Originally Posted by
masiman
For a 2.5 year old you are likely a little early on the bike. They typically don't start pedaling until they are about 4. There are some that start earlier, but for the most part you won't see them have enough strength and coordination to pedal and steer a bike until around 4.
My kids started riding when they were around 2.5yrs old. Course it was also a 10" bike, but they pedaled and controlled it just fine.
IMO, I would just get a cheapo, they're gonna grow out of it in a cpl years and its goin to see a lot of abuse when they start learning to ride w/o training wheels. I just bought my twins $45 16" bikes from WM. I couldnt see spending $200+ at my LBS. Not even 15min into riding them for the first time my daughter wiped out. One thing I saw that I may get down the road is spring tensioned training wheels. Looks like they would be great for uneven surface and maybe it will allow them to lean to one side or the other to get the more nature feel of leaning a bike into a turn.