It was inevitable that my son would ride. He wants to emulate his "Dada" and that means riding a bike. He commutes to his school on the back of my fixed gear, he "helps" me pump up my tires, and he knows that at least two mornings during the week "Dada" is out riding when he wakes up. Luckily, he has taken to it which is largely the result of the way he was introduced to cycling. More accurately, it is the type of bikes he has been given, namely push bikes (a.k.a., balance bikes) that have gotten him off on the right foot. If you want to teach your children to ride, the push bike is the only way to go.
For the uninitiated, a push bike has no pedals. Your child uses their feet to "push" the bike forward. Otherwise, it looks like every other bike out there. There are three overarching benefits to the push bike.
Light Stroller
When a child is learning to ride, pedaling a bike is not the hard part. That comes later when they decide they want to race. The hard part is keeping the bike upright and learning to balance. While they look nice, bikes with training wheels and pedals do not help a kid learn to balance themselves. In fact, it only gives them a false sense of security that is quickly eroded the day the training wheels come off. The push bike, on the other hand, is all about balance with the benefit that your child can put a foot down to stabilize themselves when they lose control.
Perhaps more importantly, the push bike also teaches your child handle their bike. Clearly learning to steer is a key component, but even more so is learning to take corrective action while riding. The push bike helps not just with using the handlebars, but with body positioning and shifting weight. I am constantly amazed at the situations my son gets himself out of while riding his bike in our local park. A cautionary note, kids get the hang of the push bike pretty quickly and start flying around in no time which means they're more likely to put themselves in positions that require good bike handling skills. It is a good idea, I'd say imperative, that your child wears a helmet when riding any bike, including the push bike.
The third benefit is one completely for the parents. The push bike acts like a stroller, only it is a stroller you do not have to push. Your child is able to keep up with you on walks around town which would otherwise require you to bring a stroller or carry them.
So now that you have decided to get a push bike, which one should get?
On his first birthday, we gave my son the Radio Flyer Scoot-About, a four-wheel push bike, which he took to like a fish to water. For his second birthday, he graduated to the Kettler Sprint, a two-wheel push bike that was all wrong. It was too big, too heavy and poorly designed. No matter what I tried, I could not get the saddle to stay straight. So I went and got him the Specialized Hotwalk, part of their kids HotRocks line. It is everything the Kettler was not.
Most push bike manufacturers make toys which come with all sorts of molded plastic parts and call them bikes. Specialized takes a different approach. They make actual bikes with the same attention to detail as they do in their road bikes.
The Bike
The Hotwalk has an aluminum frame. It comes with an aluminum fork with a 1" threaded steel steerer. The 1" stem connects to an alloy bar which is nice and wide. The seat post connects with a standard seat clamp. The wheels have 12" alloy rims with 14 gauge steel spokes.
The Ride
I am not sure about comfort because I have never ridden it, but my son has not complained about his rear end hurting him. The low standover height let me get the saddle low enough for my son, who is a bit above 50% in height for his age group. This was not possible with the Kettler. The aluminum frame means the bike is lighter than most (it comes in under eight pounds where the Kettler was over 11 pounds) which makes it easier for to get going and maintain balance. The wide bars make for good control and easy corrections. My son was zipping around on the Hotwalk the first day he got it, unlike with the Kettler, which he really could not ride.
Set-up and Maintenance
There was no set-up other than adjusting the saddle height. Because Specialized uses actual bike components, you will not need anything but a set of allen keys. You can also use floor pump for the tires because there is enough clearance between the tube stem and the wheel axle to fit the pump head (unlike the Kettler which required a hand pump.) There really is no maintenance to the Hotwalk, but with allen keys and a wrench to remove the wheels, it will not be a big deal should the need arise.
The Bottom Line
If you really want to do a service to your kids and teach them to ride well, push bikes are the way to go. When a child is learning to ride keeping the bike upright and learning to balance is critical. Enter the push bike. For my son, he will move right to a bike without training wheels next year, and I do not expect to have to do much running alongside him because he has already figured out the balancing part.
There are many push bikes out there. The Specialized Hotwalk is the nicest of the push bikes around. It is light, easy to maneuver and easy to maintain. It is somewhere near the middle of the range in terms of price point, but well worth it. Plus, just like the pros in those Specialized commercials, your kid can say "I am Specialized" to all her friends.