Any way to easily restrict handlebar turn on my 2yr old's bike?

Cianos · 12-08-2013 10:18AM #1

Hi folks,
I got a little Balance bike for my (soon to be) 2 year old. She loves it, but the front wheel is able to rotate 360 degrees. The problem with this is that it goes from under the bike way too easily.

She's only getting used to sitting and pushing and I think if I could fix the handlebar to either remain dead straight, or to have a lesser range of turn she'd find it much easier and end up on the floor a lot less!

This is the bike btw.

Thanks very much for any help!

DirkVoodoo · 12-08-2013 10:44AM

Balance bikes are for learning. Steering is part of learning. I don't think restricting the steering is a good idea, in fact it might be a disaster. Say she takes to it quickly and picks up some speed, suddenly the steering jams and she has a nasty spill?

Simply hold her on the bike and guide her, she will learn pretty quickly. I was in a shop and the difference in ability between kids who had ridden balance bikes and those who hadn't was staggering really. 10 year olds who still wanted stabilisers and that kind of thing.

Cianos · 12-08-2013 10:50AM

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Balance bikes are for learning. Steering is part of learning. I don't think restricting the steering is a good idea, in fact it might be a disaster. Say she takes to it quickly and picks up some speed, suddenly the steering jams and she has a nasty spill?

Simply hold her on the bike and guide her, she will learn pretty quickly. I was in a shop and the difference in ability between kids who had ridden balance bikes and those who hadn't was staggering really. 10 year olds who still wanted stabilisers and that kind of thing.

I agree with you, but I'm just going to tighten it up for a week or two so that she can take it one step at a time. Yesterday she had a fall and didn't want to get back on it so I think if she found it easier to just sit on and push before having to figure out steering she'd be more used to it and then could move on to steering then afterwards.

re my original question her mum is heading back in to the shop today so they're going to sort it.

victorcarrera · 12-08-2013 10:52AM

The motorcycle world solved a similar problem of the handlebar hitting the fuel tank by welding lugs to the fork and head tube. (Possibly not worth it).
An early steam roller analogy would be to tie each side of the front axle back to the base of the seat tube.
Best IMO is to insist on herwearing a helmet and leave her to it. It will
encourage creativity and help with her development.

Alek · 12-08-2013 10:55AM

How about a steering damper?

It does not affect steering when riding, especially when installed slightly loose, but restrict the handlebar when the bike is walked or stationary.

ThisRegard · 12-08-2013 11:48AM

Cianos wrote: »

She's only getting used to sitting and pushing and I think if I could fix the handlebar to either remain dead straight,

I wouldn't restrict the handle bars so that they can only be straight anyway, you need a bit of steering to maintain your balance, even as an adult.

Give her time and soon you'll be worried about her going too fast. My 3 year old is a terror on hers, I basically have to jog along side her to keep up and she's hoofing off kerbs for the craic, I can't imagine it's too comfortable as her wheels are pretty solid, and looking for hills to fly down.

You can see the confidence it builds too compared to similar aged, or older kids, who have a more traditional type kids bike with stabilisers.

This year Santy is bringing her a new bike, she's asked for one, and the thoughts of stabilisers hasn't even come into the equation.

letape · 12-08-2013 12:14PM

Cianos wrote: »

Hi folks,
I got a little Balance bike for my (soon to be) 2 year old. She loves it, but the front wheel is able to rotate 360 degrees. The problem with this is that it goes from under the bike way too easily.

She's only getting used to sitting and pushing and I think if I could fix the handlebar to either remain dead straight, or to have a lesser range of turn she'd find it much easier and end up on the floor a lot less!

This is the bike btw.

Thanks very much for any help!

My two year old also has a balance bike and loves it. There are some available that have restricted steering but we choose one that didn't (Strider) for this reason.

If a kid crashes on a bike with restricted steering they might injur themselves more as when the bike falls, the end of the bars will be sticking up from the ground, which could cause injury, as opposed to the bars being flat on the ground on a bike with full steering.

blorg · 12-08-2013 01:11PM

You NEED the steering to remain upright, that is how balancing on a bike works. Seriously, try locking the steering on your own bike and you will crash within seconds. It's the reason why the guy behind usually goes down in a wheel touch.

I don't think restricting the steering will help the way you think it will, it will make the bike impossible to balance on.

Lumen · 12-08-2013 01:35PM

Trail does the same thing.

blorg · 12-08-2013 04:12PM

Lumen wrote: »

Trail does the same thing.

Trail has an impact on handing but it is not strictly needed for stability. Steering is. You quite literally can't keep a bike with locked steering upright.

niceonetom · 12-08-2013 04:43PM

Lumen wrote: »

Trail does the same thing.

Trail is a measure of how far the contact patch is behind the projected axis of steering - so without an axis of steering the concept makes no sense at all. A bike with no steering has no trail (not [trail = 0mm] but [trail = wtf the question doesn't even make sense]).

Locking the steering would turn the bike into little more than a plank with a wheel at each end, and that would, as blorg has pointed out, be literally impossible to ride.

Some balance bikes come with range limiter like this:

Screen_shot_2013-06-19_at_11.19.40.png

If the fork is drilled for a brake I'd be looking improvise around that.

doozerie · 12-08-2013 05:01PM

Some, and perhaps all, of the LikeABike balance bikes come with a steering restrictor. It's basically a rubber ring that attaches to a bolt in the crown of the forks and to a mount point/lug under the down tube close to the headset. It's a neat design, out of the way, and by its nature the rubber doesn't impose a hard and sudden limit to steering.

It's visible just behind the forks in some of the photos on their website. You could perhaps rig up something rudimentary yourself - for example, rubber rings of various sizes are available from hardware stores that sell a decent range of rubber washers, and you could zip tie one "end" to the down tube and use a bolt or zip tie to attach the other "end" to the forks.

As regards doing this at all, I personally see no issue with it as a temporary measure to overcome a child's reluctance to use a bike. My own daughter had a heavy-ish balance bike topple over the first time she tried it in a shop and it set back her confidence quite a bit, to the extent that she is still very reluctant to use the (lighter) bike we subsequently bought for her. From that early experience she seemed to learn that something that balances on its own it preferable to something that doesn't. Balancing a bike can be a real challenge for a small child that has never encountered a bike before, and while I'm sure that some kids take to it immediately I know for certain that that's not always the case so anything that helps (safely) ease a reluctant child into it is worth considering.

doozerie · 12-08-2013 05:02PM

Ah, beaten to it by niceonetom. *snap*

petethedrummer · 12-08-2013 05:19PM

falling is part of learning.

doozerie · 12-08-2013 08:50PM

petethedrummer wrote: »

falling is part of learning.

Try convincing a 2yr old of that and you'll soon find yourself coming to the conclusion that compromise is part of surviving.

Some battles with kids you just can't win, and amongst these are "I don't want to eat that, so I won't", "I don't want to wear that, so I won't" and "I don't want to use that bike like it currently is, so I won't". I've learnt to embrace compromise, it has saved my sanity - well, some of it anyway.

Any way to easily restrict handlebar turn on my 2yr old's bike?

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