Glide Bikes Mini Glider Balance Bike

We bought two of these, one for our 3.5 year old and one for our 2 year old. Our 3.5 year old has been fine and has enjoyed it. But the handlebars are too high for our 2 year old. The handlebars do not adjust. In the photo, the seat is raised up very high. In reality for a 2 or 3 year old, the seat is much lower and the handlebars end up too high. We would have been better off with a Strider because the handlebars are low and also flat instead of curved.So far, our 3.5 year old hasn't used the foot rest at all. I think it's easier for him to balance with his knees bent and feet dangling vs. putting his feet on the foot rest. The hand brake is also hard to operate without good grip strength. When I picked this bike over the Strider I thought the footrest and the handbrake would be added value but in reality they have not been used.If your child is small and has short arms I wouldn't get this bike due to the high handlebars!

I have 2 boys, and gave the mini glider to the oldest for his 5th birthday. My youngest boy just turned 3 yrs old. I did a lot of research and finally purchased the mini glider at Amazon. Extremely fast delivery and quick and easy to assemble. I didn't want to spend $99 for a kids bike, but now I wish I had purchased it over a year ago. We tried removing pedals from old bikes, but they're all too heavy and not enough adjustment for height differences. My 5 yr old son learned how to balance on the mini glider within an hour. Within 2 hrs, he was riding down hills with his feet on the pegs. Within a day, he had built up his confidence to move from the paved area to riding down steep hills in the back yard. The bike was so light he was able to walk it back up the hill and glide back down many times. My 3 yr old learned how to move around and started lifting his feet within an hour. I was totally amazed at how he progressed the first day. At the end of the second day, he was riding 200 to 300 ft down hills with his feet on the pegs while going around curves. He has also learned to stand up on the pegs trying to do tricks. The bike is so light, he can pick it up and spin it around without much effort. He thinks he is doing wheelies by pulling the front tire off the ground. Both kids love the bike and argue over who gets to ride. They have given it the nickname "zoom-zoom". They even ride it in the house on carpet and hard wood floors (make sure you clean all the rocks off that gets stuck in the tires).My bike did not come with a kick stand as shown on one of the photos, but it is not really needed and could just get in the way.The tires do not grip as well as typical tires, but not having to worry about inflating them compensates for this problem.Great design overall and does an excellent job teaching balance and building confidence. Much better than training wheels !!

I purchased this as an upgrade to my 2 1/2 year old grandson's Strider. The foot pegs, kickstand, and hand brake all seemed like good ideas. The pegs to encourage foot off the ground coasting. The brake to learn braking and for safety on downhills. The kickstand for parking the bike. Unfortunately, most of these features were either not really useful, or were poorly manufactured or assembled. The brake barely works, and is very hard to adjust; nd of dubious value. The kickstand is difficult for a 2.5 year old to operate and unstable. The foot peg extension is too short and not adjustable. Also the headset assembly was lose and wobbly; the velcro on the nylon bar cover was coming off; the cover itself was frayed. While the Strider has fewer features, in my opinion, it is a sturdier product, and at the same price or less than the Mini Glider, a much better choice. Please note - I'm just a grandpa trying to help other grandpa's and grandma's. I have not relationship with either Strider or Glider manufacturer.

I bought this bike about a year ago for my son who was 26 or 27 months old at the time. He is quite tall for his age (90-95 percentile in height) and at that point it fit him perfectly at the lowest setting without taking out the plug at the bottom of the seat post. He was really not ready for the bike then, with a lot of prodding I could get him to walk it along for about 10 feet at a time before he abandoned it. We decided not to push him at that time. He is now 39 months old. We pulled the bike back out about two month ago. At first, he was scared to even walk on it but this time he progressed quickly. After about 7 weeks of riding once or twice a week he is now gliding like an expert. He is now 40-41 inches tall (he is the same height as a lot of the 4.5-5 year old kids that we know) Several inches of the seat post are showing, but I still have another inch or two of seat post left to raise the seat when I need to. This bike would probably fit a small to average sized 4-5 year old, but if you have a tall 4-5 year old this bike would be too small for them or they would out grow it really quickly.I also have a 23 month old son who is average height. He is currently about 34 inches tall. We took the plug at the bottom of the seat post out so that we could lower the seat all the way. Even with the seat all the way down, it is still slightly too high for him. This bike would probably fit a 35-36 inch tall kid perfectly at the lowest setting. We will pass this bike down to my younger son next summer when he turns 3. I let him try it now and then, but he still needs me to hold the handlebars for him to even make it a couple of feet without falling over.I love this bike, but there are a few things I am still a bit unsure about. I did not take any starts off for any of these issues because none of them seem like that big of a deal to me.1. The kick stand is both a blessing and a curse. It is nice to be able to prop the bike up when not in use. That said, my son has hurt himself on it a few times. He is not very good at getting it up before he starts riding. He pinched his finger in it once when putting it up (when he remembers to put it up at all, he uses his hand not his foot). He has also kicked it once or twice while riding and scraped his ankle. All that said, if I do find it to be too much of a problem, I could always just take the thing off.2. The handle bars on the bike keep twisting a bit, so that when the front wheel is straight the handlebars are not. I fixed it once about a month ago and have noticed they are twisting a bit again. It isn't that hard to fix, just a bit annoying. I may be able to tighten them down more if I try.3. The brake on the bike does not currently work. I may be able to fiddle with it and get it to work, but it has only been in the last week that I thought he needed it at all and I wanted him to learn to use his feet to stop first. A lot of the balance bikes don't have a break at all.