Strider Bike
Arthur riding his new Strider Balance Bike. He LOVES it!
Recently, Arthur got himself a new toy. When he was very little, he did a little bit of work as a beautiful baby in some safety videos. His salary went into a special account for him, the idea being that we’d save it until he was an older kid. And most of it we are, but given the opportunity we had to tap it to get him one of these wonderful inventions. It’s called a balance bike or a running bike, and it’s made by the Strider Company. It’s a small bicycle with two wheels – no training wheels. It doesn’t have any pedals, but it does have an extra wide rear fork with grip tape so that a kid who gets going really fast has a place to put their feet up and coast. This way he can learn to balance on a bicycle gradually first, and add the extra complication of pedals later.
He loves it. It took a week or so to convince him that the bike was cook enough to be worth wearing the bike helmet (not a comfortable accessory, but an important one!) Once he was convinced to give it a try, he was sold. Now there is a daily bike ride at least around the block if not further afield. And he’s started getting going pretty quick. I’m going to start bringing wheels of my own here pretty soon just to keep up.
If you have a kid under 50 pounds, between 1 and 4, I highly recommend these balance bikes. They’re reasonably priced, and totally worth it. The local distributor is a friend of ours, so if you want to get in touch with her you can leave a comment here or fill out the contact form at the bottom of this (and every) page.
