Woom GO 1 Balance Bike Review: Our Experience
Updated: 13 minutes ago
As my son approached his second birthday, we decided to buy him his first balance bike. He was already a very active toddler. He loved his Globber scooter with a seat, his Doona trike, and pretty much anything that let him move fast.
After researching balance bikes, visiting several bike shops and paying attention to what other young children were riding, one brand kept standing out: Woom.
So for his second birthday, we chose a Woom GO 1 balance bike.
I expected him to love it at first sight.
He didn't.
Why We Chose the Woom GO 1 Balance Bike
One of the main reasons I chose Woom was its weight and child-specific design. The current Woom GO 1 has 12-inch wheels, weighs around 3 kg and is designed for children roughly 1.5–3.5 years old or 82–100 cm tall.
But specifications weren't the only thing that mattered to me. The bike has a very low frame, an adjustable saddle, slim grips designed for small hands and, importantly, a child-specific rear hand brake. That last feature became more valuable than I expected.
A balance bike isn't only teaching a child to stay upright. They are also learning to steer, judge speed and stop — all skills they will eventually need on a pedal bike.
Our Difficult Start
Despite all my research, our Woom spent the first couple of months mostly sitting at home. My son simply didn't understand it. His seated scooter was familiar and fast. The balance bike required him to push, balance and steer at the same time without immediately giving him the speed he wanted.
We tried again and again without forcing him. Then one day my husband took him to a small, gradual hill and gently helped him start moving downhill. Suddenly, it clicked. For the first time, he experienced what it felt like to move while balancing rather than trying to learn balance and create momentum simultaneously. From that moment, everything changed.
From Walking to Actually Riding
Once he understood the basic idea, his progress was surprisingly fast. First came walking with the bike. Then longer pushes. Then lifting his feet for a second. And eventually he was gliding with both feet completely off the ground.
Woom itself describes the balance-bike learning process as progressing from walking and pushing to balancing, steering and braking. That was almost exactly what happened with us. Soon our son was moving fast enough to ride alongside older children on pedal bikes. He even developed his own version of a footrest, placing his little feet on the frame while gliding.
What I Particularly Liked
The low weight made a huge difference. At this age, a bike that is easy for the child to control and easy for the parent to carry home when the child suddenly refuses to ride, what is extremely useful.
I also really liked the hand brake. Woom uses an ergonomic brake lever designed for small hands and short fingers. Our son learned to use it long before he moved to pedals.
By the time we introduced his first pedal bike, braking wasn't another completely new skill he had to learn.
Is the Woom GO 1 Worth It?
For us, yes - but not because it magically made our child ride earlier. Quite the opposite. For several months, I wondered whether we'd bought an expensive bike that he simply wasn't interested in.
What eventually made it worthwhile was how naturally his skills developed once he was ready. The Woom balance bike taught him balance, steering, braking and confidence on two wheels. Around his third birthday, we moved him directly to a Woom 2 pedal bike. We never used training wheels.
And looking back, I think those hundreds of kilometres - or what certainly felt like hundreds while running behind him - on his little balance bike were the foundation for everything that came next.
Next: Read about our transition from the balance bike to the Woom GO 2 - and why we decided to skip training wheels completely.
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