Special Needs Tricycles vs Bicycles

Finding the right type of bike for your child with special needs can be difficult.

There are so many different types of bikes out there, and it’s hard to know which one is best for your child.

Special Needs Tricycles vs Bicycles – Which One Is Right For Your Child?

Specialized tricycles are designed specifically for children who have physical disabilities that make riding a bike more difficult. These bicycles typically have three wheels instead of two, and they’re often equipped with hand brakes or foot pedals to help riders stop easily. The seats on these bikes also tend to be higher off the ground than typical bicycles, making them easier to mount from a wheelchair or other mobility device. These tricycles are designed with the child in mind, and they’re a great choice for children who don’t have enough strength to ride a two-wheeled bike.

Specialized tricycles offer many benefits over traditional bicycles:

Children whose disabilities impact their upper body strength can struggle to steer and control a standard bicycle because doing so requires a great deal of upper body movement. A trike, on the other hand, is controlled by a rider’s feet and legs, which means that he or she can pedal without having to use their arms.

Children whose disabilities affect their coordination may have trouble staying balanced when riding a two-wheeled bicycle. A tricycle eliminates this problem because the third wheel makes it much easier for a rider to maintain his or her balance.

Children who have trouble steering a bike can find that a tricycle is much easier. In fact, many children with autism prefer riding trikes over bikes because they don’t demand the same level of attention and focus that steering does.

The weight of a child’s body isn’t the only thing that tricycles are designed to support. If your child is a frequent passenger on a bicycle, you can find a model with a built-in backrest that will help balance his or her weight and make it easier for them to stay aboard.

The special needs tricycles are better because the kids cannot step on the pedals of a bicycle: The minimum size of a children’s bicycle is 12 inches, and its seat height is a bit too high for children under 100cm in height. It is also difficult to step on and off the bus, and parents need help.

Kids’ exercise ability is weak, but their ambition is strong: Many children like bicycles at first. But after falling a few times, they fear or reject bicycles. It is my biggest concern. Driven by curiosity and eagerness, the kids will try to ride a kids’ bicycle. Because of the unskilled control and the general coordination of the body, falling is an inevitable result. Therefore, to prevent the kids from repelling bicycles because of falling, many parents decide to proceed step by step and start with tricycles.

Traveling artifact: The kid is reluctant to ride a cart. They feel that riding a cart is restricted and not free. But they could not walk alone for too long at an early age. So, every time going out, a special needs tricycle is an excellent choice.

Regarding the recommendation of PUKY, Germany’s first baby bike brand, foreign children have a rigorous process of learning bicycles:

• Step 1: Scooter and balance car
• Step 2: Special needs tricycle and scooter
• Step 3: Finally, it is the bicycle.

If the child follows this process to learn, he will find it easy when learning to bike. Because through the previous steps, he will have excellent control over speed and balance. Is each of the above vehicles necessary for children from domestic families?

First, all purchases require a certain degree of economic affordability. Second, ample storage space in the home is needed, and there is enough space to place these vehicles. We believe that some of PUKY’s recommendations are not a necessary step for learning to bike. Whether to choose, we should decide it according to the child’s character and athletic ability.

If the child has good physical coordination, motor cells, and an ability to accept new things, you can buy a bicycle (with auxiliary wheels) and skip the steps of a balance bike or tricycle. However, if the child’s physical coordination skills are average, it is more suitable for special needs tricycles than for scooters or bicycles.

What are the Benefits of a Special Needs Tricycle Over a Bicycle?

Compared to bicycles, a special needs tricycle has many benefits, especially good for your baby.

Your baby will be healthier and sooner can ride a bicycle

For a tricycle, the baby needs to walk steadily to contact and use it quickly. The age from 1 to 5 is the age when babies are forming habits and rapid physical development. So, your baby will soon become active, agile, and sooner know how to ride a bike than their peers.

Exercise and physical development

Movable objects such as a balancer always have an attraction to babies. So, instead of letting your baby sit between electronic devices from TV to smartphone, buy a tricycle for your baby, making sure your baby will want to go out to explore the best.

Self-reliance is formed

According to the experts, the rate of successful children who are independent at an early age is much higher than the dependent children. You can do this by practicing your child’s balance cart and encouraging your child to be independent at a young age.

Early formation of confidence

Everyone riding a car will fall once, and your baby will too. But allowing your baby to experience stumbling and practice standing up will form a baby with self-control and confidence to face all challenges. It will arouse more excitement and confidence in himself when going through the challenges. The road is difficult, and the baby will soon be successful in adulthood.

Increase communication with the outside world

Let the children interact with each other will be very good for the ability to communicate with outside. You should encourage your baby to come to play with friends so that your baby chats with friends and learns to make friends.

Learn About Special Needs Tricycles and Regular Bicycles

Choosing a bicycle for your baby is one method to help a child in a big or rural city get active and go out to play a motor game. Bicycles bring to the baby in the development and completion process. It is excellent for development and team spirit concentration.

Usually, parents often choose to give their baby bicycles with auxiliary wheels to support their baby. They want to keep balance while playing so that the baby does not get trauma. When your baby has mastered and got used to the bicycle, parents can remove the extra wheel so that the baby can play by himself like a traditional two-wheel bicycle.

However, there are many downsides to letting your baby use this vehicle that you have not known. It is why the balancing vehicle was born to overcome the weaknesses of the bicycle with auxiliary wheels to help babies practice balance while riding better. Also, a lot of comments on the selection of bicycle wheels or infant car balance. You can learn and compare watches to learn the pros and cons of special needs tricycles and bicycles. You can get the most accurate view of these two types of vehicles through the research.

Regular Bicycles

Advantages

• Children easily control without worrying about falling injuries, as long as they sit on and ride the bike.
• You can reuse a baby’s bike when it transforms into a regular bike by removing the auxiliary wheel.
• This is a safer bike for your baby’s use zone with auxiliary wheels or three balance wheels. Ensure equal self does not fall.

Disadvantages

• Can only move on flat terrain to create balance for the car, baby-seated terrain will be difficult to go.
• When removing the side wheel, children have difficulty controlling the car because there is no balance between It is difficult for children to get used to and take a long time to operate a 2-wheel bicycle without the side wheel.

Special Needs Tricycles

Advantages

• The legs operate as much as possible as the baby often uses the legs to push. It makes the bones more strong and supple, beneficial for the baby’s later height development.
• When riding a balanced vehicle, children can easily learn how to maintain balance quickly without help. They can control the car more flexibly with two feet and glide easily on the road, bringing many unique experiences for children.
• The volume of the speedy balancer is usually super light. The 2-year-olds can easily carry over obstacles.
• When riding a helicopter, they can be independent as learning how to control by themselves without depending on the help of adults. Your children can build a solid foundation to help your baby get in touch with traditional two-wheeled bicycles.

Disadvantages

• After your baby knows how to keep the balance, buy another regular bicycle for your baby to transfer to him/her an ordinary two-wheel bike.

How To Choose a Children’s Special Needs Tricycle?

Regarding how to choose a children’s tricycle, we found an official letter of advice from the Aussie Childcare Network. Written in every detail, it mentioned all possible safety hazards and points that need extra attention when selecting. Children’s tricycles are suitable for children aged 2-4 years old, mainly driven by the child concerned with mechanical and physical safety.

Visual Inspection

• Check whether the small parts on the car are easy to fall off to avoid the risk of suffocation because of children’s accidental ingestion.
• Check whether there are sharp corners, burrs, and sharp edges to avoid scratching the children’s skin.
• Check the places that children can easily touch and the activities that are easy to reach. You should know whether there are round holes or gaps (5mm-12mm) similar to the size of children’s fingers between the rigid parts to avoid pinching the children’s fingers.
• Try not to buy tricycles with fancy designs. For example, there will be some plastic cartoon toys on the handlebars. Toys can easily touch or injure children when they fall or fall while playing.

The more scattered the parts and accessories used in the tricycle’s assembly, the higher the possibility of round holes and cracks. Integrated parts are much safer. With more spare parts, the requirements for installation are even higher. If the installation is improper, during the riding/pushing process, there will likely be problems such as the non-smoothness or failure to ride/push.

Screw and Sharp Edge Inspection

National standards stipulate that the exposed screw thread is difficult to be too long. It cannot exceed the outer diameter of the screw itself. Besides, the exposed protrusions are difficult to exceed 8mm, otherwise, the ends must be rounded. Besides, the end of the vehicle should be equipped with a protective cover and fixed firmly.

The more parts and accessories used in the tricycle’s installation, the more screws are needed. There will be more danger of loosening the screw. Therefore, the best way to assemble the parts is to fix the card slot. Individual stress points need special reinforcement, and the location of reinforcement is best designed in a hidden place that is not suitable for children to reach.

Stability Check

The seat of the tricycle should not be too high. If the seat is too high, the child’s entire center of gravity will be higher when riding, so it is easy to fall. When buying, let the child sit in the car, tilt the tricycle to a certain angle, or raise the wheel about 10cm to see if the car will tip over. If it falls, it proves that the tricycle has a serious design problem, so avoid buying it.

Many tricycles on the market are available in the style of baby strollers with the windproof/shades installed on the tricycles. The height of the entire tricycle is higher than that of an ordinary tricycle. It is more difficult for children under two years of age to climb into the car independently and requires the help of parents. This type of vehicle has a heavier body that makes it more difficult for children to ride. A tricycle with a small body and a shorter seat is easier to handle. So, children can get on and off the bike freely, and it is lighter to ride.

Drive Device Inspection

The driving part of the children’s tricycle should be a dead-fly system. So, there is no brake device. The dead-flying system means that the child pedals forward, the car will move. When pedaling backward, the car will move backward. When the tricycle is implemented, the pedals will move with the wheels. If the tricycle does not have a dead-flying function. When a child is riding, no brake will easily cause the tricycle to coast and cause a collision risk.

Tricycles with a price of more than RMB 300 come with a dead-flying system. Besides, a front pedal safety lock is also fitted. When the baby’s feet cannot reach the pedals and can only be placed on the pedals, we can open the safety lock to lock the pedals. It can prevent the baby from being hit by the pedal.

Pedal Inspection

Whether the pedal distance of the children’s tricycle is too small in the lowest state. The lowest part of the pedal should not be less than 40mm above the ground to prevent children from being injured when their feet hit the ground during riding.

Auxiliary Push Rod Inspection

We should carefully inspect tricycles with auxiliary pushrods when purchasing. If we find the auxiliary push rods to be weakly installed or thinner, we should purchase them carefully.

Even if the material of the push rod is safe, check whether the installation is firm and whether the screws are loose. To prevent the pushrod from falling off during the implementation process, causing danger.