We were impressed right off with the beautiful paint job and flawless welds on the Woom’s super-light aluminum frame. The smooth-rolling rubber tires have just enough knobbiness to grip in the dirt. Axles are secured to the bike via a set of rounded, recessed Allen bolts and recessed mounting points that make it essentially impossible for a child to snag a pant leg on or suffer a bruise from in a wipeout. huffy trail runner We checked in with Harry Sawyers and with Kalee Thompson, two Wirecutter editors who’ve worked on baby/kid stories. They were skeptical that balance bikes will ever go as mainstream as training-wheel–equipped bikes. To Sawyers, whose two kids gravitated toward trikes and scooters, it makes little sense to start a kid out on an expensive balance bike when the child might not even want to ride it.
Though the bars can only be raised about 2 inches via the stem (compared with nearly 5 inches for the Strider), angling the bar upward provides an additional half inch of height. The bars are not quite an inch wider in diameter than those on the Strider with about a 3-inch grip, but they’re definitely still kid-size. A properly fitted balance bike can enable children to balance on two wheels with astonishing speed even as young as 18 months and is a fun first step toward learning to ride a bike. Plus, once they master it, they’re well on their way to riding their first pedal bike.
It also allows young riders to improve their riding skills in constant riding and to master more speed mountain biking in the future. The responsiveness feels above and beyond what you’d expect from a mountain bike at this price point. The sturdy steel is hard and ductile enough that the frame can withstand a lot of strain during strenuous mountain riding, which is where the sturdy frame comes in to provide an excellent responsive ride. We also offer a extended return policy for purchase in store during pick-up. Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times.
We were also impressed with the Woom’s rear aluminum V-brake hand brake, which is built for little hands and stops the bike with authority. A 2-year-old can easily squeeze the proprietary brake lever, and you can adjust the grip reach effortlessly via a small knob. The comfortably cush seat is right for huffy trail runner a little kid (at 4.5 by 7 inches) and even features scuff-proof sides for when it’s laid over on the pavement. While its air tires, alloy wheels, and standard (and very strong) ball-bearing headset make it slightly heavier than the Strider 12 Sport at 9 pounds, the REV 12 is still acceptably light.
There’s also a chain guard that completely covers the chain to protect fingers and feet and prevent clothing entanglements. As far as geometry and weight, the 14x Sport is meant for older kids, from the late 3s up to 6 or 7. The 14x weighs 12 pounds without pedals, 15.5 pounds with, which is pretty light for a 14-inch bike, but double the weight of the 12 Sport. Couple that range with a handlebar stem that can be raised nearly 4 inches and a bar that can be tilted upward and forward nearly 4 inches, and you have an incredibly versatile and maneuverable little people mover. When I raised the bars to their maximum and rotated them halfway forward, even my 8-year-old had a blast whipping around the driveway with his friends without bumping his knees. Geometry-wise, the Woom 1 offers a very comfortable upright riding position for most kids and a very low step-through height of 7 inches, the second lowest of any bike we tested.
The bike also arrived with its headset a bit too tight, making it notchy when you turned it. You can use a bigger wrench (again, not included), yet even without loosening, the too-tight headset wasn’t a dealbreaker because you can still turn the handlebars and they would loosen a bit over time anyway. The basic, skateboard-style cartridge bearings also worked fine as soon we loosened the axle nuts slightly. The bike is nonetheless handsome, and it performs huffy trail runner well once it’s dialed in, allowing a kid to start and stop comfortably, ride easy or hard and fast, and to bail without issue in the inevitable wipeout. We spent more than 15 hours researching, and more than 20 hours assembling, dissecting, and testing 13 balance bikes. A few years ago, when my son was 2 and way too excited to ride his too-big pedal bike, I fashioned it into a balance bike by unscrewing the pedals and duct-taping the seat to the top tube.