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Comment by alistairSH | Hacker News Reader

I'm only surprised that this is news to anybody in 2024/2025.

"Balance bikes" [1] have been the norm for 10-15 years now, at least within the cycling community. You can start kids on them pretty much as soon as they can toddle about.

1 - https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-0vqb0rkahl/images/stencil/19...

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I would posit that the self-identified "cycling community" is about the same percentage of "people who ride bikes" as programmers are of "people who use computers".

We're a long way from everyone who buys their kid a first bike at Walmart knowing about balance bikes (or the cheaper option of taking the pedals off)

In the US perhaps, where I live the whole cyclists vs non-cyclist thing does not exist. Everybody is a cyclist (perhaps the US is a car community ;)), but generally in normal clothes, on a normal bike (not racing, but like this [0]), with no helmet and on bike lanes where you never meet a car. The smallest bikes (12 inch wheels) are rated 2-4 years old.

[0] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cortina+u1&t=ffab&iax=images&ia=im...

It is generally considered unwise, and depending on age or other circumstances, illegal to ride without a bike helmet, in large part because most places you will meet a car, and if you don’t, wiping out at 15mph is still going to be hard on your noggin.

Some people wear helmets, but generally it is considered to be such a nuisance (where to leave it, uncomfortable, unnecessary, messes with hear, can't wear a cap) that it may even impede bike usage and make bike less desirable over time. It's certainly not illegal here. There was some research [0], but it's becoming a thing more and more I have to admit [1]. But generally our infra is probably much safer than you can imagine if you've never been here [2]. Also we go quite slow on on our normal bikes (many don't even have gears), we de wear helmets on racing bikes and while mountain biking.

Also, ebikes are making it more unsafe by easily going twice the normal speed, and we need to have a public discussion about that. Many ebike riders do wear helmets, especially the elderly.

[0] https://swov.nl/en/fact/bicycle-helmets-4-why-do-cyclists-ch...

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/bikecommuting/comments/dwca9c/why_d...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m1M33B353c

not even in the cycling community… At least 15 years ago getting your kid a balance bike in our circle of normal definitely-not-HN-reader friends was the done thing.

Graduation from a balance bike to a slightly larger bike-with-pedals-removed worked great for both my boys. They could pedal and ride a decent distance before they were out of nappies.

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