Image courtesy of Strider Sports

Image courtesy of Strider Sports

With the Strider™ running bike, there are no “tricycle tip-overs” or “training-wheel wobbles” to create a fear, hesitancy, or dislike of bike riding.  The Strider™ running bike helps kids learn balance and coordination BEFORE pedaling, which develops glittering confidence. So ditch the tricycle and training wheels, and teach your child to ride a bike sooner and safer with a Strider™.

About Strider

At Strider Sports International, we’re enthusiastic about bike riding.  Some would say we’re even a bit obsessive.

But we’ve channeled our cycling mania to rethink the way a child should learn to ride a bike.

Balance comes first:

As a parent of two boys, Ryan McFarland became frustrated with the drawbacks of traditional beginner’s bikes.

“Tricycle tip-overs” and “training-wheel wobbles” create a fear, hesitancy, and dislike of bike riding.  And, after tinkering with several ideas, the answer hit Ryan: Balance and coordination should be taught before pedaling.

Yes, the traditional methods of learning to ride a bike have it backwards.  Tricycles and training wheels place too much of the focus on learning to pedal.

Reverse course. 

Bike riding becomes a breeze when you teach your child balance and coordination before pedaling.

Enter The Strider™ running bike:

The Strider™ running bike has been meticulously designed to teach your child balance and coordination.  From its lightweight design to its center of gravity and low seat height, the Strider™ is a bike your child can easily control.  And most importantly, the Strider™ is a bike that will develop glittering confidence and a lifelong love for bicycling.  Dare we say it will become your child’s favorite toy?

About Ryan McFarland

Ryan is the inventor of the Strider™ Running Bike. Born into a mechanical family, Ryan McFarland’s grandfather was a race car engineer and competed against racing legend Al Unser.  And Ryan’s father, Joe, owned a motorcycle dealership.

This early exposure to vehicles and all things mechanical influenced Ryan — at the age of five — to ride dirt bikes.  And later in life, he added mountain bike, dirt bike and stock car racing as a hobby.

With these experiences under his belt — in addition to a natural inclination to tinker — Ryan invented the world-renowned and U.S. Patented Thudbuster suspension seat-post for bicycles.  The Thudbuster is widely recognized as the premier suspension seat-post design in the biking industry.  And the inventions continued when Ryan also developed a U.S. Patented suspension system for wheel chairs.

Today, Ryan combines his passion for his children and bike riding by bringing you the Strider™ running bike.

Our Review

I contacted Ryan regarding doing a review of the Strider™ running bike because I have a 4-year-old who loves to ride his bike, however the kids in our neighborhood are all a little older and all ride 2-wheel bikes, so as you can imagine, he wants to be a “Big Boy” and ride a 2-wheeler also.  Within a matter of hours, I received an email back from Ryan, expressing how they’d love to have us review a bike.  The Strider™ running bike is designed for 1-5 year olds and designed to give your children a head start, provide fun, a safer way to learn, and eliminate costly repairs and end delays with a durable, low-maintenance design.

When I got the email, I was ecstatic and called my husband and son into my office to show them the great review we were going to do.  My husband thought it was awesome, my son on the other hand didn’t seem as enthused as the didn’t feel he was old enough for a 2-wheeled bike, even after we explained that it was a special 2-wheeled bike to teach him to ride a regular 2-wheeled bike.

Before too long, we received the Strider™ running bike via UPS and the review began!

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The bike is a little bit smaller than a regular toddler bike and weighs just about nothing (Thaddeus can carry it around).  It took less than 5 minutes to assemble and off to riding Thaddeus went.

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It took a little while for Thaddeus to get used to it, started off wobbly like we all do on a 2-wheeled bike and then he was off and didn’t want to stop!  Below is a little video my husband put together of Thaddeus testing out his new bike and as you will see it took him a little bit to get going on it and by the end of the video he was gliding across the street and up into the neighbors driveway without any problem.  The video was shot over a course of about one hour.  You’ll also hear his own little review of the bike at the very end.

If for some reason you are not happy with your Strider™ running bike there is a 60-Day money back guarantee and there is a one year warranty.

10/26/09 EDITED TO ADD THE FOLLOWING

As of today, Thaddeus is able to ride a 2-wheeled bike without any problems.  Please go to Shawn Ann’s World for an update.

The Giveaway

Ryan McFarland has generously offered to give one Frugal Plus reader a Strider™ running bike

To Enter:

Valid for Residents of the U.S. and Canada, age 18 and older. Please no PO Boxes.

Mandatory Entries:

** You must be a Subscriber of Frugal Plus. You are welcome to sign up on the right-hand sidebar of our blog (Follow Us section). Your subscription must be active, so be sure to check your email and activate it.

** Go to the Strider™ website and tell us which one you’d like if you were to win.

YOU MUST DO BOTH OF THE ABOVE FOR YOUR FIRST ENTRY

Extra Entries:

** Follow Frugal Plus on Twitter, and Tweet about this Giveaway. You may tweet once a day until the end of the giveaway for an extra entry. Leave the link and your username in your comment for each entry.

** Follow Shawn Ann on Twitter, and Tweet about this Giveaway. You may tweet once a day until the end of the giveaway for an extra entry. Leave the link and your username in your comment for each entry.

** Become a fan of Frugal Plus on Facebook (leave your ID in your comment)

** Place our button a on your website (Grab Our Button section). Leave a link in your comment to where the button or widget is located on your site.

This Giveaway will end on Tuesday, November 4, 2009 at 11:59PM EST.

The Winner will be chosen by Random.org. I will post the Winner here on Frugal Plus, as well as, email directly. You will then have 48 hours to claim your Prize.