Vitus Nippy balance bike wheel upgrade.

[blizzard]

A bit of a fun project, I thought I would share.

Early this year I got my toddler a Vitus Nippy balance bike because it was one of the lightest balance bike around at <2kg and also cheap at $73 shipped from Wiggle (I'm a big believer that with balance bikes the lighter the better a lot are around 4kg, that would be the equivalent of me riding a 25kg bike). Unfortunately Wiggle has stopped selling these into Australia now

It has been a fantastic bike and my son loves riding it but the biggest downside is the 10" foam wheels, and the plastic bushing headset instead of a traditional headset (not sure on the headset longevity, it's fine for now). So I decided to upgrade the bike, as inspired by this post https://www.mtbr.com/threads/vitus-nipp ... e.1100358/

Que, searching on AliExpress, found a set of 12" alloy balance bike wheels with 95mm axle (also fits Strider bikes) for $75 shipped and also CST 12 X 2 Ironkid tyres with tubes for $50 a set shipped. These arrived earlier this week. Fitted them last night and they look great. The bike is now roughly 2.4kg, still one of the lightest options around.

Stock bike


Stock wheels at 772g


New wheels at 1188g.


Wheels ready for install


Completed bike


A couple thoughts:
1. The new wheels spin much smoother and longer than the stock wheels, I suspect the stock wheels use bushes rather than bearings.
2. At a total cost now of $200 there are a lot more options, but not too many this light with pneumatic tyres. Spend $40 more you can get the Hornit Airo which is 2.95kg and has a proper headset.
3. It's hard buying affordable 12" tyres for balance bikes, lots are made for escooters and weigh over 1kg each Schwalbe makes Big Apple in 12x2 but they are close to $40 ea and weigh 60g more than the CST.

[Thoglette]

Interesting build & interesting compromises.

[blizzard]

After ordering the wheels and tyres, I realised I could probably achieve the same result for <$30 by buying a second-hand bike off FB market place and swapping the wheels.

[Mububban]

Nice work!

[blizzard]

Can confirm the new wheels are a hit, quick to spin up and hold speed well . Also looks much better.

The wheels are available in a number of anodized colours, not just black. Also carbon rims are available but cost $400.

[Mr Purple]

Fantastic work! Good to see the attention to detail.

I was particular about bike weights when it came to teaching my daughter. It annoyed me how often you'd see a size suitable for 4-6 year olds advertised as 'lightweight' and then work out it was 12-13kg.

Bit rough on the kids being expected to ride a bike well over half their weight.

[blizzard]

The update no-one asked for. Mods are still going well, a big upgrade over the stock wheels. I have done one further change, I replaced the straight valve inner tubes with bent valves as it's much easier to get a track pump on the bent valve.