Kick Start: Striders, Little Bikes, and the Magic They Create for the Little Folks.

When my daughter turned about 3 we got her a Hobby Bike. That brand is a balance bike that has a cool trick. The frame accepts a bottom bracket which has peddles. This conversion effectively makes the balance bike transition to a legit two wheeler. I gotta say that the balance bike concept is nothing short of magical to watch. My daughter figured it out in about a 1.5 hours of logged time. I say that because she really only did it about 10-15 per day on and off for a week or so. Despite short attention she mastered gliding along in short order. We let about a year go by until the peddles got added to the bike. Now we are shopping her first 20" MTB and the little Hobby Bike is waiting for a boys paint job and her 1.5yr old brother to jump on in the comming months. Check out You Tube for some crazy videos of 2+ year olds just crusin these balance bikes around. Also a recent trip to the EU confirmed the rumor of their popularity. I dodged about 3 kids in the streets of Vienna with euro-balance-bikes. I do recomend the Hobby Bike but any balance bike will get them riding in no time.