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List Price: $90.00
Sale Price: $69.99
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I just got this bike in the mail for my daughter yesterday. I went with this one because it is not too expensive and because it has no advertisement on it. Walmart and Target are selling a similar red wooden balance bike for 54 dollars, but it has this huge Elmo face on the front. I considered the Skutt too, but went with this one for no real particular reason other than I liked the looks of this one over the Skutt. My daughter was EXTREMELY excited. We just got back from 6 months in Hungary where this type of bike is very popular. Our daughter just turned 2, and the bike is a little bit big for her. She needs to grow about an inch more. The materials seem very good. The only unfortunate thing, which we resolved, was that when the bike came, although it was extremely easy to put together, the front and back tires would not inflate. We suspected the inner tubes had holes, and low and behold, when I took them both out (I can change tires on bikes easily), I found the front tube had a half-inch slice in it, and the back tube had a puncture near the value. Luckily, I had my tube patch kit and I fixed them. I don't know how this happened--whether in shipping or if the holes happened when the bike parts were assembled in factory. But problem solved at no expense and with just about an hour of my time. So thus far we are happy with the bike--just a little annoyed at the company. I wonder if they have quality control that could check for this "tube" problem. I was surprised there are no reviews for this bike so I thought I would post one. I guess this bike is new on the market.
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The Smart Gear Balance Bike is one of many knockoffs of the LIKEaBIKE. We chose the Smart Gear over the other copies (and the original) because of its low price, not wanting to pay $200-$300 for a wooden push bike. Well, you get what you pay for.
Immediately after purchasing it, I had to replace both tubes. Whoever assembled the wheels at the factory must have used a tool that ended up slicing both tubes. Then, within a few weeks with barely any use, all the plywood started to delaminate--first the wheels, then the main frame, then the seat column. If you look carefully at the plywood, you can see that the inner layers of wood are extremely low-grade.
Once my son grew enough to actually use the balance bike, the axle bolts kept unwinding themselves out of their mating/binding posts. I had to apply nail polish on the threads to stop the unwinding--an old trick I use when wrenching my own stable of 13 bicycles. By the way, the rear axle bolt and its binding post go through the frame's wood at a right angle, but due to the curves of the main frame components, the wood pieces are not parallel; therefore, the rear axle stays constantly bent, putting pressure on the wheel bearings.
Despite the use of sub-par materials and poorly-executed construction, the Smart Gear balance bike is one of my son's favorite toys. He's now quite adept at cruising on the bike, pushing with his feet then bringing them up and steering to stay upright.
I should also mention that unlike many of its competitors, the Smart Gear has a built-in handle. It's very easy to lift and carry the bike--especially handy when we're entering a store or restaurant.
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I read as many reviews on push bikes as I could before ordering this and wanted to give a comprehensive review after having for a month. I did appreciate the comment suggesting just leaving the pedals off a standard bike until our child is ready for pedals, but I think we did well getting this for under seventy, including shipping, and we'll be able to sell it for half that, or better, after our two kids have outgrown it. I was willing to go as high as eighty for a used push bike, and was very happy to find such a deal for a new one.
We ordered this for our first child and she loves it. She is 3.75 years-old and a little tall for her age.
She was very excited to unpackage and assemble it with me, which was a snap, and she rode it on our laminate flooring that night. The design is such that when the bike is on its side, only the tires and the rubber handlebar grip touch the floor, i.e. no wooden parts or bolts ding my floor when it falls over. We haven't had any trouble with the tires not holding air.
We took it outside the next day and she just wanted to ride her trike, but by the end of the day she wanted to ride "the wooden bike" more.
We are fortunate to have a bunch of walking paths in the woods near our home and we prefer to ride there to enjoy the scenery, and so that fall are softer, but this bike does great on pavement, trails and indoors. The tires are knobby, but we'll never take it out in the mud and slicks or semi-slicks would be fine on the trails we'll be on.
The bike is quite light and she has no trouble picking it up or pushing it. However, for the first couple weeks she was slower riding her bike than when we go "walking." That isn't entirely fair of me to say because she almost never walks and usually runs circles around me. So, she is a much faster runner than rider. She has gotten faster on the bike, but will probably always be faster on foot.
When we stray far from home, I always end up carrying it a ways, and of coarse up and down any steep hills. I expected this, but thought it was worth mentioning here.
The handle cut into the frame is handy, but the position/angle of the handle is a little off such that the rear wheel hangs lower than the front and I end up carrying its weight mostly on my pinky and ring fingers. Actually, I usually carry it with my hand between the handlebar grips. This is my only complaint about the bike, and isn't a big enough deal to dock the review a star. The bike is light enough for me to carry without the handle.
We initially put it together with the seat in the lowest position and immediately saw that this was much too low. I moved it up to the second highest position and that looked pretty comfortable for her, but I was disappointed that she'd only fit it until she outgrew the next height.
She asked a couple days ago if she could have the seat lowered and now it is in the third highest position, and looks like a fair fit, and she reports that she likes it better there. Still, I think she'll be ready for a pedal bike before she would have outgrown just one more notch. I wish that for her height, the handlebars we higher, but when our second child starts riding it, I'll be glad they are as low as they are.
We've had to explain this bike to so many neighbors that she now calls it her balance bike, which is more apt.
Our daughter still over-steers, but is getting better and corrects well. She's had a few wrecks, but has walked away from all of them on her own. The lightness of the bike, and lack of protruding parts contribute to this.
We also have a tag-along bike, a single wheel on an arm that attaches to my seatpost, a seat and a pair of pedals. I think that we'll hold off on that until she is a little taller, but between the two, I think she'll be ready for a pedal bike by next summer.
We have a younger child also and fully expect the balance bike to be in great condition when he is tall enough to start riding it. It is a quality bike and will take all the riding we'll be able to give it.
One note on style, we too liked that this was mostly unbranded. It does have a small label on the front, but we planned on our daughter putting some removable vinyl stickers all over it and didn't want some character's face on the bike. We asked if she wanted to decorate it and she said she likes it just the way it is.
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I got this balance bike for my son's second birthday. He is a rather short 2-year-old (33") and so I was looking for bikes where you can lower the seat a lot. The product description didn't offer this information but on the smart gear homepage I found the info that you can lower the seat to as as 12,5". After I assembled the bike (which was super-easy, it comes in only three pieces) the lowest seat height measured 15"! :-(
I remembered reading about the skuut that you can lower the seat by flipping the frame. I tried it and it really lowers the bike. The problem was though that the seat now sat at an odd and useless angle. So I took out the bolts that hold the seat, put the seat in its desired position and drilled two new holes for the bolts (took about 10min). In addition I removed the little mud guard from under the seat and was able to lower the seat to under 12"!!! Now my son's feet touch the ground easily.
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We bought this for my sons 3rd birthday. He was pretty nervous about trying it at first but after some time, he really enjoyed it and caught on quickly. We loved it because there were no pedals and he could learn to balance. It was adjustable, easy to assemble, light weight and we thought, durable. However, less than 3 months after purchasing it, it has completely fallen apart. My son was so sad when he got on his bike and it broke. He is not too big for it and it has not been used all that much or mistreated. The wood started pealing apart and falling off and eventually it broke right off the front tire...the wood just rotted away. I am so unhappy and am hoping for a refund and will buy my son the same type of bike but a different brand.
*Update* Amazon was great to work with and had UPS out here the very next day to pick up the bike. It was shipped back for free and after a few days, we received a full refund. I did have to email them and request that we not be charged a $12 re-stocking fee since there was no way that this bike was going to be restocked. Anyways, I am still disappointed in the bike but very pleased with the customer service from Amazon. I am currently researching a new balance bike to get for my son and won't hesitate to purchase from them again.
