Strider made a bike for a baby who can’t walk

Tummy time is four minutes of complaint, and by now you have tried the mirror, the crinkle book and the rolled-up towel under the chest. Strider’s answer, on sale tomorrow, is a bicycle — for a baby who cannot sit up yet, let alone walk. The Baby Balance Bike is $69.99, it is listed for ages 0 to 18 months, and it is the first genuinely new shape anyone on our list has made in a while.

What a baby does with a bike

Four things, according to Strider, and they arrive in order. First it lies on its side during tummy time and the baby bats at a wheel. Then the baby sits up next to it and spins the wheel on purpose. Then the baby sits on it, going nowhere, which is the stage that photographs well and lasts about a week. Then the baby stands and pushes it, which is the stage you actually bought it for.

The details are all sensory rather than electronic. The wheels carry raised letters, numbers and shapes; the grips are textured and twist; the tires are the closed, non-scratch kind that will not chew the floorboards. There are no batteries, no lights and no sounds, which after a year of light-up plastic reads less like a feature and more like a mercy.

The numbers, once

$69.99, in blue, green or pink. It weighs 2.4 pounds, so it is lighter than most of what it will be thrown at. The seat is fixed at 8.75 inches and the handlebar at 16 inches, which is the trade for the price: nothing adjusts, and the fit is an inseam of 9 to 12 inches. The rider limit is 30 pounds, the frame is polypropylene, it is made in the USA, and there is a two-year limited warranty.

One thing worth knowing before you click. Strider’s launch announcement says the bike is available now, but Strider’s own product page says otherwise: it is a pre-order, it reads out of stock in all three colors, and the release date on the page is September 22. So it is tomorrow, not today.

The one we’d buy, and the one we wouldn’t

If your kid is already walking, skip this. You have missed the window it was built for, and the $69.99 is better spent on a 12 Sport they will ride for the next three years. If you have a six-to-nine-month-old and a first birthday to shop for, this is the unusual case where the novelty item is also the sensible one: it is a floor toy for most of the time you own it, and a first bike for the last few months. Fixed seat, fixed bars, one size, eighteen months. Go in knowing that.

Strider’s in the club: all Strider bikes ship free when you go through Cubbie Club. See the Strider offer →