Although both my boys can ride pedal bikes, they both still love to hoon around on the balance bike. Especially my three year old.
We bought our wooden balance bike many moons ago from Aldi. We spent approx $40/$50. Not the hundreds that some cost. We kept it inside or in the garage always. It is the reason that both my kids learned to ride pedal bikes so early on. They had never had that training wheels sensation and just learned they had to balance themselves.

When we bought my small statured 4 yo (now 5) a new bike, we spent extra and got a ByK. Bigger wheels and lower centre of gravity, so they are very stable. They do balance bikes, too, but I'm not sure how much they are.