When my first child was 3, I started to think about teaching her how to ride a bike. I noticed that “training” wheels didn’t really do much training since when using them the kids would just lean there weight on the training wheels the whole time and never really learn how to balance. Then when the training wheels came off it seemed like quite a chore to learn how to ride. I recalled that when I learned how to ride a bike (MUCH older than three) I didn’t use training wheels but just started on a normal bike and much of my time spent initially was learning how to glide without falling to either side. Then when I was talking about this with a co-worker she turned me on to what she called a Puky (pronounced pookie) bike. Since then, I've discovered here in the states they are called push bikes, or balance bikes, or even strider bikes. Basically it’s a bike without pedals where the child pushes themselves along with their feet.
To me, this is a REAL training bike where the child learns how to balance while gliding but can easily catch themselves with their feet and the child doesn’t have to deal with the pedals getting in the way. I thought that totally makes sense! I couldn’t find an actual Puky bike (turns out Puky is a European brand name) so I bought a bike from a company called Kettler instead and it worked like a charm. My daughter quickly got a hang of it and totally enjoyed glide around at the park. When she got a little bigger we got her a bike with pedals and she learned how to ride the real bike in a flash. My second child used the bike when he was old enough and third one too. Number 3 had a little tougher moving to the real bike but I do think his time on the push bike helped significantly reduce his overall learning time.
I gotta say I feel really sorry for parents (and their kids) when I see parents struggling to teach their kids how to ride a bike after taking off training wheels and so I’ve always wanted to tell every parent I saw with training wheels to get a push bike and so this post! I hope you and your kids will get the same joy and benefit out of one that we have. Kettler doesn't have the same model I bought any more but they do have this one which they call the Verseo and which gets good reviews (albeit not a ton of reviews). While the Kettler served us well over the years one small aggravation was that the seat and handle bars would frequently get loose and need to be re-tightened. I'm not sure if they fixed that problem in the Verseo or not, so you might want to consider something like the Strider Balance Bike instead. It seems to be quite popular and get very good reviews and goes for a reasonable price. But really it isn't that comlex a piece of machinery so there are tons of manufactuers and models at varying price points, many of which get good reviews so choose what fits your (and your child’s) price and aeshetic preference. I’m 100% confident that you and your child will really enjoy whatever you wind up getting!
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