Strider Balance Bike

I first saw the Strider Bike at 24 Hours In The Old Pueblo last year. They had a booth. We had The Dude with us, but he wasn’t walking yet, so he couldn’t ride it, and we didn’t get one. But his grandparents were nice enough to spring one on him for his birthday, so we’ve been practicing for the last 9 months or so!

With the Strider™ Balance Bike, there are no “tricycle tip-overs” or “training-wheel wobbles” to create a fear, hesitancy, or dislike of bike riding. The Strider™ balance bike helps toddlers learn balance and coordination BEFORE pedaling, which develops glittering confidence. So ditch the tricycle and training wheels, and teach your child to ride a bike sooner and safer with a Strider™. Read More

About the bike

The Strider is an aluminum frame with some steel and plastic parts. The main design feature is the single tube frame and the light weight. It just has a downtube and a fork for the rear wheel rather than a triangle. That allows the seat to go really low for small riders. Still The Dude was only able to really straddle it at about 15 months, and only now, 19 months is he able to straddle, walk and sit on the seat and glide. Another month and I’ll have to raise it a bit.

The bars can move up and down as they are on a quill stem and the seat can raise up quite a bit. The bars also have a plastic bushing that adds some friction so they don’t just flop around. This ads a lot of stability to the setup. Seat tube angle is fairly shallow so as it moves back as you raise it up. As the seat gets higher it exposes two grip-tape patches on the rear fork that act as foot pegs. The tires are solid plastic with no tube or pumping on plastic wheels.

Teaching a kid to ride the Strider Bike

This is the fun part. I started The Dude on the strider when he was too small to really touch the ground. Just sitting him on the seat and helping him grip the bars while I pushed him around the house and said,” WEEEEEEEEEE!!!” ‘Bike’ was one of the first words he learned since I used to take him to daycare by bike trailer, then bike seat.

Once he started walking I would set him on the Strider every once in a while and see how he liked it. It took a while for his balance and standover height to overlap enough for this to work. For the longest time, he’d just stand there. But I would push him around while he worked his feet back and fourth and jut that motion and repetition seems like it was helping.

Since we moved to a new house and had to drive to daycare, he sees the helmet and Strider Bike in the garage every day when we get home and yells “Bike!” So we ride for a few minutes. At first he walked a bit, but mostly just sat there and enjoyed me pushing him. I left him alone with it a little, standing back in the garage so he wouldn’t just expect me to do it for him. One thing that might have helped was I pushed him (with my hands over his on the bar) and yelled “FASTER!” which he loved. Then I would try to get him to go “FASTER” on his own.

Basically, teaching your kid to ride this bike is a matter of repetition, familiarity and a bunch of excitement. Everything is new and exciting to a kid, so you have to help them know what is really important by over reacting to it. Then you just have to get them used to a new thing through repetition. My son seems to be an evolutionary learner. Meaning he gets things step by step rather than through wholesale innovation. So this approach works well.

Other Running Bike Options

The Skuut is the first one I saw and I actually got one at the REI Garage sale. But the Skuut is very big compared to the Strider. I haven’t actually seen any of the others in stores where I live, so I haven’t tried them. The Skuut is heavy, and has pneumatic tires, which is inconvenient. The bars are not adjustable either.

Have you tried these or other pedal-less bikes with your toddler? What has been your experience? Please share in the comments.

Helmets For Toddlers

Do not let your kid on one of these bikes without a helmet. Even if you’re helping them and hovering over them it’s stil easy for them to fall over and hit the ground. The Giro ME2 is the smallest kid helmet I’ve found. I’ve had my son in it since he was about 10 months old. The helmet is adjust able from 18.75″-20.5″ / 48-52cm.

UPDATE:

After almost 6 months his riding has improved.

-M