A girl and her toy dinosaur ride a pink Strider 12 Sport balance bike

DITCH

TRAINING WHEELS

Leave the frustrating prehistoric training wheels and tricycles for the dinosaurs.

There’s a better way.

illustration of the skip training wheels learn-to-ride progression

Training wheels or a balance bike? It’s a tale as old as time and a dilemma that many parents are facing today. Most adults learned how to ride a bike with stabilizers, but what if there was an easier way? A way that not only helped your child learn the fundamental skill of balance, but also helped them develop confidence, independence, and involved less crashes. The good news is that balance bikes do exactly that.

So grab your popcorn, sit back, and let’s take a deeper look at why training wheels don’t work and why balance bikes are the way to go!

Child glides on Strider Balance Bike on a bridge

Why Ditch Training Wheels?

Training wheels don’t teach balance. It’s as simple as that. It’s like trying to read a book without learning your ABCs.

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Step 1: Balance bike.
Step 2: Pedal bike.

It really is that simple.

In a 2022 study, researchers in Portugal found that children who begin their cycling journey (some starting as young as 18 months) with a balance bike are pedaling on two wheels up to two years earlier than kids who start on training wheels. That’s two extra years of adventure, stability, confidence, mobility, and independence. Balance bikes do what training wheels cannot: Teach children to ride.

Read The Study

A boy on a green Strider 12 Sport balance bike with a Standard Stem and Aluminum Flat Handlebar

Why a Balance Bike?

A balance bike teaches kids just that: balance. After that, everything else—confidence, coordination, independence, even pedaling—just comes naturally.

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Learn Balance and Ride Faster Without Training Wheels

Toni on Amazon

We read about this product on a blog as a great way to get your child riding faster without training wheels. Our first child learned with training wheeled bikes and our second with a Strider. Our second child definitely is advancing faster.

Child gliding on Strider 14x Sport vs child on training wheel bike

Balance Bike vs. Training Wheels

Training wheels suck.

There, we said it. Meet us on the playground at 3 o’clock. We’ll prove it to you.

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This is the best thing we’ve ever purchased.

A Parent in North Carolina

We bought the pedal kit last week and decided to put it on over the weekend thinking she’d take a few weeks to learn how to use the bike with the pedals. She was riding her bike with the pedals in 5 minutes.