Start ’em young. Offer young children the opportunity to learn and you might hook them for life. British entrepreneur Simon Booth started Kiddimoto several years ago, a company that builds wooden balance bikes styled after full size motorcycles and painted in color schemes to match the race bikes of famous racers. Aimed at the 2 to 6 year old crowd, they offer a pretty neat way to get the kids on pseudo motorcycles built from plywood with underseat exhaust, realistic swingarm, 10 inch pneumatic tires and sized to fit the mini riders. They’re also available as mini dirt bikes and scooters.
Do the bikes work? There are two videos below showing a very young boy, outfitted with a full face helmet and riding suit, including knee pucks, practicing turns in an effort to get his knee down. He tries and tries, repeatedly crashing, always getting up with a smile and a laugh before trying and crashing again and again, until he begins to get closer and closer, then crash and closer then crash and success! What was that deliberate practice we were talking about? Here’s a perfect example. Think about how much that little rider learned about life in an effort to get his knee puck scuffed up. Fantastic.
Simon went on the British TV show Dragon’s Den last year looking for funding to expand the business and secured investments from two of the five members on the panel which should be a nice boost. The bikes are evidently available already in stores in the UK, but you can order them online, as well. Priced at $210, they look like they’ll last a long time and stand up to the wear and tear you would expect from this particular rider demographic. Pretty cool!
Thanks for the tip, Bob!
Link: Kiddimoto
Check out the videos below to see what it takes to get that knee down
The long and deliberate practice
His First Knee Down
Ian says
I got two of these for my 3 year old boys (Roberts and Sheene colours) and they’re great. They are only just tall enough to touch the ground at the moment but they love them already, just bimbling around the back garden making the sound effects. Beats a poxy mini-scooter any day! Expensive but worth every penny.
Carolynne says
That is really cool! I remember wanting a little car when I was in kid, I begged my parents for months and by time I convinced them we went into the store and I was too big for them. I still remember the dissappointment. What a lucky kid that gets one of these
B50 Jim says
Hmmmm… wonder how easy it would be to put an engine on it?…..
parts-2-u says
I wish these were available when I was a kid. All I had to practice on was a blue Samsonite suitcase that I drew a motor and gas tank on with an orange crayon. LOL
akaaccount says
Hm apparently there’s such a thing as a balance bike, and these are ones. And they have censored cigarette ads on them. Whatever it takes to get kids hooked.
akaaccount says
On motorcycles that is, not cigarettes
'37 Indian says
If I had one of these when I was young, being a naturally adventurous kid, I would have found the biggest hill I could find to coast down. Might be a good idea to put some kind of brake on it.
Mike says
I got a Scrambler kiddiemoto for my daughter when she was 1, so she could grow into it. Unfortunately, I don’t find these to be particularly good bikes. The body is remarkably flexible even when the bolts which hold the body components together are tightened down. The handlebar rotates freely, which is disconcerting if you try to coast. It’s also very, very tall, and probably not going to work well for most kids under 3.
I got her a Strider and it’s everything a balance bike should be in terms of performance and weight, and can be set up much, much lower.
The kiddiemoto is a neat toy. I’m sure she’ll enjoy pretending on it when she’s older, but when it’s time to really ride, we’ll be on the Strider, which was much less expensive to boot.
Jim Kunselman says
Oh! I gotta get one of these for my youngest granddaughter. You know, just as a revenge plot on my son, who was a royal pain in my posterior in his youth.
loosenoose says
i have a wooden balance bike for my kids. it’s nowhere near as cool as this, and i dont have a racing suit for them… nor do i have access to a racetrack to launch them through. this is a really great balance bike though. i would like one… for the kids, i mean… yeah…