# Strider Sports push-bike mods....getting my 3 year old on the trails!



## sparrow (Dec 30, 2003)

My 3 year old has been riding his Strider since 14 months (started just "walking" with it...). As his skills improved, he's now able to rip around town and on some mellow machine built singletrack out behind our house.

I swapped out the foam/plastic tire/wheel combo to some alloys with pneumatics (adds a fair bit of weight over the foam jobbers which work amazingly well, but don't have a brake track). I tiny bit better traction on dirt trails, and now that he's heavier/stronger, he can boss the tires around a bit.

And we just welded on some V brake studs under the stays. Gotta find a crazy tiny brake lever, but I think that should be easy enough. The Avid is temporary until then. Very smooth/short cable run, and very light action springs mean a hand brake he can really utilize. And the brake is 100% out of his way. Simple addition, really.

He's a little dude for his age, so the Strider is still the only one he can ride! We've tried Burley, Specialized, Raleigh and some others, and he still can't ride any of them as well as he was gliding this one from Strider many months ago already! Tiny grips, tiny seat, ultra light and very low standover makes a great push bike. Brakes and better rubber just up the ante now that he's gliding more aggressively.


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## logbiter (Dec 30, 2003)

cool mods, I like the addition of the brakes! Let us know if you find some small/short reach levers.

I had to do some mods after the kid left the bike behind the mini-van. Replaced the fork, front tire, stem, handlebars & added the headset from a donor $3 huffy from Goodwill. I cut down some old alu handlebars to lighten it up a bit. He still prefers the push bike to the 16" pedal bike, I don't blame him. He's now riding the wee-ride in this pic, since it's bigger, although much heavier. I never bothered to get the longer seatpost for the strider though.


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## sparrow (Dec 30, 2003)

I see a lot of kid's bikes like your Strider! Parts from this or that, just keep those kids rolling!


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## sparrow (Dec 30, 2003)

*Brakes make the kid feel "moto"*

Still need to get the brake lever closer to the bar, but I have a plan. Now that he's got brakes, the little dude feels more "moto". From a recent DJ Park session:


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## sparrow (Dec 30, 2003)

*Short video from our shuttle-bomb trail.*

Lucky to have this behind the house. He still "outriggers" with his feet, but also drags the new hand brake.


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## patineto (Oct 28, 2005)

A friend of mine made this Linkage lever looking for closer reach, I hope it helps.


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## sparrow (Dec 30, 2003)

Very cool brake mod! My guy's Strider has 12mm diameter bars, so I plan to cut out a 22.2 mm circle of plastic (like cutting board material) with a 12mm hole drilled on the outer edge, so the brake lever will be mounted on an eccentric and can be moved in towards the bar..... plus a link like this? could be sweet.


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## adamm3 (Mar 26, 2007)

TEKTRO BRAKE SYSTEMS

These came on my little ones Spawn 16" bike. They have reach adjustment, but the shape of the lever also helps with the small hands.


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## GMF (Jan 10, 2004)

I've literally bent the brake levers before to get them closer to the bar. But kids brake levers are fairly easy to find and are definitely easier to grab for little hands.


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