Strider 14x,- Balance Bike for Kids 3 to 6 Years - Includes Kid-Size Grips, Padded Seat, Performance Footrest & All-Purpose Tires - Easy Assembly & Adjustments

So far so good. Perfect for a 4 year old on the smaller side. Foot rests are not in an awkward place like the 12” model. Easy to assemble with zero issues. Worth it.

My daughter loves this bike. She's 3 years and 3 months old and 36.6" tall and she learned to pedal this bike in a day. It didn't all happen in a day, she's been practicing on other bikes (read on for more), but she's super happy and proud of herself to put it all together and start riding a real bike with pedals. This review is a personal account of lessons learned getting here. We started off with the Strider 12 balance bike (to learn to balance!), then added a Diamondback Lil Impressions 12" pedal bike with training wheels (to learn to turn the pedals), then finally moved to the 14X without pedals at first, then added the pedals (putting it all together).This is the lightest weight pedal bike I could find anywhere, weighing in on my scale at 15.6 lbs including the pedals. For comparison, the smallest Strider balance bike is significantly lighter at 6.6 lbs on the same scale, while her Diamondback Lil Impressions comes in at 20.0 lbs with training wheels. For a 32 lbs child, the extra 4.4 lbs made a big difference in how quickly she was able to climb, balance, push, and pedal the bike with confidence.The seat is closest to the ground, compared to other bikes with pedals that we've tried. One of the great features of the smallest balance bikes is how early kids can get on it. We got the Strider 12 when she was about 18 months, and she has been practicing balancing for quite a long time, and became quite proficient. The only reason it has taken this long to move to a pedal bike is because she was just not tall enough to reach the floor. On the lowest setting, the top of the Strider 14X seat is just about 15" off the ground. For comparison, the Strider 12 was about 11", while the Diamondback Lil Impressions was a horrible 18". For a 36" tall kid, these 3" are big difference. This height meant that she couldn't reach the ground from the 14X seat until very recently after her last growth spurt (and who knows when she'll reach it from the Diamondback...).The removable and narrow pedals are absolutely brilliant! She was pretty confident on the smaller Strider 12 balance bike, so we started off on the 14X without pedals and spent an hour just getting comfortable balancing this new, bigger bike. Then we came home and added the pedals. The first instinct she had was to try to pedal from a cold start, the same way she's done with her Diamondback. The next thing she tried was to just push the bike with her feet like a balance bike. This is where the narrow pedals shine, because it allowed her legs to reach the floor even with the pedals on and push it like before. Then as she picked up speed, she naturally just tried putting one foot on a pedal. Then the other. Then turning them. Finally, it all came together and she was able to bike around like a champ.So here's some free, unrequested advice, and basically my own advice for our second child who is not even a week old yet. Learn to balance on a balance bike as soon as you can comfortably reach the floor from the seat. Learn to turn the pedals on anything that has a pedal (ideally, something lighter than 20 lbs!). Then as soon as you can reach the floor from a seat that's 15" high, get on a Strider 14X! It's awesome, five stars.PS: and my advice to myself (and other parents) -- the best you can do is encourage the little one to practice, and cheer them on! (i.e. don't try to push them or balance them with your hands, you're probably just distracting them)

This is our second bike since our son outgrew the first. This bike is made with quality materials and is light weight. My son was able to learn to bike without ever using training wheels by age 4. Get it today!

The media could not be loaded. Perfect size balancing bike for my two year old grandson. We also bought the pedal conversion kit separately and we are very excited for the next step in his cycling for a lifetime!

A balance bike was recommended by a friend to teach our 5 y/o to ride a bike. Week 1 - we started without pedals. It was VERY slow-going with him that first week, and his balance was horrible. Like, he was basically walking with the bike underneath him. To the point where we wondered if this concept was even going to work for someone like him. But, we persisted. Week 2 - started to pick his feet up for a second or two. We continued to question the process, but nonetheless, still persisted. Week 3 - finally seemed to get the hang of it. Was taking 10 second strides and really only put his feet down when he ran out of speed. So by the end of week 3, we put the pedals on. And literally, he took off the very first time. Was riding all over the pavement by himself for full minutes at a time. We were blown away. And he was SO proud of himself and having fun! This was after 3 weeks of practicing 10 minutes max a day, almost daily. Our advice: don’t give up on the idea in the beginning, no matter how slow the progress seems to be going; it will get better in no time at all. We almost feel like he taught himself to ride his bike and we just walked alongside him. Crazy. Our results seem to not be as dramatic as others, with their kids riding within a week. But 3 weeks is equally amazing and something to be proud of.

My twin boys were riding with training wheels and when they were 4.5 we took the training wheels off to teach them riding on a bike with 2 wheels. It was really painful. One of the boys is more adventurous and he was happy to try riding on a lawn with a small downward slope. However, after falling/crashing a few times he refused to try it again. I don’t blame him. It was really hard to watch and seemed like a tough way to learn. My other son is less adventures and we took off the pedals of his regular bike to turn it into a balance bike. However, it didn’t work well (maybe we couldn’t get the seat low enough, maybe the seat is not as far back as it is on the actual balance bike). We were hesitant to buy 2 new balance bikes because we thought they were for younger kids and that we missed the opportunity/time window for our kids. We were looking into getting a pole/stick to put it on the back of a bike but it didn’t seem like the bikes we had were designed for that. Then we found then that Strider has a larger size of bikes and purchased two of these balance bikes. They are AMAZING. The boys got comfortable riding on them right from the start and they began enjoying biking again. We just added pedals to the balance bikes because we thought the boys were ready and both boys started riding comfortably on the bikes with 2 wheels almost immediately. It seems like a miracle given our experience with regular bikes and I am so happy that I don’t have to watch the painful falls any more. It was the easiest transition to a 2-wheel biking I could hope for. The pedals that one can order with the Strider bikes are smaller than on regular bikes so it is still possible for the child to put their feet on the ground and not to bump into the pedals all the time. I highly recommend these balance bikes, even if your children are on the older side.

Have to admit didn't like the cost but it was the color that my grandson wanted. This is a great brand but a little overpriced and now I'm having trouble finding the pedals for it