My husband wants to wait until our son is nearly 4-1/2 to buy him a tricycle...

[MissTerri]

Originally Posted by Vegabern

Am I the only adult that wishes they made balance bikes in my size? They look like so much fun.

You can turn any regular bike into a balance bike. Remove the chain and the pedals and you're good to go!


OP, definitely get the balance bike over the trike. 2 1/2 or 3 is a good age to start the balance bike.

[mainebrokerman]

get him a big wheel,,, to start

then a trike around 2-3

I think kids learning o ride bikes around 4-6 without training wheels,,

my son was 5-6 as was I

[cekkk]

Leisesturm hit it. IMO If it's a medical matter, our opinions have no value.

[tailsock]

Originally Posted by Vegabern

Skip the trike and look into a balance bike. I don't think the brand we have will go that tall though (Strider).


My kids never had trikes or training wheels. They went from balance bikes to regular bike by the age of 4.

My wife talked me into this thing for our toddler and I hate it. Frustrating to use, kid gets bored with it, and involves parents doing too much of the work. Little to no exercise for anyone except mom or dad. Embarrassing to see the other kids in the neighborhood zip by on their trikes while we're all huddled around the toddler sweating in the driveway. Trike is on the way as we speak...

[turf3]

I was slow to learn how to ride a bike (a bit odd, since cycling is my lifetime sport). I had a bike with training wheels but I started feeling embarassed being the oldest kid who couldn't ride a bike. I was physically timid.

How I learned was that my grandmother lived on a long gentle hill, so I was used to coasting down the hill. It was gentle enough that I could always easily stop before the bottom, and it was long enough that you could get a good long ride. So one day I took the training wheels off (I learned how to use tools at an early age - thank you to my father, stepfather and grandfather all of whom believed a boy should be using tools as soon as he could hold them -) and just coasted down, shuffling my feet along the ground and supporting myself each time the bike leaned. In an hour or so I was coasting all the way down the hill with feet on the pedals, braking to a stop at the bottom.

I highly recommend this method because the kid is in control.

By the time I was 5 years old, trikes were for "babies". If you remember your own childhood, being a "baby" or seeming in any way behind your friends, was the very worst thing. So I would not recommend giving a (nearly) 5 year old a tricycle. Get them a little bike, small enough they can reach the ground with their feet when sitting on the seat, with enough adjustment that they can later adjust the saddle up to the correct position, not a fixed gear (there used to be some children's bikes where the pedals went round whenever the wheels turned, a really bad choice) and coaster brake. Go find a long hill with gentle slope and start with the training wheels, then let the kid say when the training wheels should come off.

[Katarina Witt]

I second, ASK THE THERAPIST! Some of these posters seem to have totally overlooked that piece, with their snark about "overprotective" etc.

[kapikap]

Tricycles are only good until about 8 years old. After that, a push bike or an actual bike eith training wheels would be better.

Speaking in line of bmx bicycles, a good start would be at 10", which will work from 4-9 years old, and from they jump right into a 20 ".

Start now, helmet always, and keep the boy active.

[CraigCreek]

This thread is over a year old, and the OP is no longer a C-D member. Hope the info here is useful to others - remember, the OP's son had some special needs which caused him to be in occupational therapy. His abilities may have differed from those of a typical child.