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.

Tags: balance bike, first bike, prebike, running bike, strider, toddler bike, training wheels, tricycle

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 1:43 pm and is filed under Designer's Corner. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.