When to buy a bike

This is what we have now.

http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Rock-Ro...8162&sr=8-2

I'm wondering when is a good time to buy my 3 year old a real bicycle with training wheels. He can kind of pedal the one we have now, but it takes a lot of power to pedal the wheels so I'm thinking he may almost do better with a real bike.

 

i would get him a trike now, and when he's good on that get him a real bicycle. we just got cameron and alisha 16" bicycles. they've had big wheel type things since they were 2 and the kettler tricycles since about 2.5

 

We have gotten all our bikes at Target or TRU and they have been just fine. We just got DS his from Target and DD is riding her big sister's that we got 5 years ago from TRU.


ETA: I think if you are getting them bikes now, you should get them 12 inch with training wheels and skip the trike.

 

We got our twins 12 inch bikes with training wheels for their 3rd birthday last summer. We skipped tricycles all together. One daughter got on her bike and started peddling right away. The other one took quite a bit longer to start peddling (probably due to some developmental delays on her part), but she bikes all over the place now.

Can you take him to a bike store or Target or TRU and let him try out a couple of bikes?

 

We did trikes at 2, then the Strider bikes and at 3 my girls were riding 12" bikes with out training wheels.
Julia

 

We had trikes at 2, 16" bikes at 4, then Jon got a 20" bike at 6 and Marcus got his at almost 7 (they won't be seven until tomorrow). The criteria for moving up was that they could ride 2 wheelers and looked way too big on the 16" bikes. I still have Marc's bike in the garage if anyone wants to buy it .

Personally, I would stick with a trike, and then the bigger bike, and skip the 12" bikes altogether.

 

My girls have had trikes for over a year now and got good at peddaling around 2.5. We will be getting them bikes for their 3rd birthday this year.

 

My oldest learned on a trike, and graduated to a 16" and then a 20" bike that he uses now.
The twins are using the trikes now, Lukas is able to handle it just fine, but Linnea has had a lot of trouble. Lukas has gotten on the 16" bike, but we don't have training wheels anymore (they bent after Logan and we haven't replaced yet). We were at Goodwill the other day and saw a girls 12" bike with training wheels. Linnea got on it and took off through the store. She still can't work the trike very well, but the bike is perfect for her...it must have to do with the position of the pedals. Lukas is still better at the trike than the bike though, so I am in no big rush to get him training wheels yet.

So after all that, my point is that depending on the child, they may or may not be ready for a bike, but ifyou go that route, keep the trikes close by just in case.