Balance Bikes Are A "Craze"

[Puddles]

Just seen on my face ache newsfeed...

I think we are becoming a society where the children will grow up and be so scared to even walk in case they fall over without the help of something to save them.. You ride a trike go onto 2 wheels with stabilisers and then remove stabilisers..Right? Wrong, the craze now is to get a balance bikes first then a normal bike.*****

*****Definition of a balance bike*****

A Balance Bike is a beautifully simple type of bike designed to teach very young children how to balance and steer. The main differences between balance bikes and regular children's pedal bikes are: Balance bikes have no pedals - children propel themselves along by pushing the ground with their feet.

what a daft idea!

Put children on a balance bike they have to learn to balance.Put a child on a normal bike without stabilisers they have to learn to balance..The difference is buy a balance bike then you have to buy a normal bike .child rides Buy a normal bike and you are done..child rides..

When we were kids we fell off the bike then got up and back on to try again none of this shoot with balance bikes!! Or helmets or knee pads, so what we get a graze, go get it cleaned then get back out there pmsl

I am a little at the comments....

 

[Crackle]

I'm constantly surprised how many sensible young adults I see around me who've obviously never been subjected to balance bikes, social media, xbox's, scary headlines, stranger danger, not playing out etc.........oh wait, no I'm not.

Another loser who wants everyone to live by their standards, ignore with an extra slice of contempt for good luck.

 

[Puddles]

Personally I think balance bikes are great... had lots of running up and down with the eldest on a normal bike after removing the stabilisers killing my back holding the saddle teaching him to ride - a nightmare... with the youngest we got her a balance bike (she did have a tricycle as well) when she got on a proper wheels it took her an hour on her own, refusing any help up and down the garden and then she was off...

The person on faceache thinks balance bikes are a waste of money and are some "over protective craze" and cannot seem to grasp that it makes it easier for children to learn to cycle not that it is a safer/not safer issue it is an easier/difficult issue (well it is for me anyhoo)

 

[Sara_H]

What Faceache page is it Puddles?

 

[Puddles]

What Faceache page is it Puddles?

It is an idiot "friend" of mine so not public...

 

[Sara_H]

Ah! I see. I once inadvertantly engaged with a friend of a friend on Faceache whoheld some real nasty bigoted views about cyclists. It made for a good evenings entertainment!

 

[summerdays]

I wish balance bikes had been around for mine, they just missed it really. I think they are fab and always recommend them to friends/relatives. After all which is the harder part to learn riding a bike, the balancing part (especially when you have stabilizers that don't actually teach you to balance just to rock from one support to the other) or turning the pedals (which if you also have a tricycle you will learn anyway).

 

[Puddles]

Ah! I see. I once inadvertantly engaged with a friend of a friend on Faceache whoheld some real nasty bigoted views about cyclists. It made for a good evenings entertainment!

As she doesn't cycle and all her children are grown up, I told her how beneficial it had been for Maggot... but she is one of those that does not read what you write and will not understand that

a) you can take the pedals off a normal bike if it is the buy two bike thing that makes it "a stupid expensive way to teach children to ride"
b) It made learning to ride easier for User76
c) Not all little ones are tall enough for the smallest childs bike to take the pedals off so a balance bike is good for that
and
d) it is a good way to break down the process rather than trying to teach balance, steering, pedaling & braking all in one go

 

[summerdays]

Have you tried telling her that she could do the same to an adult bike to learn to ride ... that really might get her pulling out her hair! Why is she worried about them if her's are too old for them?

 

[Puddles]

Have you tried telling her that she could do the same to an adult bike to learn to ride ... that really might get her pulling out her hair! Why is she worried about them if her's are too old for them?

Yes lol I did, I also told her one of the first incarnations of a bicycle was a balance bike that blew her mind, and I got told to stop being ridiculous as it is most certainly a "new fangled gimmicky craze to make parents spend more money"

 

[ianrauk]

What a strange thing to get all worked up about.

 

[Rob H]

Utter maniac

Both my sons were on balance bikes at 21/2 and literally got on bikes and rode at 5. Thats no running after them and no confidence shattering crashes that takes a month to get them back on again ...

Some people seem to need to find the oddest of issues to target retailers its laughable

I guess the only loser is her kids, which is sad

 

[Butty1972]

Surely if you think balancebikes are a new-fangled gimmicky craze to get people to spend more money...

Simply don't buy one? then you win?

To be fair, I wish the preponderance of balance bikes in the world was my biggest worry......must be a nice life.

 

[summerdays]

I would say from what I see out and about the bigger pressure on parents to spend money is on phones and tablets. None of mine had a phone before they went to secondary school, and then it was also so that they could let us know if their school bus was stuck in traffic (the latest they ever arrived back was 2 hours after school finished on a very stormy day).

 

[Sara_H]

Your faceache friend seems to not grasp the concept that children grow. Whether you choose a balance bike or not, you're going to be buying them a new bike when they outgrow it!