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I've not got it yet so take with a pinch of salt but I've been looking for a good balance bike for my lad for a while and this seems a very well reviewed one for kids 3+ (though there are people using it a bit younger from reviews I've seen). Nice range of colours, lightweight and a built in carry handle.
https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/vitus-smoothy-balance-bike/rp-prod194703
Claims to already be discounted from RRP £89.99 to £69.99 then you can get a further 10% off with code XMAS10.
Not guaranteed to arrive before xmas though - it says 7-10 working days so it might just about. Hopefully this might be useful to someone.
they look very cool, really like those.
There’s no brake on it.
Most decent balance bikes have one and our kids definitely made use of the brakes on theirs.
We bought one last year for my son. Was a bit too big for him at 2 years old but now he's 3 it fits great. A few pros and cons;
+
Extremely light
Looks awesome
Proper 2.0" tyres
Proper wheels running on cartridge bearing hubs
-
Build quality isn't that great. We had to return the first one as the headset was really rough and the paint was falling off. The replacement paintwork was much better but the wheels were massively out of true and the headset is still rather rough and noisy considering it runs on proper caged bearings like an adult's bike.
The screw that holds on the plastic lower guard randomly dropped out, so I had to bodge it back on.
From memory we paid £80. At £60 it's definitely a good buy, just don't expect Islabike quality.
For balance (no pun intended) ours didn't have a brake and served three children very well with no problems stopping. However, we do live in a very flat area.
Yup that's probably the only drawback but lots of balance bikes don't have brakes - my boy is only 2.5 and most stuff I've read suggests hand brakes are more usable for slightly older kids when they start to go faster. Don't think you'll find any quality balance bikes at this price range with brakes, but I could be wrong.
We shall see.
Edit: thanks for extra info peeps. Can't afford Islabike at the mo - would have been happy to buy second hand but there isn't much available locally.
However, we do live in a very flat area.
We live at the top of a hill with the sea at the bottom of it. WCPGW?
Brake thing is overrated, we had one incident where our then 3yr old intentionally did not put his feet down on a rather steep hill and failed to make the corner at the bottom ending up in a hedge. Lesson learnt there,
He was on a frog 40 at the age of 3.5 so you might not get much use out the balance bike
Decathlon do a cheapie one with a brake that survived two kids ok.
That looks decent. No need for a brake - that's what shoes are for. Not a particularly cheap braking option though.
We found a brake really useful, one less skill to learn once they get pedals. Plus it got them out of trouble on pump tracks a few times. And Skidz.