Seeing more and more of these Skuut balance bikes around – kids learn to balance with their feet from the get-go, and never have to go through the training wheel stage at all. Here’s a higher-end option. Seems like such an organic, natural process to me – wish I had known about these a few years ago. Just watching kids on them makes me jealous — wonder if they make them in grown-up sizes? Should hook up with the gang at woodenbikes, maybe they have a kit? I can just see myself hurtling down Hearst Ave., trying to stop with my feet.
Music: John Fahey & Cul De Sac :: Gamelan Collage
My 2.5 year old got one for his half birthday this year, to help him prepare for a trail-a-bike. He loves it, especially when I let him use it when we look for caches off of bike paths. I was surprised by how quickly he picked it up.
Wow, I’ve got to get one of these for my three-year-old. He’s still on the training wheels, although when springtime comes up, I’m sure he’ll get better at the whole balancing process.
Thanks for the link, never seen one of those before.
Skip the Skuut and save yourself a bundle, no training wheels necessary:
Just take the pedals off your childs bike, let them do the Fred Flintstone thing for a couple of weeks, then when they ask to put the pedals back on, Mommy and Daddy can enjoy the quiet satisfaction of having saved themselves $90 and not having had to prostrate themselves before the boutique child-industrial complex.
Steve,
I have to disagree. We tried simply removing the pedals for our youngest and his shins were DESTROYED by the cranks. Then we tried to remove the cranks, chain, chain guard, sprocket, etc and found that it was nearly impossible to take apart, let alone try to get it back together. Eventually we gave up and bought the Kinderbike brand which worked really well and was affordable (though I am sure any brand will work well – it’s a pretty simple concept).
There are alot of well-known, good quality products out there now like Skuut, KinderBike, Likeabike, BMW, etc. and most are priced below $100. For most parents it will be well worth the money to buy a balance bike than to try to disassemble and reassemble an existing bike. Trust me!
We are having trouble communicating with Skuut regarding our balance bike orders. Emails are not returned, no one answers the phone and messages are not returned. At this point we are very frustrated with the company because we, as well as many of our customers, have been waiting months to receive our order. We are not accepting new orders until this is resolved, and those with current orders have the option to cancel by calling 614-218-4002. Please have your order number handy to expedite the process. We are very sorry for the inconvenience and will do our best to keep our customers happy. http://www.sproutsoup.com/skuut-balance-bike-c-25-p-1-pr-72.html