Those of you who are unawares of what balance bikes are may consider them as a piece of exercise equipment. However, these are in fact useful training aids for young children who are learning to ride a bicycle. Cycling a 2 wheel bike with proper balance will be a milestone achievement for children. Parents are often proud to watch their children manage to ride their bicycles without any training wheels. However, many fail at gaining the balancing skills unsupported on 2 wheels, after relying on their training wheels for so long. This is why it is important for parents to adjust and lift the training wheels gradually and take them away at the right time, without allowing the child to become over dependent on this extra support. Better still, you can start off your child’s learning process with the correct equipment which is a run bike or a balance bike.
What are the Benefits of Balance Bikes?
Balance and braking are among the main actions that need to be mastered, when learning to ride a bicycle. The speedy progression from a runner bike to a peddling bike will be well worth the money you spend, which will be around £ 50.00-75.00 depending on the design and the material.
Most children who learn with training wheels have to “unlearn” some wrong body movements as counter steering or wrong leaning actions when they progress to riding without training wheels. This can be troublesome and hard to grasp for some children. This is why a good percentage of children who were riding with training wheels give up on riding when they are forced to ride without the training wheels. There are many benefits of balance bikes in aiding the learning process of bike riding. This unit is also referred to as a run bike, since the mechanism of power generation in fact lies on the child running with the bike. A host of manoeuvring skills as leaning and turning the handle bars in correct directions is facilitated by this bike. This bike has no pedals, no crank sets and chains or training wheels. It is certainly a worthwhile investment, considering the fact that a toddler will be confidently handling a peddle bike much faster when trained with a balance bike.
Balance Bike Design
Before buying a balance bike for your child, you would wish to know how it is designed and the purpose it serves. Having a proper understanding of how your child is supposed to use it is also important. The bike should be the right size for the child to stand firmly with the legs on either side of the bar. The bike comes with no brakes. They sometimes have hand activated brakes, but mostly these are not used by small children. The saddle of the balance bikes should be comfortable and study to support the child well. As the child progress in mastering the skills of balancing, they will run or walk briskly for speedy momentum and then lift their feet off the ground to test their balance on two wheels. Once they gain a momentum of movement by use of their feet to move or “walk the bike” forward or backwards, the balancing becomes the next skill they will automatically master.
Why Not Training Wheels?
The theory behind using balance bikes in place of training wheels is simple. The training wheels give a false sense of security to the child. As there is no support or guiding wheels on either side, the children learn to balance on two wheels on their own, gradually yet confidently. As normal two wheel bikes have no balancing wheels, it is better that the child learn to ride on the same concept than with an altered concept of having support wheels on either side. By learning to bike with guiding or training wheels, children suppress their body’s natural reflex action to lean, counter steer and gain the right level of balance. When the child has to learn these skills while peddling, the speed at which the bike is riding is often too much which cause falling and injuries. However, when they learn to ride with a balance bike, then they learn to balance first and peddle later. The balancing is learned at the child’s own chosen speed and within comfort speed zone altered by their walking, scooting or running.
With the With the help of balance bikes, the children develop confidence in their own manoeuvring and balancing skills than learning to rely on training wheels. These bikes can be put to use with children as young as 18 months, producing confident cyclists from young ages.
Author
This article is contributed by Eugiene Wilkins of the Balance Bike Shop.Com, the web’s best source for buying your balance bikes. We offer beautifully crafted balance bikes and rockers for your child in lightweight wood finish. You can browse through product details and find out why a balance bike choice should be made. Visit the product guide page for videos and details instructions on how to assemble and use the balance bikes so that your child can reap the best benefits.
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