Riding bicycles hasn’t come easily for any of my children. Tricycles seem to be a waste of time with teaching my kids to pedal and even I would start feeling frustrated. It’s really only after seeing a ‘run bike’ that you understand that tricycles are designed in a way that makes pedalling very difficult. It’s tough watching your child feel unsafe with the tippy motion on a 2 wheeler with training wheels, and I always wished my kids could find confidence and embrace the great past time of bike riding without fear. Once you see a run bike in action, traditional bikes geared for younger children will seem quite primitive.
What is a run bike? They are two wheeled bikes that don’t have pedals and they are made by a range of companies using metal frames or wood. This is a great gift for a two year old since the only requirement is the child can walk and is coordinated enough to hold onto the handles and ‘walk’ the bike. As the child’s confidence grows, they learn to lift their feet and coast, while balanced on two wheels. The result of this is voila – they are actually balancing a bike and the fear of balancing without training wheels or an extra wheel on the bike is removed. Don’t rule these bikes out for older children (ages 4 – 6) that are very timid or fearful on traditional two wheeler bikes. These bikes give children confidence because they’ll always feel their feet on the ground – my first son has never felt confident on a bike and I wish run bikes were around when he was younger because he’s discovering the joy of feeling balanced on a bike now at 7 years old.
I needed to write this article today, because we had a milestone in my household this week. With having 4 kids very close in age, it’s always been tough to balance all of the needs and ages so certain activities like taking them all on a bike ride myself was impossible. Well – not anymore! I can put my oldest boy (7 years old) on his regular bike, my next son (6 years old) on a run bike and my twin daughters (3 years old) on their pink run bikes and everyone is okay. I’m not running back and forth checking on everyone like a mad woman because they are all balanced and walking/running/riding at their own pace and speed. We could never do this with tricycles or bikes with tippy training wheels. Kids really have the confidence to feel safe and learn to just stand up and abandon the bike if they are going to wipe out or crash. Watching my tentative little girls become what we now call ‘red baron’ on these bikes is amazing. They have been the best investment to date as far as bikes or outdoor products for my younger kids. When I purchased my bikes from Monkey Business Kids Boutique, they were nice enough to offer me a discount since I was purchasing them in bulk. If you are in the market to purchase a run bike, I’d recommend you canvas your friends and try to get a group discount from a local store. They are approx. $115 and up, but also remember the re-sale value is probably quite high because little kids will outgrow them (although don’t tell my 7 year old that rides his younger siblings bikes with absolute glee!). The fun factor is huge with these bikes.
I write this article ecstatic that my girls get the freedom to enjoy their bikes, but wished I had known about them earlier for my boys. They missed out on many years of enjoying bike riding, but it just means we’ve got lots of biking journeys to make up for and discover this year. I can’t wait! If you want to view videos of kids riding run bikes, click on this link from runbikes.com – there are some great videos that parents have uploaded via YouTube.
These pictures are of the Norco models that my children ride and love.
