- So you're two-and-a-half years old.
I present you with two balance bikes.
Which are you gonna choose?
Are you gonna choose this $1,000 carbon fiber race bike?
Or the pink one?
Well, if you're two-and-a-half years old,
the answer might not make sense,
but that's what I've been trying to do
for the last six months.
I've been taking all these balance bikes everywhere.
I've been letting my daughter ride them.
Relatives, my friends' kids.
I've been getting feedback, making observations,
and learning some surprising things
about relatively high-end balance bikes.
Now, I'm well aware that there are $45 balance bikes
on Amazon and they have high ratings.
People love 'em.
But then on the other hand, overkill.
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- [Child] Hoo!
- Now, I know for hundreds of years,
there have been bikes that you kick with your feet.
But this specific category, toddler balance bikes,
was really started in the mid-2000s by Strider.
They're very, very low to the ground
so that kids can reach.
Their center of gravity is lower so it's easier to balance.
And everything on this bike is safe, right?
There's a pad across the handle bars.
The bar ends are not just normal bar ends.
They're these huge pads. The seat is soft everywhere.
Even the axles are bolt-on
so that there are no kind of sharp edges
like you would have on a nut.
And so other companies have followed suit
with their own balance bikes, all with different features,
some designed for very specific purposes.
Balance bikes have transcended their original purpose,
which was to teach a kid to ride a bike,
teach 'em to balance.
Once they're done with the balance bike,
they're onto a pedal bike and they say goodbye to it.
Not anymore.
Balance biking as an activity can actually stand on its own.
They have races like World Cup balance bike races.
Don't look at this as just the new training wheels.
Look at this as something that your kid is going to remember
for the rest of their lives,
something that your kid is gonna be obsessed with.
Mine is. And that's a great thing.
Being obsessed with balance bikes?
How many kids do you know are obsessed with a tablet?
Now that we've hopefully established
why the premium balance bike category
even deserves to exist,
we can talk about those subcategories,
starting with the cross-country bikes.
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These are the balance bikes that are the easiest to push.
These are the easiest to cover ground with
because they're really, really light.
There are no frills or extra features.
These are just designed to push.
You're gonna cover the most miles
on one of these as a toddler.
And that's why I call them cross-country bikes.
They're a lot like cross-country mountain bikes.
Those are optimized for climbing and covering ground.
So you can see at the higher end,
we have this Specialized Hotwalk, which retails for $1,000.
I've seen it for 500. It is made of carbon fiber.
It has carbon fiber handlebars, carbon fiber wheels,
proprietary tires.
Specialized is not the only company
that has made a carbon balance bike.
Strider also has. And theirs is very similar.
Carbon everything.
Carbon seatpost, handlebars, wheels, frame,
fast-rolling tires.
Everything on this thing
is geared for efficiency and speed.
But even for under $200,
this aluminum Strider is almost as light as the carbon ones.
Now, one thing you're gonna notice
in the cross-country category
is that none of these bikes have brakes.
Even the $1,000 one doesn't have brakes.
Your kids' feet are always on the ground
and so they can put their feet on the ground
when they wanna stop it.
Why make it more complicated?
Now, it's funny, on the Specialized in particular,
they list all of the geometry.
This handles really well.
It has really twitchy, nimble handling,
just like a cross-country bike.
And these are also great on mountain bike trails,
assuming there's not a long, long sustained downhill.
That's probably not gonna be a good idea
for any balance bike,
except if it's an Enduro balance bike
with nobby tires and hydraulic disc brakes.
Now, this seems odd,
because once a kid is able to modulate a brake
and ride a downhill mountain bike trail,
you would think they'd be on a pedal bike already.
But like I said, these have transcended that.
It's a lot safer to ride on a mountain bike trail
on one of these, honestly,
because they're so close to the ground.
And the brakes are quite good.
The Commencal comes with a SRAM level brake
and the Kids Ride Shotgun comes with a Magura brake.
Bikes in the Enduro category
are gonna come with high-volume nobby tires.
In fact, both of these have the same exact tires.
You can air them way down to like six psi
and your kid will have a really cushy ride
and those knobs are gonna help stop the bike quicker
in the dirt.
Enduro balance bikes are actually shaped a lot
like real Enduro bikes.
They're longer and slacker.
They have slacker head tube angles.
They have more fork offset.
You're also gonna find wider handlebars.
They're actually more stable
than other balance bikes when they're going fast,
especially in rough terrain.
They're pretty heavy.
You can see on both of these bikes, they have a top tube.
They have triangular bike frames just like your bike.
Now I suspect that this is a styling decision.
You can make this strong enough
for a toddler without that top tube
but it's there and it does make it look cool.
And if you don't think that's important,
my daughter is really drawn to this bike
because it looks like her Dad's bike,
and I take her mountain biking.
But a big, heavy, aggressive Enduro bike
with a hydraulic disc brake might not be for everyone.
And so we have the hybrid category,
or in this case, the performance hybrid category.
And just like a real performance hybrid,
you can take it on the road,
you can take it on a little dirt.
They have brakes and they're a little bit more affordable
because they don't have hydraulic disc brakes.
They have V brakes, which are easy enough to pull,
and certainly strong enough to stop a kid
who is not racing an Enduro.
And in general,
the hybrid balance bikes just have a good mix of features.
For example,
all of them have a quick release on the seat
so you can adjust the height.
That's really useful when you have multiple kids
using the same bike.
You don't have to get out a tool every time
you have to adjust the saddle height.
And because the weight of them isn't quite as important
as a cross-country mountain bike,
the frame has a shape that makes it easier to step over.
It's not so optimized for performance.
But these are indeed quite light.
They're much lighter than the Enduro balance bikes,
and they're actually pretty good off-road.
But aside from categories,
there are also individual features
that these companies have been working on
to differentiate themselves.
And some have found their way onto mini balance bikes,
like footrests.
About half of balance bikes seem to have footrests.
It's just a place to put your feet when the bike is coasting
or a way to use the balance bike as a scooter.
Now some of the performance hybrids don't have these
because the V brakes get in the way.
Most of the bikes in the cross-country category do.
Even this carbon Strider has this grippy surface
on the back that you can stand on.
And the Specialized does not have footrests
because it's all business.
It'd be like putting a kickstand
on a high-end cross country bike.
And then there are hand brakes.
Some people say they will not get a balance bike
for their kid without hand brakes.
Other people say their kids never use the brakes.
Like putting your feet on the ground
is just more intuitive.
But I like the fact that the brake is there
because eventually it can be a learning experience.
This is on a big pedal bike and so it's good to have it here
so they get used to where it is and what it does.
On the Enduro bikes, you have hydraulic disc brakes,
which are extremely powerful.
You can stop the bike with your pinky.
Now a lot of parents do take issue with the disc brake
for multiple reasons.
One reason I've heard mentioned
is that on a long sustained downhill,
it can get hot and burn you.
I don't spend much time worrying about that.
A much more likely scenario
is that the bike is gonna be laying down.
And your kid's just gonna be spinning the wheel
and put their finger in the disc brake.
And so I really appreciate that on the Kids Ride Shotgun,
there are these guards that cover the spaces
between the splints.
Tires are also an important consideration.
There are foam tires and there are rubber tires.
Most of the better bikes have rubber tires,
and for good reason, they roll so much better.
And on rough terrain, it provides tremendous benefits.
But foam tires actually have their benefits too.
This plastic rim and foam tire combination
brings this aluminum balance bike
down to a very similar weight to this carbon balance bike.
And the difference in price between the two is like $800.
Now another feature that I love to see
is a soft steering limiter.
You can see on this woom bike,
you can only turn the handlebar so far.
This prevents your kid from steering too sharp,
which is going to make the bike go right down.
And also, if they fall over,
kids have a tendency to get their leg trapped
between the handlebar and the frame.
The soft steering limiter does cushion that a little bit.
The woom comes with one
and the Prevelo looks like it has the bolt holes for it
but didn't come pre-installed.
There are also features on these more premium bikes
that you can kind of take for granted,
like bearings, rather than bushings.
And you can also assume that the company
put some time, thought and testing into their design.
But in spending months with all these balance bikes,
I've also made some observations
that you're not gonna find listed anywhere else.
For example, these tires say 35 to 65 psi.
For a 25-pound pip squeak,
I'm not pumping this up to 35 psi, right?
Even though on rough pavement,
they're gonna see a benefit in stability and traction.
If you're worried about like unseating a tubeless tire,
or tire rollovers, then fine, pump it up more.
But I'm not spending a lot of time thinking about that.
Now, another observation that I've made time and time again,
if it's the purple one, sometimes that's important,
especially when you're trying to get a two-year-old
to do something new.
Also, specifically in the Enduro category,
when the bike looks like Mom and Dad's bike,
it really has a big effect on their motivation to ride it,
and their excitement.
They're not going by which one has the sealed bearings
or what the frame material is.
They're toddlers.
Now, another thing I've noticed
is that geometry actually matters a lot.
When my daughter was first starting on a balance bike
and kind of getting the hang of it,
the cross country bike,
she actually had a lot more trouble on
than the Enduro bikes.
Because the Enduro bikes are longer and slacker
and more stable,
and they tend to just hold a straight line easier,
whereas the cross country bikes are made to be nimble
and twitchy and easy to maneuver,
and sometimes they were too maneuverable
and she would get unstable.
But with that said, we spent a lot of time with these bikes.
Which ones stood out?
Well, if you have a pile of 'em on the ground
and a bunch of toddlers just grabbing at 'em,
they all seem to fight over this one.
The blue carbon Strider.
First of all, it's very striking.
It's got a bright blue color.
And then when they get on it,
it's so light and it rolls so well.
It's just impressive. It is refined.
It's got a really cushy seat and so good choice.
Now, my daughter always chooses the same two bikes.
If they're all laying in a pile,
she either chooses the woom one, this pink bike,
or the Kids Ride Shotgun Dirt Hero, which is surprising.
This is one of the heaviest bikes in the entire lineup.
The woom is actually one of the lighter ones,
but she also likes to ride in the dirt
and blast down grass hills.
And this one's gotta feel a lot better.
It's shaped like an Enduro bike.
It's long, it's low slung, it's slack.
It's easier to hold a straight line on this bike.
And so if you know your kid's gonna be riding in the dirt
and doing a lot of downhill,
the Enduro category actually delivers.
But it's also possible that the reason she chooses these two
is that the woom one is pink
and the Dirt Hero has a purple unicorn on it.
Now, if we're going by a mix of features and value,
my favorite one of the bunch is the Prevelo Alpha Zero.
It's got a standard headset
you can adjust with stack washers.
Nice, easy, step over.
It's relatively light, it's got internal cable routing.
It's got a quick release on the seat,
relatively high volume tires.
And they smartly positioned the V brakes
under the chainstay to keep them out of the way.
And it's priced at $220. I think this is the best value.
But if cost is no object,
my favorite balance bike is clearly
the Specialized Hotwalk Carbon.
This thing is so refined.
We did an entire video with me riding this around.
Even having seen all these other balance bikes,
this is just the best design.
It's got the best tires,
it's got the best frame, it's super light.
And despite being clearly a cross country bike,
it's really, really stable.
On sale for $500,
this is a really, really good balance bike.
But for some reason, kids never seem to reach for this one.
They always go for the electric blue Strider.
At the end of the day,
toddlers are gonna have different priorities than we do.
So I hope you had fun talking
about balance bikes with me today.
I feel like I kind of had to get that out of my system.
I hope I'm still riding bikes at 80 years old.
And if I do,
it's gonna be the people who started on these
who are running the world.
And so whether you're getting a $50 balance bike,
or spending some money on something extra,
you're doing your part in starting 'em young.
If you have no intention of ever buying a balance bike,
I hope you at least found this video entertaining.
And if the only reason you clicked it
was to leave a comment about how
I'm finally reviewing bikes my size, that's fine too.
Thanks for riding with me today, and I'll see you next time.
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