balancing act.

marcus got his first set of balance wheels at the tender age of two and one day. yes + one day. it shipped one day late. his first balance bike was by Ybike. a neon green [i like to think we were trailblazing the neon trend to come] chopper style molded plastic bike with a wicked aerodynamic design + extra wide back wheel to boot. he owned that thing. i may or may not have also test drove it down steep hills and squeed at the top of my lungs while my two year old chased after me howling with laugher.

so he mastered that Ybike pretty fast and as he gained weight, the bike would build speed faster. it wasn't until june that i realized his knees could almost skim the ground when he coasted. so i did my research [surprised?hardly right.] to compare our options between a pedal trike, another balance bike, or a standard bike with training wheels. the kicker? a child might take a few months to master pedals. but most kids depend on training wheels until they are approx eight or nine years old. that's a steep learning curve right? the balance bikes are the be all end all for new bikers in europe but it's fairly new here and not as easy to find as a standard toddler size bike with training wheels at canadian tire.

well. we decided on another balance bike. but a real one with no extra wide back wheel. i explained to this almost-but-not-quite-and-don't-you-dare-age-him three year old that he would get his birthday present from mom early this year. stay tuned and on august 23rd i'll let you know if that worked ;)

we found the perfect kiddio balance bike in mastermind toys. they even custom fitted him for it, and offered to build it right to his size before we picked it up. but the colours? not to my little guy's liking. so he got to custom order his own racer design. [of course he did.]

i figured there would be a lengthy learning curve when the bike arrived. it is afterall. a legit. two wheel bike. no pedals. but a hand brake and a steel frame and no safety net of a wide back wheel. side note: i found him the sickest-of-all-time-bad-ace-Rascalz helmet at toys r us. he couldn't be cooler. well maybe. when he opens his ed hardy temporary tattoos on his birthday i think he will look pretty rad.

it took 24 hours for him to teach himself how to coast it.

it took 24 hours for his mother to decide we might want to invest in some knee and elbow pads.

and now?

we coast everywhere. he gets it going fast enough that i have to literally.run. to keep up [my post half marathon training.] and he can coast it, weaving side to side, for about half a block at a time.

it's unreal. we've even made a habit of hitting up the local bike park, where he rides it off ramps, hits some sweet toddler-sized angles and pops the occasional wheelie while howling out 'let's ride'.

if you're on the fence about a toddler set of wheels? def consider the kiddio balance bike. it wasn't any more expensive than a standard bike, and they custom fit, built, and designed it for him.

plus, if mtv ever developed mtv toddler cribs - marcus would be so rad parking those wheels on our balcony for the closing segment ;)

so as this little dude might say, let's ride.

-kare
xo