These days, luxury carmakers don’t only sell luxury cars. Bugatti, for instance, recently announced a very special pool table designed for use on superyachts. Naturally, it was built from carbon fibre, and featured gyro stabilisation to keep it level on the water. The price? A cool £216,000 (€250,000). That’s huge money to most people – enough to buy an entire supercar, from some other manufacturers – but not such a big deal to Bugatti customers, who spend on average the same on options when ordering their Chiron hypercars.
Fortunately, Bentley’s new balance bike is rather more affordable. If you haven’t heard the term, a balance bike is essentially a bike with no pedals, which allows kids to concentrate on learning the balance required to ride a bicycle, without getting bogged down with the added complication of having to pedal at the same time.
Bentley’s balance bike costs £450, so you don’t have to be able to afford a superyacht to afford one. But being able to afford a Bentley Bentayga probably helps, because this entry level piece of British luxury transport still looks pretty expensive next to the £30 balance bike listed on the Halfords website. Plus, you’d feel a bit of an idiot getting it out of the boot of your Kia.
So what do you get for your money versus the £30 Halfords machine? Well, much like comparing a Dacia Sandero with a Bentley Continental, the Bentley is better equipped and built from superior materials.
Available in Sequin Blue, Onyx, Glacier White or Dragon Red, the Bentley bike is built around a fancy magnesium alloy frame that weighs just 650g, and is fitted with lightweight aluminium wheels wrapped in 12-inch tyres.
There’s a wavy disc brake on the back wheel, a leather-covered seat with a carbon fibre-look finish, and the rubber handlebar grips feature a quilted design echoing the traditional pattern of the seat stitching on many Bentley cars.
And just to let the other mums and dads know you splashed out on the Bentley of balance bikes, there’s a winged ‘B’ badge on the frame below the handlebars, plus Bentley lettering on either side of the frame’s rear legs that is just begging to be scraped off when your three-year old hurls it to the ground thoughtlessly at the park to go and play on the climbing frame.
But even if kids don’t appreciate what they’re riding, geeky (or just image conscious) mums and dads will. In fact, it looks so good, you might be tempted to have a go yourself, though that’s probably not wise: a 35kg load limit means this Bentley definitely isn’t for fat cats.
Keyword: Bentley Starts Kids Young With A £450 Balance Bike