Holiday Gift Guide: STRIDER 12" Sport No-Pedal Balance Bike

STRIDER 12" Sport No-Pedal Balance Bike

STRIDER™ balance bikes are industry-leading training bikes that help children as young as 18 months learn to ride on two wheels. STRIDER balance bikes focus on the fundamentals of balancing, leaning, and steering without the distractions and complications of pedals or training wheels.

The STRIDER’s simple, no-pedal design builds confidence and eliminates fear by allowing kids to have their feet on the ground and progress at their own pace. This unique design teaches young children balance on two wheels right from the start, avoiding developmental delays typical with tricycles and training-wheel bikes.

Advantages of Riding a STRIDER

Research shows that learning balance and coordination with exercise jump-starts a child’s growth and development during the important formative years of early childhood.

• STRIDER bikes are ultra light weight and easy to control.
• STRIDER bikes increase balance, coordination, and confidence.
• STRIDER bikes allow children to focus on learning balance first.
• STRIDER bikes are free of chains, pedals, and protrusions that can harm a child.
• STRIDER bikes provides a safe, smooth, and natural transition to a pedal bike.

Features on the STRIDER 12" Sport Balance Bike

Ryan McFarland, Founder… "The 12 Sport model offers every feature a child (or parent) could want. It is the perfect balance of performance, options, and value, featuring more than 8 years of design evolution and manufacturing improvements."

Handlebar

Unique 12.7mm steel handlebar is 43% smaller than standard to allow better control with tiny hands. Custom logo mini-grips are soft urethane with protective ends. Machined-aluminum quick release allows “No Tools” height adjustment from 46-56cm (18-22”).

Wheel

Strider-exclusive, ultralight one-piece wheels sport a raised-letter, five-spoke design with 10 bearing support gussets for maximum strength at the lightest weight possible.

Top-quality sealed cartridge bearings roll smooth and never need adjustment.

  

Tires

EVA polymer (industrial foam) tires are super light and durable yet offer a smooth ride. Best of all, they never need air and will never go flat.

Seats

The durable, all-weather mini-saddle is designed specifically for beginning riders and their tiny hips. Smaller, narrower, and lighter than a typical saddle, this seat allows for proper riding position and posture. ** The Sport model also includes a padded XL saddle and long seatpost to fit kids over 3 years and allows seat height adjustments up to 48cm (19”).

  

Bar and seat clamps

Machined aluminum quick release allows “No Tools” saddle height adjustment from 28-41cm (11-16”) for the perfect fit for your child.

 

Footrest

Unique, frame-integrated footrests are properly positioned directly below the saddle for natural bike balance.

This position also fosters the advanced ability to stand while

gliding as well as pumping and jumping the bike.

Brake mount
Strider-exclusive rear brake mount allows the addition of a foot-operated brake once the kids are proficiently gliding with feet on the footrests. Brake sold separately.

The STRIDER 12" Sport Balance Bike is Available in 7 dynamic colors!

Purchase a STRIDER Bike online and visit them on Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, and their Blog!

OUR THOUGHTS

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was to have the chance to review the Strider 12" Sport Balance Bike!  Our son has special needs including motor apraxia, which means he has great difficulty imitating learned purposeful movements.  His balance is a struggle, too. Even at age 5 1/2, I still need to physically support his body in some respects as if he were an infant. 

We have a tricycle for him and while he can balance sitting on it and do seated walking, he is so far unable to coordinate the movements to pedal it.  At school they say he can do up to 5 revolutions on his own, but there, his feet are strapped to the pedals and at home they are not.  We've known about the Strider Camps, and have kept it in our minds as an option.  Read here to learn how kids with Special Needs CAN learn to ride!

Size-wise, this 12" Sport bike is perfect since our son is about the size of an average 3 yr old.  He has Down Syndrome; it's normal for him to have  shorter legs, so he will fit this size bike for a long time to come! 

Features I like:

• Smaller handle bars!  His fingers are shorter than average, too, and he can actually grip the Strider handle bars.
• Narrow seat - with his low muscle tone, he has a very small rear end and narrow hips.  The narrow seat helps him to focus on balancing.
• Padded handle bar.  Kids are accident prone, and having motor apraxia makes it even moreso.  My son also used to have Infantile Spasms (benign myoclonic seizures) which would throw his head/upper body forward violently, which caused him to slam his little head into anything in his way.  While he hasn't had a seizure in over 4 years, that parental fear never goes away.
• Easy size adjustments!  The quick-release clamps are super easy to work with, making size adjustments a snap!
• Wheels - the Strider balance bike's wheels will NEVER go flat.  One less worry!

It took him a few tries over the course of two days to learn to hold the bike upright by himself for Standing Walking.  


learning Standing Walking

and now . . . Standing Running!

Once he had that mastered, he had fun intentionally crashing into EVERYTHING in the house with the biggest smile on his face!  Boys.  Gotta love 'em!!



I LOVE my new balance bike!  Thanks STRIDER!!

So far he's having too much fun with Standing Walking to move onto Seated Walking, but I'm glad it's getting to be winter so he can master the balance bike inside the house (where I can keep a close eye on him!).  Then it will be so much fun for him to ride it outside next spring!  My husband loves bike riding and I know he hopes to be able to have our son ride along with him someday. 

Something else I want to mention - Strider offers 3 age-range sizes of bikes:
18 mo - 5 years (12")
6 - 12 years (16")
13+ years (20")
So if you or someone you know wants to learn to ride a bike - Strider has the bike for you, no matter your age or size!

Strider Balance Bike #Giveaway

 Strider Balance Bikes

STRIDER balance bikes are industry-leading training bikes that help children as young as 18 months learn the fundamentals of balancing, leaning, and steering, without the distractions and complications of pedals or training wheels.

The STRIDER’s simple, no-pedal design builds confidence and eliminates fear by allowing kids to have their feet on the ground and progress at their own pace.  This unique design teaches young children balance on two wheels right from the start, avoiding developmental delays typical with tricycles and training-wheel bikes.

Genuine STRIDER balance bikes are sometimes referred to as push bikes, scoot bikes, run bikes, or running bikes.  The U.S. Patented STRIDER balance bikes are the lightest balance bikes in their category (6.7 pounds), have the lowest seat height (for the youngest starting age), and are tested to the most stringent safety standards (age 18+ months vs. the less stringent 36+ months).  Frame-integrated footrests, proprietary ‘toddler-sized’ components, and the ability to easily adjust to a growing child, make the STRIDER the only bike your child needs to develop their riding skills and successfully transfer onto their first pedal bike without training wheels.


Our Thoughts

When you have more than one child, you start looking at how to get them to use the bikes you have. We had two (R&B) on bikes with training wheels until fall of 2012. In the spring of 2013 it took some time to get them back into the whole idea of being able to balance themselves on their bikes now that the training wheels were gone. M, our youngest son, wasn’t big enough to even get on a bike last spring/summer. He mainly rode on the four wheeled, less than 18” tall plastic toys that the other boys had used. This year he’s wanting to ride bikes with his brothers but at the same times he still can not reach the petals of the bikes that we have. On top of that, I’d love for him to be able to ride without training wheels and be able to balance himself without help. That is where STRIDER comes in. The STRIDER balance bikes make it easier to transition to a regular bike as they’re short enough for M to ride without petals but when he picks up his feet, he has to balance himself.

When we received the bike, it was in a box and did require some assembly. The assembly though was so simple! The bike came in about five pieces and actually came with the hex-wrench that you need to tighten down the pieces. I think I had the bike together in about 5 minutes. Once the bike was together M took it and was able to ride it by pushing it along with his feet. I can’t tell you what it meant to me to see the excitement on his face because he was riding a “big boy” bike! Now before you ask, because it is winter here in Wisconsin and we have the “Polar Vortex” hanging around (I am SO ready for spring!) I am letting M ride the bike in the house. Quite honestly, I love this bike! M is able to ride the bike on the carpet and linoleum without any issues. I also love that the bike’s tires are pneumatic and don’t need to be inflated. Bike tires around here with our boys don’t last long if they have tubes… It’s just the truth. You can click here to see the bike we received.


I have also found that with STRIDER, they offer an array of not only accessories to the bikes but also some apparel! You can check those out by clicking the following links: Accessories or Apparel

If you’re looking at bikes for your little ones, I really recommend looking at STRIDER balance bikes. They’ll teach balancing, spacial awareness and basic motor skills a lot easier than the traditional bike!

You can find them on Facebook, Pintrest and Twitter too!

Giveaway
Thanks to the wonderful folks over at STRIDER, one lucky winner will get a STRIDER balance bike of their own! To enter, just fill out the Rafflecopter form below. This giveaway will end on 2/16/14. The winner will be notified via email and will have 48 hours to reply. Open to the US only. Thanks again to STRIDER for offering this fantastic prize!


a Rafflecopter giveaway