Bikes for the 3 year old crowd

We're thinking of bikes of some kind might make a good birthday gift. Did anyone have bikes/tricycles for their 3 year olds? What kind did you have?

 

We were going to get balance bikes last year for the girls but it ended up being out of our budget at the time. We're going to get them this year.

 

My two had balance bikes. They LOVED them & Lila had a really easy time transitioning to a normal bike, never having training wheels. Luke is still on his balance bike, although it is really too small for him now, he is going to have to learn to ride his other bike this summer. I have no doubt he can do it easily, he is just scared to try it.

We have these (well, Luke's is orange & not a princess one, but the same otherwise).

 

Balance bikes here also. Transitioned last year to two wheelers without ever using training wheels. It was great.

 

Balance bikes here too! Woot.com had them for $50 back in Feb so I picked up 2. Riley is doing great with his. He is able to coast at least 100ft with his feet up off the ground and coasts around corners just fine! Jon hasn't ridden his b/c one of the tires has issues but my dh has that taken care of and we are waiting on a new tube and stem. He does play on Rileys and does a good job too. Just need to give him time and he will be great!

Here are the ones we have. Plain in color but the boys love them! Smart Gear balance bikes.

 

You can not go wrong with balance bikes. My girls got them for their 3rd birthday and it's been love ever since. No need to spend millions on the wood ones; there are plenty of metal framed balance bikes that work just fine. I think I paid $99 each on Amazon for ours, and I'm about to resell them (for $40 each, I think).

 

We got balanced bikes here too. Sadly my son really doesn't like it.

The issue we have is that my kids don't know how to pedal. We were looking at bikes with training wheel yesterday but no, they're not getting it. The trikes we have in the yard are not great either to learn (one tips on the side, the other wasn't assembled properly so the wheels don't turn easily), so not too sure how to teach them!

 

we went to the store to get trikes for our boys just before they turned 3, but they both grabbed regular bikes (w/training wheels) and took off thru the store! so, we bought them those. we didn't want to have to replace them in a year so we got 16" frames, but most kids that age use 12" w/training wheels. i'd recommend that over than things you'll have to replace quickly... then again, my guys are pretty athletic (already ride those big bikes w/the training wheels off). tho, that could be because they had to learn to ride bikes so early!

good luck, jl