I don’t offer a lot of unsolicited parenting advice, because quite frankly, none of us parents really know what we’re doing. That said, one gamble my wife and I took that has seemingly paid off was buying our kid a balance bike when he was two. He’s now four and is riding a pedal bike without training wheels.
My interest in balance bikes stemmed from my own struggles to learn how to ride a bike as a kid. As I suspect was typical for many folks of my generation, the first bike my parents bought me was a pedal bike that I could grow into. The size and weight of the machine combined with less-than-ideal conditions found on the rural roads of Connecticut made any attempt seem impossible to six-year-old me. Simply put, I did not trust the physics. If you think about it, riding a bike requires a leap of faith. Greater speed equals greater risk of injury in most cases, but greater speed is necessary when riding a bike.
My oversized bike did have training wheels, but training wheels inherently undermine this leap of faith. Even a four-year-old can see that the very point of training wheels is to keep the bike upright. The bike will fall over if they are removed, ergo I need training wheels to ride it. Flawless logic.
This is where the magic of the balance bike comes in. An appropriately sized balance bike lets kids explore the physics of riding at their own pace.
We watched a variety of Youtube videos to learn how our son should use it shortly after purchasing our balance bike, but they all sort of said the same thing. You can coach them as you would with any other toy, but the kid will mostly figure it out on their own. Each video even showed the same progression — walking, running, coasting between steps, and finally coasting. This is exactly the progression our son went through.
Your mileage may vary. One reason parents don’t really know what we’re doing is because every kid is different so every endeavor is a bit of a gamble. That said, the balance bike has been one of our biggest winners.
Other hopefully useful observations and recommendations:
- Don’t force it. We bought the balance bike for my son’s second birthday, but I don’t think he started actually trying it until he was closer to three. This was also true with his pedal bike, which also laid dormant for a few months before he had a renewed interest in trying it.
- See of you can find sources of inspiration. What did motivate my son to start trying his balance bike was seeing a neighbor kid cruising along on theirs.
- Size is very important. An oversized or undersized bike may be awkward to the point of inhibiting learning. Our son is average height according to our doctor. His 12-inch bike worked well for ages two and three, but started to look small on him at around age four. I recommend doing research to see what size fits best for your child.
- Consider the terrain. We are fortunate to live in a neighborhood that has a gently sloping sidewalk. That gentle slope really helped my son get the hang of coasting.
- Try to find a balance bike that has shelf for the kid to place his feet while coasting. We lucked into this with ours, but I’ve noticed many balance bikes have no such feature.