Many children bypassing trikes, moving right to bikes

The parks and playgrounds are starting to teem with kids taking that tentative first ride on their first bike. It is a rite of spring that is one of the most memorable events of childhood.

Wait. A lot of these children are so young they’ll never remember it.

Somewhere in the rush to turn little kids into soccer stars, chess players and museumgoers has come the early introduction of the two-wheeler. Go into most bike stores and you will find displays of multiple tiny bicycles built for 2- to 4-year-olds. While getting the first two-wheeler used to be one of the most-anticipated events of early grade school, now it’s becoming increasingly common to see 3-year-olds pedaling bikes (usually with training wheels, of course).

This means that some kids are on a bike before they’re out of diapers. In a customer review on Amazon.com, a mother of three from Enid, Okla., praised the Radio Flyer with 10-inch-diameter wheels (possibly the smallest bike on the market) as “an awesome first bike” – for her 20-month-old.

How things got this way probably has something to do with the bike and toy industry. These miniature models often cost more than $100 a pop and are quickly outgrown, making it necessary to purchase a new, bigger version only a year or two later. But something else is at work, and that is parents’ impatience to have their little children proficient in all things as early as possible, whether it’s writing their name or pedaling on their own.

Certainly many people applaud anything that gets kids physically active. And the bikes are being built with wider seats, thicker wheels and wider handlebars more suited to little arms, according to an engineer at the Consumer Product Safety Commission. But some experts question whether a two-wheeler in the toddler years is really appropriate. The American Academy of Pediatrics warns against encouraging children to get on a bike too early. “Do not push your child to ride a two-wheeled bike until he or she is ready, at about age 5 or 6,” states the group’s bike-safety guidelines. Daniel Christesen, the owner of Danny’s Cycles in Scarsdale, N.Y., offers a number of models aimed at the 2-to-4-year-old set. But “normally, it’s going to be easier for kids to have fun on a tricycle than a bicycle when they’re younger,” he says. On a trike, Christesen notes, you can pedal both forward and backward and there’s back support.

The irony is that even though kids are riding at a younger ages, bikes don’t play nearly as big a role in the lives of most American children as they once did. A bicycle used to symbolize freedom and independence, and many children rode far and wide once they mastered it. But everything from fear of abductions to traffic congestion keeps kids’ cycling these days increasingly limited to outings with parents or circuits around the park.

According to the federal government, about 13 percent of children walk or bike to school today, compared with 66 percent in 1970. Some cities and states are trying to change that. In Portland, Ore., the Safe Routes to School campaign is working to set up a system of adult leaders who escort kids to school. It’s called the Biking or Walking School Bus, but there is no bus. “A parent, teacher or citizen will start off walking down the sidewalk (or biking down the road) and will pick up kids along the way,” explains Robert Ping, the program’s director (whose 3-year-old son loves to bike). “Research shows kids are better students if they do something physical” before school, he says.

Recognizing the interest in biking among the very young crowd (or at least their parents), some businesses are introducing interesting new products. Co-Motion Cycle of Eugene, Ore., has created the Periscope, a tandem bicycle that can be adjusted to accommodate one rider as small as 3 feet tall (the size of a 2-year-old) and the other taller than 6 feet. A European contraption aimed at helping kids avoid training wheels has also come to the U.S. market recently. It’s sometimes known as a “running bike” and has no pedals. Kids sit in the saddle and propel it forward with their feet, eventually lifting them off the ground and trying to balance.

One model, called likeabike, is available on the Internet (likeabikeusa.com) and in stores. Meredith Rolfe, a mother of two in Chicago, bought one for her 2-year-old son last year. “He’s lived on it,” she says. His older brother tried it and within a few weeks was able to ditch the training wheels on his own bike, Rolfe says – “even if at the comparatively old age of 4.”