Balance bike - Help me convince DH

[emily]

So I got DD a balance bike last summer. It was a little too big for her but she liked "walking" around with it. We had a warm day over the weekend and she took it out again and wow, she must have had a growth spurt b/c the bike is the perfect size for her now. But she wasn't into it as much and got on her trike instead. DH wants me to get her a princess bike with training wheels like the other kids on our street. He thinks the whole balance bike concept is a waste of time and money. He had never even seen/heard of a balance bike until it arrived at our house. Help me convince him otherwise. What can I do with DD in the spring to have her zipping along? She is super cautious so it won't be easy.

[abh5e8]

put the trike away :) when i did that, both dd (almost 5) and ds (newly 3) really took off on the balance bikes...and that was last summer when they were 2.5 and 4. dd has a big bike with training wheels, that she just rides around on like a big trike. but she really needs teh smalle 12" frame of the balance bike. she is learning to balance so well. ds still askes to ride his trike but i just say no.

how old/big is your dd? my dd was very cautious as well. she didnt' take off on the BB until she was 4, but since she is pretty short/small for her age, its the perfect size.

[lines]

Stick with the balance bike! My two oldest have used the balance bike and were the first of their friends to ride 2 wheelers. My DH is now convinced, although he was skeptical at first as well. Pretty much no falling and no help from us when they started with their 2 wheelers. I totally believe balance bikes are the way to go. My 3-year old is using the balance bike now. My 2 werent as gung ho about it as I was but once I got them on it only took a few weeks.

[elektra]

Well we have lots of stuff to ride around on- 16 in bike with training wheels, 12 in balance bike, trikes, razor scooter....
For us, letting DD ride her 16 in bike with training wheels let us go on family bike rides where we could all stick together and it was a lot of fun.
She would still practice on the balance bike, but for her, it was more starting and stopping and sort of "messing around", lots of turns, etc. vs. a steady bike ride.
I do think the balance bike is what helped DD get to the point where we could take the training wheels off. We just took them off over the Christmas break and she is 4.75, will be 5 in March. However, we never put anything away.

[emily]

put the trike away :) when i did that, both dd (almost 5) and ds (newly 3) really took off on the balance bikes...and that was last summer when they were 2.5 and 4. dd has a big bike with training wheels, that she just rides around on like a big trike. but she really needs teh smalle 12" frame of the balance bike. she is learning to balance so well. ds still askes to ride his trike but i just say no.

how old/big is your dd? my dd was very cautious as well. she didnt' take off on the BB until she was 4, but since she is pretty short/small for her age, its the perfect size.

I want to say she's about 40-43" tall. She'll be 4 in April. We have a metal Skuut. The thing is she's not all that great at pedaling on the trike either. We have a Kettler trike but it's so darn "heavy", if that makes sense that she finds it hard to pedal. We also have a hand me down Little Tikes trike which is easier to pedal but way too small for her. It doesn't help that all the other girls her age on our street are all still in their trikes and training wheels.

[stefani]

DS had a balanced bike, and it took him 5 minutes to master a 2-wheeler.

My suggestion will be to give it some time. Putting the trike away temporarily might be a good thing, or take your DD and the balance bike to a park (so no temptation to ride the trike).

Good luck!

[brittone2]

DD moved from the balance bike to a 2 wheeled pedal bike (no training wheels) at 3.5. It took her about 5 mins to figure out.

DS1 rode his Puky balance bike until he was 5, but I didn't have a two wheeled pedal bike available to him (Dh was in grad school, and since DS1 wasn't complaining, I thought I'd hold off until he moved to a 16 inch bike). He probably could have easily transitioned by age 4 if not earlier.

We love balance bikes! Dh is a cyclist and didn't really listen to me about them (thanks to learning about them years ago on the BBB) until he read a cycling magazine article or two about balance bikes (including one by Mark Paul Gosselaar using one to teach his kids LOL). Suddenly he was all into getting one for DS1 at the time.

[sunshine873]

Have you shown him any videos of kids on balance bikes? The Strider website has lots of great videos & really helped to convince my DH that a balance bike was the way to go.

[edurnemk]

Have you shown him any videos of kids on balance bikes? The Strider website has lots of great videos & really helped to convince my DH that a balance bike was the way to go.

:yeahthat: Although DH has never gotten the concept either. He insists on getting DS a "real bike". DS can really handle the Strider well, eh can take off and steer. If DH does get him "a real bike" I will not allow training wheels, because I think that would set him back.

How old is your DD? If she just grew into the bike and has had little chance to use it, she needs more time to get the hang of it, and she'll start zipping along. You could also show her the videos on the website so she knows how it's supposed to work. Encourage her to run while on the bike and then put her feet up for a few instants, she'll start doing it for longer periods as she grows more confident.

[LaCostaMom]

A little late but I posted about this a few days ago:

http://windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=423714

Basically, DS was on the balance bike for about 5 months total ride time and he is now riding a 16" pedal bike. He will be 4 in March. He is zooming along on his pedal bike.

I would definitely stick with the balance bike!

Good luck!

[edurnemk]

I just posted in that thread that LaCostaMom linked to, about how well DS transitioned to a pedal bike. Today was his first time and he basically just took off like he'd been doing it for months. One of the things I especially liked is that after the BB, kids are "conditioned" to put their feet down when they feel they are starting to lose balance. On the other hand, kids that go from training wheels to no training wheels tend to try to continue to pedal even as they are falling. DS learned to pedal in his trike, he learned balance on his Strider, and today he put 2 and 2 together in 1 second.