Yeah the balance bike was a present at 1 year old to gauge interest as he grew. Definitely not necessary. We went all out with a Strider 12 pro though. He was

Yeah the balance bike was a present at 1 year old to gauge interest as he grew. Definitely not necessary. We went all out with a Strider 12 pro though. He was able to walk with it very early on but the 2 front wheel scooter captured his attention more. He loved riding on the Shotgun Pro seat though on our bikes. The gliding is definitely the skill needed. It helps to have somewhere with a slight incline like a driveway apron too. At least it made it less boring for my son. The problem I see with the gliding is that it wasn't all that interesting to my son. So it really took him to get old enough to realize it would be a step towards riding a real bike. What I can't believe is that the high end companies like Specialized, Trek, etc hadn't figure this out years ago. I can't believe they even still allow themselves to sell bikes with training wheels. I get that it's a short term sale for parents who don't know any better but you'd think they'd be better off if the kids actually learned to ride quickly and graduated to bigger bikes instead of maybe never learning to ride until much older. They should sell the bikes with the crank arms that can pop on and off with a quick release and without actually taking off the front sprocket. Even taking the pedals off the crank arms are still in the way.