Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
GREAT bike
By L. Gold
This is a great bike. I gave one to my 2 and4 year old to share for Christmas. It is winter here so they ride it through the house all the time. My son has really struggled with 2 wheel bikes because the typical bike easily crashes when you turn the handle bars too hard. This bike is made so the turning radius is very small. The bike is light enough that he just picks it up a little to make a big turn. No problem. He goes sailing through the house now with NO crashing. Once the weather is good enough to go outside he is going to have a ball. He will definately graduate to a standard bike after this teaches him balance. He should be able to skip the obnoxious training wheels altogether.My short 2 year old loves it but she has to go slowly because she can barely reach the floor. In a few months she should be fine and I'm guessing by this summer she'll be sailing on it. GREAT FUN. Unfortunately the price is very hard to swallow. I found one on sale through a design website so I could manage it. If the money won't bankrupt your budget or you can save for it, it's worth it!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Built to Last
By C. Chang
This is an awesome bike. Pricey, but you get what you pay for. The quality is visible compared to other wooden balancing bikes. You will not see any reviews about the wood warping, or laminate splitting, or screws coming off, or forks breaking, or wheels misaligned, or broken tires.One bike shop told us that the knockoffs will last one child, whereas the LikeABike will last several children (they did not carry the LikeABike by the way because of the high cost and low demand, so I found their review of the knockoff they had in stock quite honest.) Granted, we could have bought 3 knockoffs with the price of 1 LikeABike, but I didn't want the aggravation of things breaking and falling apart and add to the waste with the "disposable" bikes. We went searching high and low for the LikeaBike only to find that our small neighborhood Mom & Pop bike store carries it. My family members all chipped in and bought it for our son for Christmas.On the more technical front, the LikeABike seat was an inch lower than the Skuut for my short legged 2-yr old (who was in the 77th percentile in height, so make sure you check out the minimum seat height for the various brands you are considering). Nowadays there are other balancing bikes with even shorter seats but the quality is just as lacking as the Skuut or worse. Some of the lowest seats are metal frame, and I can't compare to metal versions, so I do wonder if those present a comparable less expensive option these days for the shorter ones, like our second kid.On the comment that you can get a regular bike and take off the pedals, I was a big proponent of that initially until I realized that it's not all that safe and not all that advisable for younger toddlers for the following reasons: (1) the seat is still too high for most 2 year olds - both feet must be able to touch flat on the ground, (2) regular bikes can present a hazzard to the little feet getting trapped in various ways between wheels, frame, etc., because your little one will lift his/her feet and keep them in as they glide (3) the handlebars on regular bikes are not restricted, the LIKEaBike has limited turn radius preventing 360's and over-turning of the front wheel that causes falls - yes, it happened to our son when we were test driving the Specialized metal balancing model; he turned too far, tipped over, got scared and refused to get back on, and (4) as a bike mechanic reviewer elsewhere put it, the seat on a regular bike is meant for pedaling and not "running" so they are shorter than the seats on balancing bikes.Our son is not athletic at all; he has very advanced fine-motor skills but is not gross-motor skills inclined. Getting the LikeABike was the best thing we did in helping him master a "sport". He used his LikeABike for 2 years; it was easy, it was fun, and he wanted to take it everywhere. When we got him his 16" pedal bike when he was 4, he rode it the first time he got on it, literally 5 minutes of instruction and off he was. My husband ran behind him for 10 minutes; I thought my husband was holding the seat in the back, but he wasn't, he was simply running behind our kid crouched in case he needed to catch the bike quickly. And in less than 20 minutes we did not even need to run alongside and our 4-yr old son was having races with his 7-yr old cousin. After the first couple of weeks of short weekend rides to the local library on his regular bike, he was riding standing for uphill treks, and doing all kinds of advanced maneuvers downhill or on flat ground, even trying to ride with one hand only. Soon thereafter, he started to ask for a bike with brakes and gears. Both my husband and I credit the LikeABike for our son's biking skills and confidence. We debated whether to get a lower cost knockoff until my family decided to all chip in and get one single useful Christmas gift for our son instead of lots of other toys. But with 20-20 hindsight now, I would hands down buy the LikeABike ourselves if we had to do it all over again. Now, if there was only a LikeABike equivalent for swimming...
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
excellent for toddlers - not a Draisienne!
By juleptrader
A. This is not a Draisienne. Any child over 2 1/2 will be able to propel themselves and be "riding" and balancing.B. The quality is very high. My preschooler has ridden his in all conditions and nothing has ever come loose or chipped.C. It's all-wood construction is gorgeous. Everyone will comment.D. Make sure you install the rubber handlebar grips. They are hard to get on. Coat the handlebars with dish soap to slide them on.
See all 14 customer reviews...
Great starter bike...but comes with different fenders
Not worth the money
