With more parents of toddlers buying balance bikes, you are sure to see more than one toddler or young child on these bikes down the road. Balance bikes are bikes with a simple, uncomplicated framework. Their specialty is that they do not have pedals. It might be difficult to decide whether to buy your child a balance bike or a regular bike with training wheels at the start of their cycling journey. Which is better?

Balance Bikes Hones the Child’s Balancing Skills, Naturally

With a regular bike, your child is focused on two skills at once-learning to pedal and learning to balance. With training wheels attached, learning to pedal is what is focused upon, and once pedaling is mastered, the training wheels are removed and the child now has to learn to balance. This is often a huge challenge for the child as well as a large investment of time and effort for the parent or caregiver who has to help the child initially by pushing the bike along and helping to balance the bike.

A balance bike helps to break down the skills needed to master cycling by giving your child one skill to focus on at a time. This is the skill of balancing the bike. Balancing a bike is often the more difficult task than pedaling. It is thought that once the art of balancing the bike is mastered, then pedaling is effortless to learn. Along with balancing, a balance bike also teaches your child how to steer the bike around, how to control his speed and coordination, and helps to develop the confidence required to take on a bigger bike without training wheels. Once the balance, steering, and coordination is learnt, then pedaling is the only skill left to master and this is learnt almost without any effort. This is why a balance bike is often preferred by parents for that first step into the world of cycling. It helps to cut out the need for training wheels even, if the child has really mastered the balance bike.

Benefits of Balance Bikes

Here are several benefits of balance bikes. You will understand why learning to ride a balance bike is important for children and how it can give them an advantage when moving onto a bike with wheels later on. You will know why parents the world over buy and recommend balance bikes for children over other types of bikes.

1. With balance bikes, your children have a reason to go out and play on their bikes even if they are not ready for a regular bike. They are a great form of physical exercise as well as a source of socialization for your children.
2. They get started on pedal bikes at much younger ages, without the hassles of training wheels, if they have started on balance bikes. If a child has been riding a balance bike since the age of two, chances are that by the age of three, he will be ready and confident to ride a pedal bike.
3. As a family, you can enjoy much more bonding over a balance bike than if you had to push your child in a stroller or on a bike with training wheels.
4. Balance bikes are lightweight, which makes them a pleasure to carry around or transport in your car when you go out to a park for a stroll or for a picnic.
5. Balance bikes are more economical in the long run, as you would be eliminating the need for a tricycle as well as a bike with training wheels. You can also reuse the balance bike for your younger children. The resale value of balance bikes is also higher than that of tricycles or bikes with training wheels.
6. Balance bikes are safer than tricycles as they do not tip over easily. Children are also much less likely to fall or lose balance on a balance bike. Balance bikes are also made with very minimal nuts and bolts. They do not have protruding spokes which can hurt your child during a fall.
7. You can start children as young as 1.8 months on a balance bike, giving them a sense of belonging and confidence as they watch older children on bikes. Feeling that they want to do whatever their older siblings are doing is common among toddlers, but balance bikes can help remove this inequality by giving them equal opportunities to cycle even if they are not really ready for a cycle.
8. Some balance bikes come with brakes, which gives children the training to develop their reflexes and control their bikes. This gives them an even greater advantage when they have to start on pedal bikes later on.
9. Balance bikes have steering with a steering limiter, which in effect reduces the steering angle, which helps them to keep focused on more or less a straight line and prevents unnecessary falls.

10. Balance bikes help children to learn basic rules of the road, road manners, and awareness of their body and their cycling skills very early on. This is very helpful when they have to progress to pedal bikes as they have already learnt all this when younger.
11. Balance bikes help children develop the confidence that is crucial when they have to start on a pedal bike. Learning to steer, coordinate, control, and balance gives them a whole lot more confidence when they finally have to start on a pedal bike.
12. Children are encouraged to be more independent when they are on balance bikes as they don’t need any adults to push them around or help them to balance. This also gives the adult a lot more free time to watch and monitor their child’s safety.

These, and even more reasons, are why balance bikes are becoming increasingly popular among parents, both celebrities and non-celebrities. Giving your child a balance bike may be the best thing you can do to help foster her natural sense of balance, coordination, independence, and confidence.