You knew it had to happen sooner or later. These bikes are just too cool to let the little kiddies have all the fun. This is the Strider Sports staff (adults!) aboard some mildly modified Strider PREbike balance bikes running some of the downhill mountain bike trails on M Hill in Rapid City, SD. We upgraded to the heavy duty wheels available in our online store and donned all of our motocross gear for a crazy run down the mountain. Definitely shows how durable our frame is when a bunch of grown men can come down through this rough terrain and even land some jumps on the footrests! If you’re wondering what company is singularly devoted to building the best toddler balance bike on the planet, look no further. Changing the way the world learns to ride a bike is our mission and the Strider PREbike is our passion! Enjoy the video…
This was SO much fun that we decided to announce a race for the 2011 Black Hills Fat Tire Festival… the inaugural Strider Cup Downhill! Hold on to your helmets… $1,000 to Win … PLUS payout down through the field. This is sure to be a crazy event! Rules will be available in January 2011 on both the www.stridersports.com and on www.bhfattirefestival.com website. Oh, the fun we’re gonna have!
When we announced this during this year’s Festival, everybody was so excited that we threw together an impromptu Strider Downhill Exhibition… it was the talk of the festival! We’ll have photos and video posted by the end of the week… check back later for some great stuff!
“Holy smokes, just took Estelle out for her first pedal bike ride without training wheels. She started riding the Strider over a year ago and today at 3 years and 4 months she went straight to the pedal bike w/out training wheels and she had no problem. Was riding in minutes! I have to help her start, but then it’s off to the races. She even said, “I never want to stop Daddy!” Music to the ears of a dad who runs a bike touring business.
Glad the twins enjoy their Striders, very interesting comparison to the wooden balance bikes.
Let me just say the kids LOVE these bikes! We ordered our 2 year old twin boys a wooden run bike last year and they fit so poorly they could never use them, even after a year they were just too large and awkward. After awhile they were in fact scared to try. I was about to give up and thought they just didn’t like run bikes. But I saw a friend’s child whizzing around on one again and just had to try again. This time I did my research – I knew I needed a bike that was very adjustable, metal, affordable and light. Oh and FUN! Strider bikes fit that bill perfectly, I also loved that I could buy any extra parts cheap and that the bike would grow with them – not just in the seat but also the handle bars. Within 3 days of having a Strider bike they were building ramps with their Dad and zooming all over the place! I love how adjustable they are – great for my very short twins. We live on a dirt road on the edge of a mountain bike trail system. These bikes are the perfect thing for where we live. Pedaling a tricycle on grass and gravel just isn’t that exciting. The boys even take their bikes out on the trails with their Dad. It is just amazing! We are big fans. Customer service is wonderful too.
“For only $99, you can start your little one on the bike path of life earlier than ever. A Strider PREbike allows kids to learn to bicycle balance around the same time they learn to walk. There are no pedals to get in the way. Riders simply push off and put their little feet on a piece of grip tape, located on the solid swingarm, to coast along. Before you know it, a pedal bike purchase will be in your future, and you can bypass the training wheels. Strider bikes come in orange, blue, green, red, yellow and pink colors.”
We’d like to thank Dean Rotbart for the wonderful article he wrote on the Examiner.com about the Strider PREbike.
“Toddlers are eager to ride independently like the big kids and our PREbikes let them do it a lot sooner and more safely than do trikes or training wheels,” says McFarland, who invented the first Strider PREbike in his garage for his then 2-year-old son, Bode.
Editorial Review
A WELL-BALANCED KID: Strider bikes don’t have pedals or a drivetrain,
the better to help your young rider-to-be build his balance and handling
abilities. He’ll power the bike with a running motion, then glide along,
learning to steer both manually and by shifting his body weight, and without
the added complication of having to pedal.
A BONUS: There’s no drivetrain to maintain and no chain to pinch little fingers—
and the steel frame, available in six colors, handles pavement and trails.
Our latest Team Strider rider, named JoJo, is just 30 months old and resides in Cleveland, OH. He has the great fortune of an awesome indoor mountain bike park nearby. Check out JoJo as he rides a maze of ladder trails and teeter-totters. This video makes me want to travel to Cleveland with my mountain bike just to have some fun with him.
I’m always surprised when cautious parents make a comment about doubting their child could ride a Strider and say they better just stick with a tricycle… as if the Strider is for advanced kids. Maybe I’ve been so immersed in this for so long that it comes as a surprise. From all of our research and experience, we see it from a completely different viewpoint. We see tricycles as being much more difficult for young children to operate… the weight of the tricycle is just the beginning, climbing on and off is much more difficult, and trying to actually operate the pedals with little legs that are only 12″ long is nearly impossible. If you watch most children on tricycles, they are putting their feet down on the ground (if they can reach!) and trying to push it like a Strider. The other startling misconception is that a tricycle is a safe and stable vehicle for children to be on. The three-wheeled design has to be about the most UNstable design possible… it’s high center of gravity leads to a violent tip as soon as the front wheel is turned. This design is so dangerous that motorized three-wheeled ATVs were actually outlawed in the U.S. because of the number of injuries and fatalities. This same tendency to tip is inherent in the tricycle as well. Watch our latest video with a comparison of children on tricycles vs. children on Striders and you’ll see first hand the difference in the experience. These tricycle clips are all pulled from youtube and are only a fraction of the video content out there… do the research, then save your child the trauma of a trike and advance their skills on a Strider…
And, by the way, a pedal bike with training wheels is basically the same as a tricycle (with an even higher, more unstable center of gravity). We estimate a solid 2 year advancement on balance and bike handling skill when going the route of the balance bike as opposed to the tricycle/training wheels route.
Check out these little kids, some only 20 months old, riding all sorts of fun, challenging terrain and having a ball! Their minds are engaged. Their whole bodies are involved. They’re getting great exercise and building muscle strength and gross motor skills… There are no lethargic, obese kids in Striderville!
“My 20 month old, who I had previously thought was too young to use the balance bike, fell in love with the bike at first sight. It looked just like a big boy bike and for a little boy who was desperate to be big like his brothers and wanted nothing to do with a tricycle, it was heaven. I was shocked that my 20 month old was able to begin using the bike immediately.”
“While the first few times were a bit trying, I have to admit, there were no falls. Just as the site says, once he felt uneasy, he planted his feet on the ground to avoid falling. While it has been about a week, we are making slow and steady progress, and he is becoming less afraid and actually picking his feet up while the bike is in motion.”
We’d like to thank Dean Rotbart for the wonderful article he wrote on the 
