Cobalt Twista Balance Bike

Twista is a unique balance bike that adapts as children grow & develop their gross motor skills through toddler & preschool years. Balance bikes are more effective than training wheels in learning to ride regular pedal bicycles. And Twista allows them to seamlessly move from trike to balance bike in a fun & intuitive way. The, tooless hub mechanism is simple enough for kids to decide when to switch back & forth between modes themselves; gaining riding skills & confidence at their own pace.

Twista was devised & engineered by Cobalt who partnered with Y-Volution in Ireland to manufacture & globally distribute the bike. Twista has been sold in US, Australian & international markets through retail giants Amazon & Toys R Us. Twista's unique response to user needs provides Yvolution with a broader children's ride-on toy product range & enhances their competitive advantage globally.

Most families will collect a garage full of scooters, car-seats & strollers before a child starts school. Twista is a single product that bridges the gap between toddlers' ride-on toys and regular pedal bikes. In its small way, Twista reduces some of parents' clutter & costs whilst not sacrificing one fraction of fun quotient for kids.

Twista deliberately appeals to parents looking for safety & reliability. It's a sleek product designed to outlast brief trends & engage a child in years to come. In-house prototyping & testing was undertaken throughout development to ensure suitable ergonomics across all target ages. The seat's bottom position is one of the lowest on the market, suitable for very young children. The height of the seat & handlebars are adjustable, with the angled seat stem sliding upwards & backwards to allow more leg room as the child grows taller.

The design was consciously geared towards making the end product both environmentally & financially sustainable - reducing wasted materials & conserving family budgets. Adaptability is Twista's primary means of achieving a long service life. Compared to a standard trike or standard balance bike, Twista grows with the child and will be usable for at least twice as long as a separate conventional trike or balance bike. The other method was designing-in quality construction & materials. Twista's metal frame has been rigorously tested ensuring it will last the distance unlike flimsy or plastic frames.

Cobalt is a multi-disciplinary firm with a professional team proficient in industrial design, prototyping, animation & mechanical engineering. The Twista was a self-initiated project & company wide effort with contributions coming from across the group; from initial brainstorming sessions to concept drawings, all the way to coordinating samples. Once the objective of a convertible trike>bike was identified, the ingenious hub mechanism was engineered, prototyped & trialled iteratively to its final design. Twista's visual design, mechanical functionality & DFM (design for manufacture) were developed strategically to reduce product risk & launch timing.