Bella Velio

Active Balance Control™

The ABC system works by simulating exactly what we do instinctively, as adults, to keep a bicycle upright. When we lose balance on a bike, we turn sharply in the direction we’re falling. By following the fall, we keep the bicycle beneath us for longer giving us time to shift our weight and return to equilibrium.

And so, when a child who hasn’t yet developed quick reactions loses balance on the Velio, the ABC system automatically initiates a turn to follow their fall for them. With the saddle kept beneath them, they too are given the extra time they need in to successfully keep balance.

Once kids experience maintaining balance successfully, once they know the feeling, it is then only a matter of practice to master it.

Learning dynamic balance

Dynamic balance is the ability to remain in equilibrium when moving. It is fundamental to our development and our ability to interact with the world around us. It is the platform for physical and mental confidence and central to a physically active, healthy outdoor life. We only learn dynamic balance when we are actively engaged in controlling our body, when we are unstable.

Velio vs Ride-on toys & Balance bikes

Today’s ride-ons are called toys for a reason; they offer few developmental benefits. They have 3 or 4 wheels to be completely stable. Without the need for kids to actively in engage to remain in control, they provide no help in developing balance skills. With so many wheels, such high resistance and rarely an effective way of steering they seldom offer gross motor or mobility benefits either.

Balance bikes

As great as they are, the balance bikes are too unstable for infants. They are designed for children who have already developed a good level of dynamic balance and the cognition and fine motor skills to understand front wheel steering. At this age, generally around two, they are well past the golden developmental window and many will already be opting for a less physically active life because of low physical and mental confidence.

Make no mistake, designing a safely unstable ride-on for an infant isn’t easy, but Velio’s patented ABC system achieves exactly that. A two wheeled ride-on with the control and safety that allows kids to learn dynamic balance and coordination as soon as they are able, advancing their development and making they have the physical and mental confidence to participate in physical activities when the opportunity arises.

The Velio gets kids onto two wheels, safely, super early - under the age of 12 months - when our brain is developing faster than at any other – making upto 1million neural connections a second – by putting them on two wheels instead of a stable 3 or 4 wheeled ride on, suddenly they are actively engaged, their senses firing, driving the brain to make connections with their motor system.

The secret is achieving a safe level of instability - and the key to this is using spheres, to get technical – they are much less tippy, enhancing stability by more than a factor of 10 times.

Take the 1.4” tyre, you’d find on most balance bikes, the contact patch has only a small amount of lateral movement when it tips, and centre of mass – which is higher because the balance bike has a narrow base - is soon at the point where there is nothing between it and the ground to slow the fall and so the fall path is steep and short, and with a big distance between the centre of gravity and the centre of rotation momentum builds quickly and becomes very difficult to reverse – soon, the angular force is going to cause it to wash out completely.

Spheres however, have a far greater lateral forgiveness. As the Velio tilts, its spheres roll laterally – 5x further, a sphere always has mass between the centre of gravity and the ground, making the sure the fall path is so much longer and slower.

And as the spheres have a wide base, they have a lower centre of gravity – so as well as the point of rotation moving with the Velio 5 times further, the centre of gravity i

The spheres have the added benefit of lowering the centre of mass and so when you combine the lower centre of mass, the greater lateral movement of the contact patch, there is never really a great distance between the two – this means that momentum never really builds up and it takes an awful lot less force to return it to an upright position.

So as I said, in technical terms the Velio is an awful lot less tippy.