It’s hard to say when my love of bicycles truly started. Was it from the sense of speed and freedom that came with my first two-wheeled adventures, or just the excitement of watching BMX Bandits and Street Hawk on the telly every week? Looking back it feels like there was less to do, few distractions, and no competition from things like ipads and YouTube.
But however ‘free range’ I was back then, my first experience of cycling certainly wasn’t at 9 months old. But that’s just who Woom, an Austrian firm making European designed and manufactured kids bikes out of Vienna, are targeting with its new WOW, a self-balancing bike for babies and toddlers.
(Image credit: woom)
“Balance bikes are the best way to teach your kid cycling. So we posed this ambitious question, could we make something that would allow even younger kids the opportunity develop the core motor skills needed from an even earlier age”.
Small, is an industrial design expert. He’s worked on KTM motorcycles to crash helmets and seemingly everything in between. Safety and two wheels is clearly a theme. With so many children’s bike brands buying in relatively basic stock from Asian suppliers, I was keen to find out what is special about the Wow.
“It sits in the toy category, but it was important to us that it’s still fundamentally a bike. That thought led a lot of the design decisions on the project.”
(Image credit: woom)
The mechanism that gives it its stability is a combination of the relatively wide tyre, with a shallow radius, combined with weight added in the bottom of the frame to give it some natural ‘ballast’ that tends to self centre it. The wheels still allow roll. The bars still move, but they’re damped and self centering.
Small explained that the handlebars couldn’t spin freely like they do on a conventional bike. That would cause the machine to fall over.
“The steering has a kind of steering damper. In the most gentle way possible the bars will always spring back to centre.”
(Image credit: woom)
Our conversation ranged from the challenge of meeting the maximum weight case, with the arguably more important regulations that mean everything has to be made to really good tolerances, helping keep kids safe from trapped fingers. I was surprised by the range Small had to – or chose to – consider.
“The single sided fork was a bit challenge. We have a use case we call ‘drunk dad at the barbecue’, which means the product has to be able to hold 80kg, in the event that use case occurs. It was extremely challenging to meet that and comply with the regulations essential for avoiding children trap their fingers.”
The bike features a relatively normal looking step through balance bike frame, with a composite material for the rear stays, fork and bars. Each component is make from a single material and nothing on the bike is bonded, which is key to making it recyclable at the end of it’s lifecycle.
(Image credit: woom)
The Woom WOW isn’t just a design exercise for a competitive dad, though. There’s real thinking that’s gone into how and why children benefit from this kind of early start to their cycling, and it’s logical that it helps children to move and learn, training a whole host of skills and supporting their early development on so many levels. Doctors are impressed too.
Dr. Katja Schmidhofer, a pediatrician and general medical specialist at Klinikum Klagenfurt, confirms just how important this approach is:
“The Woom WOW is so special because it has been carefully designed to help children achieve early development milestones from the age of 9 months in a way that is fun and boosts confidence. The design might look simple at first glance, but take a closer look to see all the child-specific details and understand just how much careful consideration and in-depth expertise has gone into creating this self-balancing bike.”
Will it prevent your kid from falling altogether, Small says, no, that’s not the idea.
“Falling is not failing – that’s the motto of the Woom WOW team, which encourages babies and toddlers to start exploring the world around them on two wheels with curiosity and confidence. Falling off and going again is part of that.”
(Image credit: woom)
Each WOW comes with a wow moment for the kids and grown-ups in the room when the woom WOW rolls out of the box all by itself too apparently. The bike arrives fully assembled and ready to go. With, Buddy, a soft toy made for playing, cuddling and learning and an illustrated booklet which woom hopes will inspire riding adventures. I suggested they include a subscription to Cycling Weekly too, and they’re going to get back to me.
The woom WOW is available to buy now from the woom online shop and through retailers.
