Strider PREbikes have become a 'quiet rage' by helping toddlers master two-wheel bike skills sooner

A bicycle invented by a one-time student at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins is one of the fastest selling products at bike shops throughout Colorado and the United States.

Ryan McFarland’s Strider PREbike, a no-pedal alternative to tricycles and training wheels, has become a quiet rage among Front Range parents who are discovering that their toddlers can acquire the balance and coordination necessary for regular two-wheel biking at a surprisingly early age.

In neighborhoods and parks around Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs and the Western Slope, children as young as two years old are using McFarland’s custom-engineered Strider PREbikes to join their friends and older siblings on bike outings, and to gain self-confidence and early independence, while simultaneously redefining how America’s youngest children learn to bike.

“Toddlers are eager to ride independently like the big kids and our PREbikes let them do it a lot sooner and more safely than do trikes or training wheels,” says McFarland, who invented the first Strider PREbike in his garage for his then 2-year-old son, Bode.

Strider PREbikes are lightweight, weighing less than 7 pounds, and feature a low seat height and patent-pending frame design and wheelbase that make it easy for kids to maintain control and perfect their center of gravity. Children use their own leg-power to propel the bikes, thus eliminating the focus that traditional bike training methods have placed on pedaling.

“Balance and coordination should be taught before pedaling, not vice versa,” says McFarland, 41, who now lives and runs Strider Sports International from Rapid City, South Dakota. Strider Sports is a media relations client of this columnist.

Indeed, as McFarland discovered, the optimal propulsion method for young children, especially facing even a mild uphill slope or off-road path is striding, because toddlers do not yet have the leg-length and muscle strength required for many pedaling tasks.

“Pedaling doesn’t define riding a bike, balance and control do,” he says. “Children can easily control a two-wheeler early in their development and then add in pedaling later when their leg power has more fully advanced.”

Satisfied customers and bike shop owners throughout the country have inundated McFarland with testimonials about toddlers who rapidly transitioned from their Strider PREbikes to standard two-wheel pedal bicycles sooner than early childhood development ‘experts’ assert is possible.

Michelle Bontrager, owner of the Urbanistic Tea Bike Shop located at 3215 Lowell Boulevard in Denver, says she is a big fan of Strider PREbikes because they “are such an easy way for children to learn how to ride bikes.”

Bontrager says she evaluated a variety of so-called “learner” bikes and preferred the Strider PREbikes because they are durable, lightweight and come with a solid tire that never goes flat. Bontrager, whose shop does not carry tricycles, recommends children begin with the PREbikes at 18 months old.

In Vail, Sharon Treacy, co-owner of Kid Sport (122 East Meadow Drive), which sells the Strider PREbikes, says “they are very popular.” Treacy, who has grandchildren living in Idaho, says she is planning to give one of the PREbikes to her 17-month-old granddaughter later this week when the toddler and her family come to Colorado for a visit. “It’s a great idea because a child [that young] can get on a bike and handle it,” Treacy says.

Kid Sport also has a store in Denver located at 613 E. Jewell Avenue.

“We typically can knock one to two years or more off the age necessary for your son or daughter to safely ride and control a regular two-wheeler,” McFarland maintains. “In the meantime, while your toddlers are growing their skills and confidence, they just love the nearly-instant mobility our PREbikes provide them.”

Unlike tricycles and training-wheels, which often become unsteady when not on smooth, flat pavement, kids on Strider PREbikes are able to venture ‘off road’ and on uneven or undulating paths without worrying about tip-overs. Moreover, unlike trikes and training-wheels which some children still cling to at ages seven and even older, Strider PREbikes lead the child through a simple and natural progression to independent two-wheel pedal biking.

To create the Strider PREbike, McFarland initially stripped and then re-engineered a child’s two-wheeler that he bought at a neighborhood K-Mart, welding in modifications and removing materials to lighten the frame and lower the seat height to less than a foot from the ground. The changes were critical adjustments aimed at accommodating a toddler’s shorter inseam and reduced leg-muscle power.

McFarland’s goal was not to invent a new category of kids’ bikes or launch a new company, only to satisfy his son’s wish to emulate McFarland’s own biking passion.

McFarland, whose grandfather was a racecar engineer and whose father owned a motorcycle dealership, himself began dirt biking at the age of five. Valedictorian of his high school class, he enrolled at CSU as a mechanical engineering student but dropped out because he felt constrained by the college life.

A tinkerer, entrepreneur and businessman, McFarland was running his own successful Rapid City mortgage company when he created the first PREbike. Earlier in his career, McFarland harbored ambitions of becoming a professional racecar driver until his dreams and leg were shattered when he was clipped by a speeding car while working on a racetrack.

McFarland’s transition from creating a single PREbike prototype in his garage workshop to manufacturing tens of thousands of units in China (and having them shipped and freighted to his distribution warehouse in South Dakota) was eased by the fact that the Strider PREbike wasn’t McFarland’s first successful invention for the biking community.

In the mid-1990s, McFarland invented and patented the Thudbuster suspension seat-post for bicycles, which has become the premier bike seat suspension in the industry and is widely used around the world. McFarland sold the rights to Thudbuster in 1998 although he still keeps a hand in the business.

McFarland’s Thudbuster experience helped pave the way to marketing Strider PREbikes to bike shops and bike distributors. Since sales of Strider PREbikes began in November 2007, the toddler phenom has been driven largely by positive word-of-mouth. Strider PREbikes are now available through nearly 1,000 dealers nationally as well as from the company’s web site at www.stridersports.com.

McFarland, whose sister lives and teaches in Ft. Collins, says his company plans to build 60,000 PREbikes this year and aspires to sell more than one million of the toddler bikes before the decade is out.

The most satisfying aspect of his business, McFarland explains, is how beloved his Strider PREbikes become with toddlers, such as his son Bode, who often continue to enjoy them long after they’ve mastered two-wheel pedal bikes.

“Parents love the fact that our PREbikes help foster an early habit of getting outdoors and being active,” McFarland notes. “While so many toys grab the attention of children for an hour or two before kids lose interest or the toys break, our durable bikes provide years of reliable, no-maintenance fun and growth.”

Indeed, among the hundreds of PREbike fan letters McFarland says he has received are dozens from parents who rave that their toddlers insist on keeping their PREbikes in their bedrooms at night – and even in their beds.

Front Range bike shops that sell Strider PREbikes include:

• Urbanistic Tea Bike Shop • 3215 Lowell Blvd. • Denver • 303-561-3025
• Cycle Analyst • 722 South Pearl Street • Denver • 303-722-3004
• Kid Sport • 613 East Jewell Avenue • Denver • 303-282-4481
• Full Cycle • 1795 Pearl Street • Boulder • 303-440-1002
• Kid Sport • 122 East Meadow Drive • Vail • 970-476-3200