Jumpers

To get the most use out of a balance bike, the best age to start a child is between 18 months and 2.5 years.Starting them young will not only allow them to happily ride their bike independently for all of their toddler years, it will also allow them to move up to a pedal bike by age 3 or 4.

Kids generally ride balance bikes for 1 to 2.5 years, depending on the age they start, their athletic ability, and their developmental readiness.

Balance bikes over other types of bikes for toddlers has five main benefits. Balance bikes…

1. Fit kids much better than tricycles or bikes with training wheels
2. Move easily and safely over uneven surfaces
3. Are light and easy to ride – kids can ride much farther
4. Provide years of fun and independent riding before a child transitions to a pedal bike
5. Eliminate the need for training wheels – balance bike graduates usually learn to ride a pedal bike in about 5 to 10 minutes.

Training wheels significantly delay a child’s ability and desire to ride a bike. Balance bikes teach toddlers and kids how to ride while balanced, whereas training wheels teach how to ride while unbalanced.  

Bikes with training wheels tilt to one side, creating a false sense of balance.  In order to ride without the training wheels, a child must “unlearn” how to ride unbalanced and then learn how to ride while balanced.

There are four stages to learning how to ride a balance bike. While some kids need a little instruction, most kids intuitively move through these stage on their own. So you don’t really “teach” a child to ride a balance bike. These stages simply help parents to understand what this process should look like.

1. Stand and walk
2. Sit and walk
3. Sit and run
4. Run, glide, and explore!

Balance bikes do not require a footrest. Kids naturally pick up their feet as they are gliding. In all our years of testing, we have rarely had a child ask where to put their feet on the bike, but A LOT of parents ask that question :-).

For kids ages 5 and up, removing the pedals of a regular bike is a good and affordable option, but is unpractical for toddlers and preschoolers. Pedal bikes are much heavier than balance bikes, making them more difficult to learn to balance.  

It’s important to remember that balance bikes are more than simply the means to an end.  While balance bikes DO prepare kids to ride a bike, they also offer toddlers years of fun and independence BEFORE they are tall enough to fit on the smallest pedal bike.  

You cannot add pedals to any balance bike, but a few balance bikes are designed to convert to pedal bikes.