Balance bikes.

[Bluebird]

My kids love(d) their strider. At one point my oldest (son) travelled over 4 miles between 4th of july parades on his strider. THe now six year old road it everywhere until about 4.5 and then he spent about two days(more like sessions) on a pedal bike with training wheels to learn pedaling. The first session we used both sides of the training wheels then the second session we took one side off and he only had one side that he could lean too if he felt out of balance. The third time out he was riding flat ground after a nice push with no training wheels. Now at 6 he spent the summer chasing the older kids around the neighborhood on his bike. Definitely a proud dad. Now his younger sister (2.5) tries to keep up on the strider. The strider is now 4 years old and has spent way too much time outside in the rain, etc but is still going strong albeit with some rust here and there.

[klauss]

Maybe it's being overcautious but, for instance, I look at that Chicco bike above and can easily envision our kid gouging the shit out of his leg with that exposed seat tube end or the seat clamp.

surprised my kids didn't get gored

Fear not Dallas. My kid bested Mike Miranda's helltrack lap time on the chicco. In our experience, it has the right proportions and weight for early 2s and to when they would be ready to move onto a pedal bike. My take is that you can buy the chicco and save your bit coins for one of these when they get older:

http://lilshredder.com/bikes

[Steven S. Dallas]

Yes, I'm sure your kids- and most anyone's kids- would be fine with any bike. So, hey, guess what buddy, that's why I acknowledged being overcautious.

That FirstBike is very safe, and also very expensive for what it is. I would not have paid that much for a strider, myself but I am happy to have it.