Review: Chillafish Bunzi Balance Bike/Trike

B loves riding her new balance bike

Bronte has started to show a lot of interest in riding a bike & does quite well on most of the kiddie cars she encounters on a regular basis. I lowered the seat on her big brother's old Adams Runner Bike & tried her on it, but unfortunately, my girl is a couple inches shy of being tall enough. I looked around everywhere to find a balance bike with a lower minimum standover height, but found few options. Bronte actually discovered one herself: when Oliver took the kids to the park one day, she commandeered some other toddler's little bike. Oliver hadn't seen this type before, so thankfully he asked & noted the name of it: Chillafish Bunzi.

He told me about it when he got home & we looked it up online. I got a little disheartened to see it listed for $200 with some online retailers. Then Oliver remembered the dad he spoke to said they'd bought it at Canadian Tire. $60! I still wasn't convinced that she needed one, as we could just wait until she gets tall enough for the balance bike we already have sitting around. Then I realized that she's not going to be tall enough for the balance bike until after the summer, probably, so she'll have to wait a lot longer than her brother did to start riding (he started at 20 months). Which would be sad, really, as she's really ready to start now.

So I decided to splurge on the Bunzi. It's a neat little bike which you can convert from a narrow trike to a balance bike by removing the seat, then flipping the frame around. It's a bit hard to explain--this video shows you:


We've had it a few weeks now, so here are my first impressions:

• It's perfectly sized for a kid 1-2 years old & easy to toss in the stroller basket for park outings
• The seat isn't adjustable: it sits in a lower position when the wheels are wide, a higher position when the wheels are together, so if your kid is on the tall side or older than 18-24 months, it'll be too small
• The wheels are solid rubber so they give a little more grip & shock absorption than the hard plastic kiddie cars that she's used to
• The steering is stiffer than many runner bikes, so it's harder to "jackknife" & fall over
• The Bunzi is entirely plastic, but it's ABS, so it's sturdier than the other plastic ride on toys we have--one of her little friends gave it a test by dragging the bike on its side across a few feet of pavement--hardly scratched
• The rear wheels are only about 15 cm apart which makes it more challenging to balance than a car style ride on toy, but also easier to scoot on, as her feet don't get caught in the wheels as she moves them

If you have a kid who really wants to ride a bike & is quite young or just short like B, this is a great little bike. I wish we'd known about it sooner, as I think B could have started riding it even earlier. The Chillafish Bunzi does come in several colours, though Canadian Tire only seems to carry the green.

Check out www.chillafish.com for more information

Disclaimer: I was not provided with a free bike to review, or compensated in any way for this post.

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