LittleBig 3-in-1 bike makes walking redundant for tots

I suppose this is the new craze for time-poor city commuters?

Nope, that breed of adorable muppet is still rocking electric micro-scooters. This is transport for the battalions of bonny wee bounceboxes that are the nation’s children. How quickly they grow! And how quickly they grow out of the expensive wooden balance bike you bought them! And if they are to grow up into the next-but-one generation of Danny MacAskills and Lizzie Armitsteads then we must keep the little medallers on the road. Enter LittleBig.

Enter LittleBig, indeed. What’s their angle?

Modularity, ho! What starts off as a low-slung balance bike for teenies can have its bits flipped to make it a slightly taller balance bike for when they level up. And then, if they survive the many slings and arrows of sprog life, they can celebrate with the slotting in of an actual drivetrain. No more feeble footwork; our brave little bundle of exponential cell generation can now access the power of geared engineering. Mum and Dad, it should be noted, are happy.

Are they now? For why?

Because one bike purchase (for €195, about £145) has given them several iterations of biker. One who has never had to suffer the ignominy of ‘growing into’ an ill-sized bike, nor the morale-sapping inefficiency of riding one that is too small. And whence the burgeoning blighter gets their first sponsor-funded pro bike – at about age seven – Mums and Dads who are following the time-honoured two-child route can simply reassemble the LittleBig back into its littlest form and start the process all over again.