Broke on second ride (rear wheel bearing blew apart with a 4 year old girl riding it)

bbeamesderfer wrote:Broke on second ride (rear wheel bearing blew apart with a 4 year old girl riding it)

exact same thing happened to me. Bought 2 spare bearings from Ebay for something like 5 shipped and she has ridden it a little here and there since. After about 2 weeks of casual use I gave her her first try of real bike with no training wheels and she had it almost immediately. These balance bikes are the ONLY way to train to ride and this one is kinda cheaply made but you will only be using it for a few weeks anyways why pay more?

I heard the bearings are hit OR miss. I got one of these for my Brigade of Campers#39;s for woot's birthday, I wasn't necessarily wowed with the bike, but it was still pretty neat. It'll hopefully make a kid happy come Toys For Tots Season.

Anyways- This is actually way better than training wheels for teaching your kid how to balance. If you get a bike that's built well and doesn't fall apart or have bearings that seize (i'd guess it was 2-3% fail rate on pure educational guessing) then this will be great for your little one learning to bike.

Don't take my word for it, Check out this article from Slate:

Down With Training Wheels They train kids how not to ride a bike!
Why balance bikes are better.

I believe Bradley Wiggins had one as a chap. Worked for him!

Easily upgraded with mavic wheelsets and sram components.

I bought this a few months ago. It works well for balance training. The kids like it. It is holding up well with two different riders.

Is the wood pressure treated?

Also, anyone know if there's a bolt on supercharger available for this model or will I need to do a customer modification?

We bought two of these from woot last time and one of them broke almost immediately. They are very cheaply made and not worth even the $25. We were very very disappointed with these bikes.

Please... don't bother. I bought this and saved opening it until we moved to Germany... 3 months later. Finally assembled it for my very excited 3 year old. He rode it about 5 times... and the back wheel fell apart at the center bolt. What a piece of crap. I will consider this a lesson learned and buy a more expensive... better made bike. So help me... if my child had gotten hurt because of this POS there would be heck to pay.

This is good to teach your kids how to ride without training wheels, but a cheaper and more reliable option is just to take the peddles off of their real bike and let them coast. I taught my twins to ride a bike without training wheels in about an hour and I didn't even have to run beside them. There are plenty of videos on youtube to show you how to use this method. I would not recommend spending the money on this.

Don't waste your money on this one! Bought it when on Woot last time, great concept, but fell apart within a a few days of my 4 year old riding on it and can't fix it. Waste of money for sure. Buyer definitely beware on this Woot...

Oh no, lookout for that incline little Timmy. Hit the brak...

I bought this bike on Kids Woot a few months ago. The bike itself is OK quality wise, but certainly not one of the better ones out there. That said my 3 and 5 year old love it and ride it all the time. The only complaint from my kids is the seat is shaped horribly (it's square shaped whereas it should be curved in in the front area where their legs go like other bikes) and hurts the inside of their leg/groin area. My complaints are the bolts on the wheels do loosen now and then and my husband has to tighten them (but the wheels have never fallen off while they were riding), the seat is not shaped well to make it comfortable for them when sitting on it, and the handle bars do not adjust to go any higher but the seat does adjust which makes no sense at all. If you are looking for a very good quality balance bike and willing to spend more, you may want to stay away from this one. If you are like me and weren't sure if you wanted to get one at all and weren't sure if the kiddos would go for it and was willing to spend this reasonable price for this particular bike, then I say give it a go.

kdelong2 wrote:...but a cheaper and more reliable option is just to take the peddles off of their real bike and let them coast.

Exactly. I hopped on craigslist and bought a bike for $10 and removed the pedals. Worked like a charm for two kids.

I bought one a few months back for my then 2 year old son. It was too big for him. It is still too big for my almost four year old niece (she is tiny though). He's 3 and tall enough now to ride it, but he still prefers the peddle bikes. The only kids that I have found in the neighborhood who like to ride the bike are the kids who already know how to ride a 2-wheeler. They just like to run it down the driveway and coast.

I wouldn't call this a bad buy... but I wouldn't recommend it.

Great concept, but not a quality item. Put it together a couple of days ago and had the hardest time trying to get the bolts to reach the screws enough to tighten. My four year old went out immediately to try out her new bike, and came back in 5min with the bolt in her hand!

Also, as others have commented, the seat is poorly shaped and irritates the inner thigh after riding a short time.

I don't think of myself as an overprotective parent, but that woot copytext isn't exactly encouraging me to put my little spawn on this.

Ummm.... what's a "peddle"?

I bough this a while ago for my two year old, who is in the 70th percentile for height and she is not tall enough to use it yet, even with the seat all the way down. Just keep that in mind for all you parents looking to get their kids on this earlier than the recommended age. Too bad too, since she is more than ready.

3eyore wrote:Ummm.... what's a "peddle"?

Those colored things around the center of a flour.

drakono wrote:Those colored things around the center of a flour.

Ahh, I sea what you did their.

3eyore wrote:Ummm.... what's a "peddle"?

I believe that's what Woot does with all the merch on this site...

True it's a cheaper option to just remove the peddles off of a real bike, if your kid has no motor problems. Our son has some motor issues with his left side and his balance is completely wonked out. We tried just removing the peddles but he still kept falling and hurting himself. With the balance bike, he doesn't have to worry about the chain and other parts affecting him. For a kid with physical issues, this bike is great.

kdelong2 wrote:This is good to teach your kids how to ride without training wheels, but a cheaper and more reliable option is just to take the peddles off of their real bike and let them coast. I taught my twins to ride a bike without training wheels in about an hour and I didn't even have to run beside them. There are plenty of videos on youtube to show you how to use this method. I would not recommend spending the money on this.

TreeHaus makes some truly awful stuff. We bought a play kitchen made by them and none of the holes lined up, some of the screws stripped even in the incredibly soft wood, and my 2 year old managed to rip one of hte doors off the hinges within a couple days of building it.

I'll just leave my previous forum post here... (hint: it is not real positive).

Bought one a month or two ago on woot. Put the bike together, had my little girl on it for all of 5 minutes when the bearing in the front wheel literally fell a part in the wheel. I contacted woot via email and as of right now no response....I'd say the 90 day warranty is a sales tactic at best. The product is overly light, breaks and woot won't repond to your claim.

It's garbage. I can't believe woot is even still selling them...

mk72206 wrote:I bough this a while ago for my two year old, who is in the 70th percentile for height and she is not tall enough to use it yet, even with the seat all the way down. Just keep that in mind for all you parents looking to get their kids on this earlier than the recommended age. Too bad too, since she is more than ready.

Same here for my 2-1/2 year old neice. She really wants to ride it, but she isn't tall enough, and she is in the 100th percentile for height. Hope she is still interested once she is tall enough.

Read the Amazon review. I wish I did. These bikes suck. I wasted 50$ for 2 of em last go round... they fell apart the first day.

Shame shame shame on Woot for selling these again. These are a huge safety issue.

mmustico wrote:I bought this bike on Kids Woot a few months ago. The bike itself is OK quality wise, but certainly not one of the better ones out there. That said my 3 and 5 year old love it and ride it all the time. The only complaint from my kids is the seat is shaped horribly (it's square shaped whereas it should be curved in in the front area where their legs go like other bikes) and hurts the inside of their leg/groin area. My complaints are the bolts on the wheels do loosen now and then and my husband has to tighten them (but the wheels have never fallen off while they were riding), the seat is not shaped well to make it comfortable for them when sitting on it, and the handle bars do not adjust to go any higher but the seat does adjust which makes no sense at all. If you are looking for a very good quality balance bike and willing to spend more, you may want to stay away from this one. If you are like me and weren't sure if you wanted to get one at all and weren't sure if the kiddos would go for it and was willing to spend this reasonable price for this particular bike, then I say give it a go.

thanks for your share, i have decided to buy one for my friend's daughter as birthday gift. she is 4years old now and love riding very much