Easy rider without the training wheels.

• Position: What's New? - Early Rider bicycle - Brief article

Leave it to the Brits to destroy an American tradition--and make perfect sense while doing so. When Englishman Andy Loveland's son turned three, his father wanted to teach him to ride a bike, but without training wheels. So, combining British innovation with American West Coast style, he came up with the Early Rider, a no-pedal, no-training wheels chopper-style bicycle made of birchwood that exceeds all U.S. and European toy safety standards.

Loveland maintains that his ambition is to get every child mobile--without the use of stabilizers (read, training wheels). The Early Rider series consists of Lite (20 months), Classic (two years), and Evolution (3.5 years) models. All of them have pneumatic tires with aluminum rims and a notched fork at the end for...