It’s not often that balance bikes steal the show, but this year the Kiddimoto Karbon was causing quite a stir at the Cycle Show Trade Day in Birmingham. Touted as one of the world’s lightest balance bikes, the stunning design of this carbon fibre balance bike was making loads of visitors stop, smile, get out their cameras and mutter words like “insane”, “ridiculous” and “evil”.
The Kiddimoto Karbon is the brain child of Kiddimoto founder Simon Booth who designed the balance bike earlier this year at the company’s HQ in Somerset. The bike really is incredibly light – our Technical Editor Chris could hardly believe it when he lifted the frame for the first time!
The Kiddimoto Karbon frame weighs in at just 350g and we can confirm that it is light enough to be lifted by just one finger.
The frame is made out of 3K carbon fibre weave and Kiddimoto had both a matte and gloss version of the Karbon on display at the Cycle Show.
The frame, forks, seatpost, stem and handlebars are all carbon fibre, which keeps the overall weight of the bike extremely low.
The Kiddimoto Karbon balance bike comes with a luxury gel saddle which has been designed to allow a child’s weight to be evenly distributed across the saddle to improve the comfort of the ride.
As you’d expect from Kiddimoto, renowned for having a range of kids helmets to match their balance bikes, the Karbon range has an accompanying helmet to complete the look for style conscious young riders.
All this doesn’t come cheap, but if you’re thinking your little sprog deserves such a beauty you’ll need to stump up £999.99 for the privilege. Those who thought Islabikes had gone too far with their £800 bike for a 4 year old are going to be delighted with this offering!
If you’re in the market for a carbon fibre balance bike, then Kiddimoto are currently taking pre-orders and the first bikes will be available at the end of November 2016.
Cycle Sprog understands that Kiddimoto are in discussions with some big name luxury stores, so if they pull off some deals, you can be sure the Karbon will become the “must have” bike for 3 year olds in certain areas of London.
UPDATE: In April 2017 the Kiddimoto Karbon went on sale priced £999.99
Kiddimoto will also be accepting bespoke orders, with a turnaround time of 10 weeks to create a customised bike. Valentino Rossi is apparently first on the list for one of these – not surprising as the multi MotoGP World Champion has been working with Kiddimoto on his own range of balance bikes, which are also launched in November.
There was an example of his bike also on display at the NEC, but it’s safe to say the carbon fibre balance bike was the star of the show!
For those of you without £1,000 to spend on a carbon fibre balance bike, Kiddimoto also do a huge range of fun, award winning balance bikes which are available from Halfords and Pro-Bike Kit (where Cycle Sprog readers can currently get 10% off!)
We’d love to know your thoughts on this £1,000 carbon fibre balance bike – leave a comment below!
For more news from the 2016 Cycle Show click here.
You may find these other articles useful:
- What is a balance bike?
- 10% discount code for 2019 Cycle Show
- 9 things to consider when buying a balance bike for your child
- Choosing the best balance bike for your child (a closer look at the makes and models available)
- The best balance bikes as recommended by parents
- Are these the 5 most desireable balance bikes ever?
- Take your kids to the 2019 Cycle Show for a great family day out
- Kidvelo to release two new balance-to-pedal bikes
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