strider bikes

you've probably all seen this clip of the dutch kid turning around to ride the course again.




yeah, the kid has the proper attitude to life.

but i want to talk to you about balance bikes.

they are awesome.

used to be we had trikes and then bikes with training wheels and learning to ride the two wheeler was scary and bruising.

and then some genius realized that if you put tykes on little bikes with NO PEDALS they just scoot along. they develop balance skills way ahead of kids not on strider bikes and those little duffers pull their feet right up and they are FAST. many of them ride much more proficiently than they walk, because being able to coast makes them much faster on a bike than the are on foot.

then when they're big enough, you can get them a bike with pedals. since they will already have acquired bike balance skills, adding pedals is no big deal.

i know this because little kids with balance bikes are all over the place at my weekly mountain bike race venue. some of those little dudes to an entire 2.5k lap.