Americans are finally catching on to what Europeans have known for a while: Kids learn how to ride bikes much faster and fearlessly if you lose the training wheels — and while you’re at it, lose the pedals. That way, they learn how to balance safely on two wheels while scooting around with their feet, Fred Flintstone style. Naturally, as soon as they exceed a certain speed, they pick up those little stompers and it’s off to the races.

A number of pedal-less push bikes have been hitting the market here, but they’re mostly Euro imports. Now a South Dakota man has launched Striders, and he’s very cleverly positioned his push bikes as dirt-ready and urban-savvy (though I’m inclined to think maybe a single handbrake wouldn’t be a bad idea if you live anywhere near a hill, and you don’t have a huge budget for new tennies every two weeks).

The other huge advance? These little suckers weigh just 7 pounds, making them about 1/10th the weight of your average kids’ bike. See ‘em yourself at www.stridersports.com.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 2:00 pm and is filed under New! Cool!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.