GETTING onto two wheels is a rite-of-passage for every child.

Getting my children on to two wheels though is associated with anxious memories of persuading them that they don’t need stabilisers and then racing behind them, holding on to the saddle of their newly liberated two-wheeler, hoping that they manage to stay upright and avoid grazed knees and hands and the loss of confidence that would follow.

But now we have balance bikes - and that transitional step from stabilisers to two wheels appears to be a thing of the past.

I am sure most of you will know what a balance bike is, but just in case you don’t know, it is a child-sized simple two-wheeler bike, with handlebars and steering and a comfortable saddle, but no pedals.

Children sit astride the bike with their feet firmly on the ground and those feet provide forward propulsion. They can then concentrate on learning to balance while moving forward on two wheels, and because their feet are right there on the ground they don’t (on the whole) fall off.

Balancing, rather than pedaling, is nine-tenths of the skill in learning to ride a bike, and the great thing about the balance bike, as the name suggests, is that it gives children the chance to develop that skill early on. Children who start their cycling career on balance bikes make the transition much more easily to a pedal bike than those that have learnt to cycle using stabilisers. I wasn’t really aware of the wonders of the balance bike until our grandson got one for Christmas last year when he was just turning two.

It required very little learning for him to start racing round the house, getting the hang of forward propulsion and steering.

Braking seemed to take a bit longer to learn so furniture and grandson seemed to get a bit dented at the early stages of ownership. But now at 2¾ he is a highly competent cyclist, zooming along paths when he can, going slow when, unfortunately for him, needs must, free-wheeling with legs up off the ground, and braking with both feet in a controlled way.

Some models have brakes and others require braking with feet.

He does though relish the ability to scare his parents and grandparents by racing right to the very edge of pavements at side roads before coming to an abrupt halt. He now happily races along for a mile or more on his bike, whereas he lingers and grumbles and asks for a shoulder ride if doing the same journey on foot.

There are lots of different balance bikes available now, at a whole range of prices. The first on the market was a wooden one in the 1990s but now there are plenty of other designs, the best being the lightweight aluminium ones.

What could be better than a Christmas present of a balance bike for your two or three year-old child or grandchild. You will be helping him or her towards that milestone in life of getting onto two wheels.