Best TRIKE for 2 year old? Recommendations please

[kalo12]

thinking of getting one for ds birthday next month. he has a push along early learning centre first one.

thinking of something a bit more grown up and durable, however he is quite a titch.
with pedals.

pros and cons please. thankyou

[busywheels]

We have a radio flyer trike. Expensive, but worth it. Make sure you get a trike where you can control the steering of the front wheel, otherwise you go around in circles and its hard work to get anywhere!

[kalo12]

i was looking at those but read a few reviews saying they tip easily. have you found this? also i notice they have a ten inch and a twelve inch model. how old was your dc? were they big / small?

[2andcounting]

radio flyer- wee have one of the red metal one's with streamers and a wee bell- most beautiful toy i have ever clapped eyes on- honest i could just look at it all day! (plus really good, durable all the important stuff)

[busywheels]

Have not noticed it tipping. Its fairly sturdy. Don't know size of wheel, but both my children have used it up until 3+ yrs when they went on to a bike with stablisers. Neither are blessed with tall genes!

My son was always keen on independent pedalling and steering and he found a cheap rusty pink trike my neighbour gave us easier to ride than the radio flyer which is quite heavy for a toddler. My daughter is quite happy to sit and be pushed around, so it is perfect for this!

[OmicronPersei8]

Get one with little rests for their feet - like this - otherwise when you are pushing them along the road and the pedals are whirring round and they don't want to have their legs whirring round you will regret getting one with no rests. And have to walk all the way home tipping the bloody trike and its passenger so it runs on just its back wheels.

Don't know about all that canopy stuff, maybe there's a slightly cheaper one out there too.

[mistlethrush]

Get a balance bike... I know its not the same thing that you're saying - but it was the best thing that we got at a similar stage - ds loved it, he worked out how it went quite quicky, and could go round parks at a decent pace without help, and it was light to pick up. It has also meant progressing onto a 'proper' bike with pedals, aged 4, has been completely painless (and no stabilisers)

[OmicronPersei8]

Yes, or a balance bike - tbh we've got much more use out of the balance bike. In which case I recommend a Puky, as it has... a little bit to put your feet on! I must be obsessed. Anyway it means once they learn to balance on it, they get up a bit of speed then put their feet up, then learn to steer pretty well too. DS is getting DD's old one this year when he turns 2.

[kalo12]

thanks for your tips- i was against balance bikes i think being a bit prejudice, cos i would have thought pedaling was the difficultr bit, will look into them more closely,

[mistlethrush]

Our experience was that the balance bit is really difficult when you're learning to pedal. However, when you're learning to use your bike by effectively walking along whilst sitting down in the middle, gradually building up speed and then taking your feet off for longer and longer periods (especially when going down hill), you learn to balance beautifully. By the time you grow out of your balance bike and need to move up to a 'proper' bike, you've probably done a bit of pedalling here and there, but at least you don't have to worry about the balance bit (I mean, you already know that all you need to do is to put your feet down). We had one weekend of coaching ds to get going when he stopped - and giving him the occasional push (at shoulder height as he didn't actually need the bike holding up for balance, so a lot easier than many bike pushing parents we've seen), and that's all he's needed to get from his balance bike to pedal bike.

Omicron - my ds didn't have a Puky - he just lifted up his feet. I think his longest run was about 150m - and that only stopped as he was going out of sight so we shouted to stop!!!
Whilst the wooden ones may look lovely, some of the cheaper ones can break - ds crashed once too often (this sounds awful, but ds is a 'boys boy' and wants to go everywhere as fast as possible NOW - but as he had all of the safety stuff (helmet and gloves) he might have broken his bike but didn't hurt himself.)

[OmicronPersei8]

mistlethrush - I've seen kids with their feet up, I just love the neatness of the Puky, DD can steer when she's going fast or slow. We'll see how she does with pedals when she turns 4 this year - I'm hoping for a 5 minute wonder job!

kalo - Also pedalling on a trike is much harder than on a bike because trikes aren't geared - DD actually still struggles (have you seen the Peppa Pig where she huffs and puffs behind her friends on their bikes?)

[mistlethrush]

OMi - I loved the fact that ds at 3 was whizzing past 5, 6 and even 7yo on their normal pedal cycles with stablizers....