Balance Bike: for Big Kids Aged 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 Years Old - No Pedal Sport Training Bicycle | 16inch Wheel

This is going to be a bit long because I rely on longer reviews by others to make buying decisions, especially reviews by parents. We needed a larger balance bike because my 4-year-old is tall for his age and we foolishly tried a pedal bike with training wheels first. (He loved training wheels, so much so that it was clear he might never want to give them up. He's not very athletic and tends to learn new physical skills slowly). So his height, the late start at balancing, and his inherited lack of athletic ability all suggest he's probably going to be on a balance bike for awhile.So. We ordered the Bixe and a Strider 14x Sport. The Strider is a better built bike. There's no two ways around it. It would be a good choice if you have multiple kids and plan to hand the bike down a few times as older sibs outgrow it because it just seems a little more heavy-duty. Other than that, it's negotiable whether the higher sticker price is worth it. You can add pedals to the Sport (for an additional $50), but the small tires and footrest make it look a bit like a little kid bike, so I would not be surprised if my child starts asking for a "big kid" bike when it's finally time to put the pedals on. When I was looking at bikes, I thought the footrest on the Strider would be important (as opposed to just grippy strips on the body of the Bixe), but my child never rests his feet on either bike anyway. He just lifts his feet up when he wants to coast.For less than half the price of the Strider, the Bixe is a great choice. I don't know how to articulate the difference in build between this and the Strider--the metal the Bixe is made of seems slightly less heavy-duty and when you're assembling the front steering wheel things fit together more loosely (which has zero impact on how the bike functions after you get everything put together). One nice feature the Bixe lacks is the ability to adjust the seat height without any tools. I've had to adjust the strider's seat height a few times while we were out riding, and it's really easy to do. You need the allen wrench to adjust the Bixe's seat. (That said, my child has never asked for the Bixe seat to be adjusted, which he has, a few times, on the Strider). However, I would not have noticed these differences if I hadn't compared the bikes side-by-side. In fact, we ended up keeping both bikes so one could stay at the grandparents.'On its own, the Bixe feels solid and can definitely handle anything a kid could throw at it. I am 100% confident it will hold up until my kid is ready to upgrade to pedals and will likely be in good enough shape to pass on to another family. My kid actually prefers the Bixe a little, maybe because it looks more grown up? He's too young to describe what difference--if any--there is in how they feel to ride. I just know riding it is one of the things he looks forward to when he goes to his grandparents' house. To sum up: My kid is thrilled with this bike and I am thrilled with the price compared to the Strider.Customer service: There was a minor problem with the Bixe bike I received that made it hard to put together. Bixe customer service went above and beyond to address the issue. Their response was fast and they resolved the issue way beyond what I would have expected. Bottom line, you don't have to shell out $250 for a bike. You and your kid will be happy with the Bixe.If you're still reading, hope this review helps you make a decision.

Assembly - piece of cake, even for a 62 yr old Grandma.Cute, Sturdy, Lightweight - yet is good for up to 150 pounds. I rode it a lot! The Green delighted him and his little sister.One thing that wasn't perfect - one of the tires kept losing air. Probably a bum tire.BEST PART: My grandson had given up on bike riding! His Dad tried to teach him to ride a real bike, but learning pedaling, balancing, breaking and steering all at the same time was just too much! Falling and getting hurt on the street was painful and humiliating to him. So when I was going to watch him and his little sister for a week, I secretly brought this balance bike to him. They have a grassy small Hill in the backyard and it was perfect. I showed him. Then it was his turn. He never fell. He put his feet down most of the time on the first 5 runs. Then he started to lift them more and by the 10th run on Day #1 he fully grasped Balancing!!! On Day #2, he mastered steering. On Day #3, I put him on his REAL bicycle and he mastered Balancing, Steering and hand-braking. (His Dad had already removed the pedals from the real bike).Well, we showed off these surprise skills to his Mom and Dad - and everyone was So, So Proud. Especially my grandson. It was the moment I could only dream of! I'm visiting them again in a few weeks, so I fully expect that he's ready to pedal around the neighborhood on the real bike now. If not, we'll go back to basics on the balance bike. Oh, and my 4 year old granddaughter is chomping for her balance bike turn. I'm ready!This balance bike thing is just brilliant. Thank you.

My 8-year-old son previously would only ride his bike (which had training wheels) when pressured to practice. Within 5 minutes of getting on this bike, he was begging to be taken to the park where we practice riding, and saying things like "I'm getting it!", "It feels like I'm flying!", and "I don't know who makes this bike, but they did a great job." He even spontaneously decided to start riding it to school every day.He's suddenly able to learn through trial-and-error at his own comfort level and pace, with lots of small successes early on and very low cost of failure. He fell onto his knee at one point and didn't cry or complain at all, which for him is excellent.My 7-year-old daughter, who recently transitioned away from training wheels, is also into this balance bike. She clearly gets value from being able to practice the leaning & steering aspects of life-without-training-wheels separately from the pedaling aspects.I realize I'm more reviewing the idea of balance bikes than this particular one, but I feel like "not screwing up" the execution is one of the understated signs of quality. This is a solid balance bike for older kids at a price point that felt reasonable.Notes:1. The assembly instructions don't mention when to put on the plastic bolt covers. The covers need to go onto the handlebar post & seat post before they are inserted into their respective tubes.2. A kickstand would've been nice, but has very little bearing on my kids' enjoyment.