bike, tricycle, bike with stabilizers, etc. Then let them guide you to stabilizer free cycling.

Our approach worked. A summer without interest in learning led to this spring being his decision to learn. Took 5 minutes to get 20 metres pedalling. Then after half hour he wasn't interested again. 2 weeks later he was pushed off and never stopped since! He's got a new bike and he's flying. Bike obsessed now.

IMHO get a basic, cheap balance bike. He doesn't need brakes because if it works well he'll be on a proper pedal bike before long. Brakes are easy to learn so he'll pick that skill up once he's riding and probably very quickly.

bendertherobot

Mine had one and, to echo others, he took to proper cycling in about 10 minutes. It really does prepare them well.

Crazyjenkins01

drlodge wrote:

...or event rocket science.

Don't you mean brain science?

Crazyjenkins01

My little girl was a nutjob on her balance bike. She'd head for the biggest hill and fly down it (even with no brakes!), BUUUUUT she never had experience of pedalling on a trike or a pedal tractor-things etc so when she got her big girl bike the stabilizers had to go back on as she couldn't balance and propel herself at the same time.
After plenty of riding to get used to pedalling the stabilizers came off again and off she went.

greenamex2

One daughter mastered a balance bike in under five minutes, and a bike without stabilisers in about ten.

The other daughter never mastered a balance bike and took weeks to lose the stabilisers.

In my case the balance bikes made zero difference.

John Simmons

My 3 year old has a balance bike and he loves it! He finds the balance point and he's off with his feet off the ground. We haven't made the transition yet to a bike without stabilizers, but his balance bike has built his confidence no end!

Steve-XcT

greenamex2 wrote:

One daughter mastered a balance bike in under five minutes, and a bike without stabilisers in about ten.

The other daughter never mastered a balance bike and took weeks to lose the stabilisers.

In my case the balance bikes made zero difference.

We never had a balance bike .. I can't say what time it took my lad to ride as he just set off and was riding. However long it takes to take 3 steps... the he rode down to the end of a cul-de-sac... turned around manually and rode back.

I can't claim he's actually mastered a bike yet as those who had balance bikes did and 2 years later he still hasn't managed to master his bike (unlike those who used balance bikes).

sarcasm on
Strangely he is competing in XC at regional level with podium positions and beating kids who learned on balance bikes many of whom are a year or more older than him... so I'm not exactly sure what "mastered" refers to in some of the above comments...

He still can't manual properly, his bunny hops suck, he's hesitant at drop-offs over 2' high... and he's a long way off a back somersault (obviously unlike the kids with balance bikes who have "mastered" their bikes).

We did attend a local event where he came 1st in the time trail and endurance but he sucked at riding round coloured cones and all the British Cycling equipment ... which must be down to not following British Cycling policy and learning on a balance bike ...

Like me he can't see the point of riding round coloured cones ... and the limbo bar was too way high for him to bunny hop... perhaps if he'd had a balance bike he'd be interested in riding round cones instead of shredding single track and racing XC.

cooldad

Is he also psychologically scarred from your rather wordy idea of sarcasm?

Steve-XcT

cooldad wrote:

Is he also psychologically scarred from your rather wordy idea of sarcasm?

Nope I',m pretty certain his deep psychological scars come from us not buying a special changing table when he was a baby.

Or it could have been any one of those 101 "must have or your baby will be scarred for life" items ...
Balance bikes are just another piece of modern BS sold with the message "if you don't buy this ..." and everything your parents did when you were a child is wrong" messages."

There is nothing wrong with balance bikes; if they fit into what you are doing in your family life ... just like a special changing table ... but it won't make one shred of difference as to how your kids cycling works out.

On the way home from cycling with my 7yr old yesterday I saw a balance bike being carried by a parent ... this seems to be the usual use (by actual time) of balance bikes (in terms of what they are doing other than sat in the house/garden/shed) from what I see... simply as an object the parent carries... I see far greater actual USE% time of scooters... when carrying is most often because you are now in a shop etc. again, I'll go back to the changing tables who for those parents that don't have a dedicated "changing room" in the house the most frequent use is folded up against a wall and parents use the mat (that never again see's the changing table) on the bed...

To answer the thread ... "how a balance bike works" by observations is they don't "work" and if they do in some way, it's an answer to a problem doesn't exist.

My 7yr old who never had a balance bike has most certainly not mastered riding but that has nothing to do with him having had a balance bike or not ... he does very well academically but he hasn't mastered maths yet either.

He will never master maths until he leaves school for the simple reason they have a rigid system that says all children must learn this way and no other way. I'm picking on maths specifically because last year OFSTED stopped guidelines for maths and made it mandatory to take 2 years to learn times tables.... because according to their deeply flawed theory it will screw up kids for life letting them learn their times tables in year 2.

It's deeply flawed because when I went to primary school EVERYONE learned times tables in 1 week ... all of them. At the end of the day it's learning 12 (or now 10) rhymes... but now official government policy ignores FACT

Balance bikes are the same. We all learned perfectly well without a balance bikes.

Danny Macaskill learned perfectly well without one, indeed he didn't have a bike until he was 11!
He certainly NEVER used a balance bike.

http://boomerbalancebikes.co.uk/danny-m ... #more-1324

Yet here is some very dangerous advice from the same manufacturer......

Balance bikes have been proven to help your child learn a skill set that stabilisers have previously prevented. Learning to balance is the most important aspect of riding a bike and a Boomer balance bike allows your child to concentrate solely on this.

Jeez... you know I thought not getting run over by a bus was important... learning to stop ... but lets forget all that.. the only crucial thing... the most important aspect is buying a balance bike.

Learning to balance is the most important aspect of riding a bike

I disagree ...
The most important thing to learn to ride a bike (after safety) is riding a bike


So what is the use of a balance bike ??
Quite simply its a time for the kid to NOT RIDE .... it makes no odds at all... except delay the time when your kid actually rides.

Balance bikes have been proven to help your child learn a skill set that stabilisers have previously prevented.

Absolute rubbish if they are implying that is balance.... how can having stabilisers prevent a child learning balance?
We used to play "flamingo's" where we stand on one leg, walking along a log forwards and backwards etc. etc. ... he was doing all sorts of tricks on his scooters that required lots of balance... and when we took off the stabilisers I took 3 steps and he rode off...

Learning to lean .. he did that on his 2 wheel scooter....

What I can guarantee is balance bikes do is deprive the child of a primary skill...(the most important after SAFETY) actually riding a bike!

At least the boomers (above) can have pedals attached... but then how is that different to any other bike that can have cranks removed?

By far the most important thing in learning to ride is RIDING ....that involves pedals.

cooldad

Er um ok...

mikpem

Wow! There was a hell of a lot of irrelevant angry crap in that post wasn't there?

Anyway the choice of balance bike is important, we got a very bad one from Halfords at first (aged 18 months). Heavy and awkward, he was keen to use it but just waddled about.
We moved him on to a Strider which we picked up cheap at a car boot and he was much happier.
Then we got a bigger wheeled and still light Earlyrider once the Strider was looking a bit small which encouraged him to lift his feet a bit more and use the balance aspect.
He wanted to race like daddy so the local cycle speedway club said he could use his balance bike there to join in, after a couple of months he wanted to pedal like the others so he had a go on a 12" bike which was slower than his balance bike but he was like everyone else.
As he is quite tall, aged 3 he moved on to a 16" wheel bike which he is very confident on and a couple of weeks ago (not even 4 yet) he rode 3 laps of Snetterton race track with only a little help from me.

So I think it's about noticing what they need and when they need it most of all and working it to the individual. If it wasn't for balance bikes it would have been a lot worse for my wife to take him along to my races because all he ever wanted to do was join in. We have another on the way at the moment, I'm not expecting them to be as keen, but if they are I will give them the time and tools to enjoy it as much as they want.

Steve-XcT

mikpem wrote:

Wow! There was a hell of a lot of irrelevant angry crap in that post wasn't there?

Being angry at people being given mis-information doesn't make it irrelvant.

If it wasn't for balance bikes it would have been a lot worse for my wife to take him along to my races because all he ever wanted to do was join in

But you're assuming he couldn't have ridden a "proper bike"....

after a couple of months he wanted to pedal like the others so he had a go on a 12" bike which was slower than his balance bike but he was like everyone else

This is actually my point. Actually learning to ride a bike isn't difficult but the kid has to WANT to ride a bike like everyone else .

I'd suggest that those 2 months were not because he physically matured and gained balance but simply they decided they wanted to learn to ride a bike like everyone else. My kid simply decided one day then it took longer to remove the stabilisers than it took him to learn to ride adequately.

the choice of balance bike is important

But there is an equally valid choice about not getting a balance bike at all....

Every time a parent chips asks "what first bike" they are told by the balance bike/gripshift/kids can't use shocks contingent that they are basically going to scar their kids cycling forever if they don't follow the only method

The reality is as soon as the child really wants to ride a bike they will providing you have developed their balance.

mikpem

Steve-XcT wrote:

But you're assuming he couldn't have ridden a "proper bike"....

HE WAS 2 YEARS OLD!!!!

You clearly have a lot of time on your hands, it's nice outside, I suggest you go for a ride and think about yourself.

Steve-XcT

mikpem wrote:

Steve-XcT wrote:

But you're assuming he couldn't have ridden a "proper bike"....

HE WAS 2 YEARS OLD!!!!

He wanted to race like daddy so the local cycle speedway club said he could use his balance bike there to join in, after a couple of months he wanted to pedal like the others so he had a go on a 12" bike which was slower than his balance bike but he was like everyone else.

I meant from this point on ... what magic happened in a couple on months that was different. (Perhaps I was taking "a couple" literally - but the same thing applies).... the magic is that kids can do many things when they put their minds to it... I keep hearing stories about how a kid transitioned from a balance bike to a pedal bike and how this is due to having a balance bike... this completely ignores all the kids who never had a balance bike and yet managed it just as easily... then there are the "how do I get them to transition from a balance bike threads... " .. so apparently it's not so seamless... equally there are many who had stabilisers and the kid just got and rode straight away...

The magic isn't in balance bikes... it's in what kids can do when they put their mind to it.

You clearly have a lot of time on your hands, it's nice outside, I suggest you go for a ride and think about yourself.

Wish I could ... I just worked all weekend except 6 hours ... I managed to get away on Sunday afternoon... now I have to sit and watch a damned computer screen in case it changes....

Crazyjenkins01

Steve-XcT wrote:

mikpem wrote:

Wow! There was a hell of a lot of irrelevant angry crap in that post wasn't there?

Being angry at people being given mis-information doesn't make it irrelvant.

If it wasn't for balance bikes it would have been a lot worse for my wife to take him along to my races because all he ever wanted to do was join in

But you're assuming he couldn't have ridden a "proper bike"....

after a couple of months he wanted to pedal like the others so he had a go on a 12" bike which was slower than his balance bike but he was like everyone else

This is actually my point. Actually learning to ride a bike isn't difficult but the kid has to WANT to ride a bike like everyone else .

I'd suggest that those 2 months were not because he physically matured and gained balance but simply they decided they wanted to learn to ride a bike like everyone else. My kid simply decided one day then it took longer to remove the stabilisers than it took him to learn to ride adequately.

the choice of balance bike is important

But there is an equally valid choice about not getting a balance bike at all....

Every time a parent chips asks "what first bike" they are told by the balance bike/gripshift/kids can't use shocks contingent that they are basically going to scar their kids cycling forever if they don't follow the only method

The reality is as soon as the child really wants to ride a bike they will providing you have developed their balance.

What in the actual foook are you talking about?!?!?
A balance bike is not a must have item. It does exactly what it is supposed to, helps a child learn how to balance from a young age, long before they are 'old enough' for a real bike. it also gives them independence and freedom. is it the end of the world if they done have one? No. Will they never manage to learn to ride a bike without one? No. But for a lot of kids it can speed up the process.

Did you just one day 'decide' you wanted to drive a car like everyone else and it happened?

Steve-XcT

What in the actual foook are you talking about?!?!?
A balance bike is not a must have item.

Exactly this ^

It does exactly what it is supposed to, helps a child learn how to balance from a young age, long before they are 'old enough' for a real bike.

So like a scooter ....??
Or any of 101 other ways kids can develop balance....

it also gives them independence and freedom.

So like a scooter ... ??
Or any of 101 other ways kids can develop independence and freedom..
..

is it the end of the world if they done have one? No. Will they never manage to learn to ride a bike without one? No.

So why is it every time a parent asks "what first bike on this forum they get told - You must buy a balance bike ... if you use stabilisers your kid will NEVER EVER be able to cycle - dogs and cats living together in the same house... etc. " (paraphrased from 50+ threads)

But for a lot of kids it can speed up the process.

Compared to what though ..... compared to watching TV of course ... but compared to doing balance games, using a scooter ??

Did you just one day 'decide' you wanted to drive a car like everyone else and it happened?

Actually in a way yes.... I had no passion to drive at 17... indeed my parents thought it more important than I did.
Took my test and failed marginally at 17 wasn't fussed.... and it wasn't until 3 years later I decided "I really need to learn to drive" and retook the test and passed.

As I said in the first post on this thread... If a balance bike works for your family fine...
Will it make any positive difference to when you can go and ride with your kid NO.... (unless the alternative is watching TV etc.)

My kid learned to bob about in and under water from a few months old.... a family friend used to be a children's swimming teacher and he said "if you have fun, go ahead but it won't make any difference to his swimming aged 4-5"
We had fun... he's an OK swimmer... it made no difference.

Might it delay that time... absolutely... if your kid gets comfortable you carrying the balance bike everywhere and never feels like they need pedals. I base this on seeing lot of parents carrying balance bikes on kids old enough to ride.

Balance bikes are fine.... but they are just another toy and no better/worse than other methods to develop balance.
A friend of mine has 2 girls... (twins) neither has ever had a balance bike yet both have incredible balance. but their mother is an ex professional ballet dancer and amateur gymnast.. They have been doing ballet class since whatever age...
Don't you think this might also develop balance every bit as well as a balance bike?
I'm not suggesting EVERYONE should do this, I'm just pointing out there are 101 ways to develop balance.

The week my kid decided he wanted to ride a bike we waited until weekend ... took the stabilisers off his boat anchor "fireman sam" on the Saturday morning and walked over the road to a cul-de-sac.

I took 3 steps, let go and he rode 100m... turned around and rode back.
That is it .... stabilisers didn't stop him learning.... but he WANTED to because I'd said he could have a proper bike.
After reading all the "stabilisers will make learning to ride very difficult" horror threads on here I'd expected a few weekends difficulty... I'd thought I might need to take the pedals off (etc.) I felt guilty I'd wrecked his chance at learning to ride by letting him have pedals and stabilisers....

BUT If he'd had a balance bike it would have sat mostly unused... because all his friends had scooters and he'd had one from 18mo or so.

When we walked to the park,town, nursery etc. he'd alwaystake his scooter... and I could run and he'd tag along..
Me or his mother would drop him at nursery and carry the scooter back then carry it to pick him up. It just fit into the family schedule.

You could do that with a balance bike ... but it would be a lot more arduous and a pain walking through shops carrying a bike compared to a scooter. For us the scooter worked... if a balance bike works fine... but NO-ONE ever learns to ride a bike until THEY decide they want to ride a bike.

This motivation is the entire key.... if a balance bike gets to that point then great, if its simply wanting to be like Mum/Dad/siblings/friends then great but all this . "My kid couldn't transition from stabilisers because they were used to stabilisers" is pure rubbish .as is the "My kid transitioned easily because they had a balance bike"

My kid had a highly developed balance from other activities... but even if he hadn't then 3 steps might have been a weekend or stretch it to a week.... the point being you can just take pedals off if that is the issue. You don't need a balance bike that has a total useful time in this transition of 3-4 seconds to a week. What you need is a kid that wants to ride.

If they REALLY want to and they have developed adequate balance they will.... if they don't REALLY want to they won't..
If a balance bike helps them want to.. great.... BUT stabilisers work just as well on motivation and this is 90% about motivation.

cooldad

TL:DR version.

Some random waffle. Move on.

tangled_metal

Jeez! He waffles more than I do.

Steve-XcT

Tangled Metal wrote:

Jeez! He waffles more than I do.

Well finally a thread asking "how it works" .. instead of the endless threads saying don't buy your kid a bike with pedals or they will never learn to ride because some kid who didn't really want to ride without stabilisers failed to ride without stabilisers...whilst some other kid who had a balance bike but wanted to ride with pedals learned.

The relevant point is that the kid wants to learn and is ready; not if they had a balance bike, stabilisers or not.

Lots of parents are going to buy balance bikes based on a myth... Had I read this forum before buying a first bike I'd have bought a balance bike. Nothing would have made him cycle earlier... and I'd guess the balance bike would have just languished in non use, been a waste of money and quite possibly have delayed his start of riding.

No balance bike will have your kid out cycling before they are ready.
Some might motivate them to get pedals, others won't...just like stabilisers might motivate some kids to take them off.

tangled_metal

Oh boy! You make me look reticent with my comments. I like it! Keep it up and your word count will become truly impressive.

Crazyjenkins01

Steve-XcT wrote:

What in the actual foook are you talking about?!?!?
A balance bike is not a must have item.

Exactly this ^

It does exactly what it is supposed to, helps a child learn how to balance from a young age, long before they are 'old enough' for a real bike.

So like a scooter ....??
Or any of 101 other ways kids can develop balance....

it also gives them independence and freedom.

So like a scooter ... ??
Or any of 101 other ways kids can develop independence and freedom..
..

is it the end of the world if they done have one? No. Will they never manage to learn to ride a bike without one? No.

So why is it every time a parent asks "what first bike on this forum they get told - You must buy a balance bike ... if you use stabilisers your kid will NEVER EVER be able to cycle - dogs and cats living together in the same house... etc. " (paraphrased from 50+ threads)

But for a lot of kids it can speed up the process.

Compared to what though ..... compared to watching TV of course ... but compared to doing balance games, using a scooter ??

Did you just one day 'decide' you wanted to drive a car like everyone else and it happened?

Actually in a way yes.... I had no passion to drive at 17... indeed my parents thought it more important than I did.
Took my test and failed marginally at 17 wasn't fussed.... and it wasn't until 3 years later I decided "I really need to learn to drive" and retook the test and passed.

As I said in the first post on this thread... If a balance bike works for your family fine...
Will it make any positive difference to when you can go and ride with your kid NO.... (unless the alternative is watching TV etc.)

My kid learned to bob about in and under water from a few months old.... a family friend used to be a children's swimming teacher and he said "if you have fun, go ahead but it won't make any difference to his swimming aged 4-5"
We had fun... he's an OK swimmer... it made no difference.

Might it delay that time... absolutely... if your kid gets comfortable you carrying the balance bike everywhere and never feels like they need pedals. I base this on seeing lot of parents carrying balance bikes on kids old enough to ride.

Balance bikes are fine.... but they are just another toy and no better/worse than other methods to develop balance.
A friend of mine has 2 girls... (twins) neither has ever had a balance bike yet both have incredible balance. but their mother is an ex professional ballet dancer and amateur gymnast.. They have been doing ballet class since whatever age...
Don't you think this might also develop balance every bit as well as a balance bike?
I'm not suggesting EVERYONE should do this, I'm just pointing out there are 101 ways to develop balance.

The week my kid decided he wanted to ride a bike we waited until weekend ... took the stabilisers off his boat anchor "fireman sam" on the Saturday morning and walked over the road to a cul-de-sac.

I took 3 steps, let go and he rode 100m... turned around and rode back.
That is it .... stabilisers didn't stop him learning.... but he WANTED to because I'd said he could have a proper bike.
After reading all the "stabilisers will make learning to ride very difficult" horror threads on here I'd expected a few weekends difficulty... I'd thought I might need to take the pedals off (etc.) I felt guilty I'd wrecked his chance at learning to ride by letting him have pedals and stabilisers....

BUT If he'd had a balance bike it would have sat mostly unused... because all his friends had scooters and he'd had one from 18mo or so.

When we walked to the park,town, nursery etc. he'd alwaystake his scooter... and I could run and he'd tag along..
Me or his mother would drop him at nursery and carry the scooter back then carry it to pick him up. It just fit into the family schedule.

You could do that with a balance bike ... but it would be a lot more arduous and a pain walking through shops carrying a bike compared to a scooter. For us the scooter worked... if a balance bike works fine... but NO-ONE ever learns to ride a bike until THEY decide they want to ride a bike.

This motivation is the entire key.... if a balance bike gets to that point then great, if its simply wanting to be like Mum/Dad/siblings/friends then great but all this . "My kid couldn't transition from stabilisers because they were used to stabilisers" is pure rubbish .as is the "My kid transitioned easily because they had a balance bike"

My kid had a highly developed balance from other activities... but even if he hadn't then 3 steps might have been a weekend or stretch it to a week.... the point being you can just take pedals off if that is the issue. You don't need a balance bike that has a total useful time in this transition of 3-4 seconds to a week. What you need is a kid that wants to ride.

If they REALLY want to and they have developed adequate balance they will.... if they don't REALLY want to they won't..
If a balance bike helps them want to.. great.... BUT stabilisers work just as well on motivation and this is 90% about motivation.

You missed my points.
1, Yes a scooter does teach balance, but when was the last time you rode a bike like a scooter??? Ive always sat on a bike a bit a like.... a bike.
2. You are correct about it their own time.
3. So on your 17th Birthday you just hoped in a car an took a test? Surely there were lessons involved, teaching the methods in smaller easier steps?????

and most importantly 4. Nobody has said they will never learn WITHOUT a balance bike, but most people agree it is the easiest and best way.

Steve-XcT

Crazyjenkins01 wrote:

You missed my points.
1, Yes a scooter does teach balance, but when was the last time you rode a bike like a scooter??? Ive always sat on a bike a bit a like.... a bike.
2. You are correct about it their own time.
3. So on your 17th Birthday you just hoped in a car an took a test? Surely there were lessons involved, teaching the methods in smaller easier steps?????

and most importantly 4. Nobody has said they will never learn WITHOUT a balance bike, but most people agree it is the easiest and best way.

Number #4 is the one I dispute....and the one that keeps getting rolled out.

1/3 I see where you're going... but #3 is really more #2....
I had lessons... I just wasn't really motivated and I really failed on a technicality and could have just retaken the test - I could even have challenged as apparently I failed on 2 minors or something and that should have been a pass.
I didn't just try again because I wasn't motivated... I only tried the 1st time because my parents pushed me. (with good intentions)

The whole scooter/bike thing isn't really a big deal... it doesn't need to be a scooter .. Jr. has just got a first skateboard .. he's got good balance... it's nothing like a bike but it was 2 mins and he's skating down a bendy hill

He watched a few "learn to skateboard vids" .. common wisdom seems to be you practice stepping on/off etc. then practice pushing one foot and after a lot of stuff finally skate down a hill... but he just jumped on at the top of a hill and held my arm for a couple of turns and 200m later he was doing it all himself... did another by himself then learned to push up....

The point is there is more than one way to skin a cat.... Because I know he won't care about falling (because of his cycling) and he has good balance (because of his cycling) I was happy to let him learn the way he wanted .. which is exactly how I learned to snowboard. (Go to the top of a big hill and work it out)

If' I'd done the whole take the trucks off (day 1) - then practice getting on-off on grass/carpet (day-2) etc. type approach he would have lost interest.

but most people agree it is the easiest and best way.

That's almost certainly not factually correct (being pedantic) ... most people posting on this forum is not most people ...

Most people I'd say would be ignorant of balance bikes even existing... I'm not sure when they became "mainstream" but certainly most older people would think that the way they and their friends learned as a kid is pretty much the only way...

The reason I'm being pedantic above is because there is a huge bias on industry sponsored cycling forums towards balance bikes and lots of claims about evidence that simply doesn't exist along with deliberately misleading advertising.
The cycling industry is FULL of this "common wisdom"... be it kids can't use suspension, 175mm crank length being "optimal for everyone" or "26" being optimal for XC ... or 100mm stems being "short" (the last 2 I think are finally addressed after decades) .... Years of Islabikles saying "kids can't benefit from suspension" disappeared from their website when they started selling the Creig.... but not before it had been repeated ad-ad nauseam on forums.

most people agree..(on this forum)...it is the easiest and best way

or companies selling balance bikes....

In ancient Greece and Rome most people (with any opinion on the matter) and who had the maths believed the earth to be a sphere.

In the middle ages most people agreed that the earth was flat but we no longer had the maths.

By the time we had the maths again this idea had been so ingrained that even people who had the maths couldn't think in those terms.

Educated people went to elaborate lengths to explain why ships dipped beyond a horizon... why the sun's position moved more northward the further south explorers travel and why its position directly overhead at noon didn't provide evidence for crossing the equator.

The earth is either flat or not... I'm not suggesting balance bikes are the flat earth ... but that they are not the easiest and best way for everyone or even most kids.... and that the ancient (in cycling terms) method might be just as good or even better.

I can't reconcile easier and better with either my learning to ride without stabilisers nor that of my kid...
What can be easier/better than a parent taking 3 steps then letting go???
I'm know this isn't the case for everyone but my observations on this are that is because the kid wasn't ready....

Crazyjenkins01

Your point that there are more ways to skin a cat is completely correct, and that is what I said.
The use of balance bikes is not a requisite of learning to ride but 'a lot' of people think this is a good way.

I bought a balance bike for my daughter long before being on this (or any) forum. A work colleague has bought one for his son (he's not on any cycling forum and isn't a keen cyclist) and had decided to before even stepping into a shop. So I cant agree that its the "huge bias on industry sponsored cycling forums" as he hadn't seen any of this.
What people who advocate the use of balance bikes are saying is that it has worked for them, or people they know, from a very early age. Maybe some kids can learn to ride at 2yrs old with no balance bike if they want to and are ready to try, but how many kids have you seen like this? In my experience, what I have seen is 4+yr old's learning to ride on stabilizers (when they obviously hadn't used a balance bike) and struggling to make the transition to 2 wheels.

cooldad

TL:DR version.

Some banging on about ancient Greek balance bikes or something. With a bit of cat killing thrown in.

Crazyjenkins01

I've got this mental image of you sat with a big old grin as you type that CD!