SPECIALIZED HOT WALK or balance bike

Teaching your child to ride a bike is one of the most fun things in life. You get to see your child develop many important skills, such as: maintaining balance, making quick decisions, and being brave. Riding a bike is hard, no one can change that, but you can support them and enjoy the joy of your child when they can ride a bike on their own. There are several ways to make it easier for your child to ride a bike, the two most common options are attaching additional wheels or a balance bike. In the following paragraphs, we will discuss the pros and cons of each.

*It is important to note that a child must wear a helmet when riding any bicycle.

Maintaining balance on wheels

When you give your child a bike, their first instinct will be to jump on it and try to ride it. At first glance, a bike with extra wheels might seem like the best option because it's easier to balance on, but they're limited in their range of motion, and pedaling is relatively difficult for a young child, so such a bike can hinder learning more than it helps.

The advantage of a balance bike, such as the Specialized Hot Walk, is that the child has the opportunity to learn to maintain balance without the pedals touching their feet.

Driving on a bad road

A bicycle with additional wheels cannot go on a dirt road, it can only be ridden on a flat and hard road, while a balance bike can be ridden anywhere, in the yard, on grass, on the ground, and even on hills.

Another advantage of a balance bike is that if you live in an area with a lot of hills, your child won't have to struggle to pedal uphill on a bike that weighs half its weight. For example, the Specialized Hot Walk weighs just 3 kilograms. This will allow your child to navigate hills as if they were walking normally. Riding a balance bike will help your child get into better physical shape and will make it easier for them to transition to a regular bike over time.

Independence

Many people do not understand the point of a balance bike, a bicycle without pedals - what is the point? If you go outside and look at how children ride with additional wheels, you will see that a child often needs a parent's help to turn, while on a balance bike a child will be able to turn or turn the bike on his own without any problems. On a balance bike your little one will be independent, he will not need a parent's help to perform primitive maneuvers, and having the ability to make decisions independently is very important for a child.

It's easier to switch from a balance bike to a regular bike.

Moving from a balance bike to a regular bike will be a more natural transition for a child than from a bike with additional wheels to a regular bike, because riding a balance bike develops a sense of balance on two wheels, while riding with additional wheels the child only learns to pedal and must learn to maintain balance on a larger bike, which means that falling will be much more painful. On a balance bike, the child learns to catch themselves with their feet when falling, which means that on a regular bike they only have to learn to pedal.