Stabilisers or balance bikes?

When learning to ride a bike, you may have started your child off with stabilisers (Also known as training wheels)

However, over the past few years the approach to teaching children to cycle has changed. Bike experts now recommend starting your children off on balance bikes. These are bikes without pedals and stabilisers, that can help teach children to push themselves along using their feet. Great for teaching balance, these bikes are the key to building their confidence on two wheels.

So when ordering a subscription bike for your child to learn to ride on, you have to decide if you prefer stabilisers or a balance bike? In the article below we give you the information you need to make that decision.

Choosing a balance bike

To find the right bike for your child, we recommend taking a leg measurement of the inside leg to the floor, with shoes on.

We offer a range of balance bikes from different brands:

• Tadpole Mini (inside leg length of 24cm to 32cm)
• Tadpole (inside leg length of 32cm to 38cm)
• Tadpole Plus (inside leg length of 38cm to 43cm)
• Strider 12 Sport (inside leg length 31-51cm)
• Squish Balance

See our guide to bike sizing and how to measure your child for their bike.

Adding stabilisers to your order

If you would prefer to start your child with stabilisers, the following bikes are compatible with stabilisers:

• Frog 40
• Frog 48
• Cubley 14
• Cubley 16
• Squish 14
• Frog 52 Single Speed

If you have purchased a set of stabilisers and have lost or thrown away the user guide, click the links to get the online user manuals:

For the Multi Fit Stabilisers set up guide, click here

For the Suspension Stabilisers set up guide, click here

If you order stabilisers on our website, they will be dispatched separately to your bike and may arrive a few days before your chosen delivery day.

If you need help fitting them once they arrive, hopefully the following Frog video will help: