Disclaimer: I paid full price for the product mentioned in this review however I have included (*) affiliate links. All funds raised through Amazon links help support our adoption.
My little guy turned 3 a couple of weeks ago and I knew that I wanted to get him a bike. He loves taking rides in the trailer or bike seat and he always climbs on bikes that are way to tall for him. He mastered the traditional tricycles at daycare so my first inclination was to head over to a big box store and get him the standard 12 inch bike with training wheels. He is my third kid after all and none of my other’s had any problem learning to maneuver bikes by his age.
The only difference, is that over the past few years, I have seen an increase in the use of Balance Bikes for kids ages 2-5 and wanted to do a little research of my own. First I remembered a post my friend Mindy from The Inquisitive Mom wrote about her son using his Balance Bike. I couldn’t believe how fast he whipped around their neighborhood and how happy he seemed. My friend Missy, whose son shares a birthday with Ezra has been happily cruising on his bike all through winter (they live in a warm climate). These are both two women who I great respect in their parenting choices and knew that there had to be something great about Balance Bikes.
Next stop, online shopping. I came across this AMAZING site Two Wheeling Tots. This site has hundreds of reviews, videos and online demonstrations of hundreds of products. They have an excellent “bike finder” feature to help you find the right size bike for your child as well the best article I have ever read on choosing a bike for your child. After reading their post, I was completely sold on trying a Balance Bike for Ezra.
While the Two Wheeling Tots gave some excellent choices in Balance Bikes. I would have loved to buy a higher end bike with air tires and a break but many of them were hard to find or expensive to ship. In the end, I chose the Cruzee Balance Bike off their “recommended” list.
The Cruzee Balance Bike is available on Amazon and came with free Prime shipping, plus I loved the variety of colors that the company offered. Seeing that we are such avid Buckeye fans, I just couldn’t pass up the Cruzee UltraLite in red.
The Cruzee bike has foam tires that do not need to be inflated, nor will they go flat. Because they are foam they also might not stand up as well to trails or off-roading type experiences. Since we mostly ride on our neighborhood bike trail or sidewalks, this seemed like a reasonable choice for us. The bike was super easy to put together and both the seat and handle-bars are adjustable for ages 18 months to 5 years. The frame of the bike is rust-free anodized aluminum finish which makes it almost care-free and super light. I can literally hold the bike with two fingers which comes in handy when you need to carry both the bike and the child. Another feature that I noticed about this bike is that the rear bolts are sealed, which allows little feet and ankles to cruise along without worry of being scratched or injured.
REVIEW:
It took Ezra a total of about 1 minute to figure out how the bike works and that he can move really fast with just his feet. Deaf kids are notorious for having balance issues and as I have watched Ezra over the past three weeks, I can tell he is really working on increasing his ability to lift both feet up and cruise down hills or after gaining some speed. He also is learning how to maneuver his steering wheel and speed up and slow down by the power of his own body. I am truly sold on the benefits of the Balance Bike and think for many families, the Cruzee bike is a great choice.
Check out Ezra’s short little video: