Run Bikes: Learning to ride the RIGHT way

There are certain childhood events that can be considered true milestones:  Your first words, your first steps, your first day of school, and of course, learning to ride a bike.

Like most kids, I earned my fair share of bumps and bruises learning to ride on two wheels.  I was one of those kids who had horrible balance, and would compensate with tons of speed in order to stay upright (hmmm... I guess some things don't change).  Unfortunately, when things started to get sketchy, as the usually do when you're learning to ride, the end result often involved blood, bruises, and a whole lot of tears.

These days, parents have an alternative to the traditional "trike followed by training wheels followed by 2 wheel" model that has been used over the past couple generations.  It's called a run bike.  Run bikes have been commonplace in Europe for years, but never really caught on in North America.  Sure, you could get the fancy pants Like-a-Bike version in upscale toy stores, but getting parents to shell out a couple hundred bucks on a sketchy wooden bike was a pretty tough sell.

In 2005, Norco came out with the Adams Runner.  For the North American bike industry, this was a game changer.  All of sudden kids had access to a good quality, reasonably priced run bike, with the look and feel of a real bike.

So what is a run bike, and what makes it so special?  Simply put, it's a really small bike, but without pedals.  The idea is that kids sit on the seat and use their feet to push themselves along.  What makes this such a great product is that that kids can learn the fundamentals of balancing on two wheels. The lack of pedals means one less thing to worry about and get in the way as they scoot along with their feet.  When it comes time to graduate to a real bike, the learning curve in easy, since the only new element is the pedaling motion, which for most kids is relatively straightforward.

Run bikes have another benefit as well.  Children can often get on them younger compared to a tricycle.  Even the smallest trikes don't fit kids younger than 3 years old.  We often sell run bikes to kids under 2 years old, and while they aren't ripping around yet, the child is still capable of using them. 

If you have a young child, nephew, cousin, grandchild, or friend with a kid, you definitely owe it to them to come check these out.  There are a few different models out there, so come on in and we'll show you what's available.

In the meantime, check out this great video showing the potential of the run bike: