Many Qs about trikes (not just Kettler :)) and a poll

[anamika]

I know people must be pretty tired of the Kettler posts so I'm adding a few more brands to the mix :) I have read most of the trike threads but still had a couple of questions.
1. Has anyone heard of the Charton trikes? How are they? Any reviews would be much appreciated.
2. Also one of the moms here had posted about the Italtrike and I was hoping to get some reviews of that also. Anyone have one of these?
3. Is $125 too much for a 2 yr old Air Navigator (AN) without seatbelt/or bucket? Do all ANs come with air tires?
4. I'm planning to buy this for DD's 2nd b'day but it is in late fall so she will probably not much get use out of it for a while. Should I buy ahead (she is 21 mos old) or will she enjoy it more if she's older? I'm also willing to wait till next spring if that seems more ideal. I'm planning on buying her a bunch of other big ticket items for her b'day.

Please vote for whichever features you think are indispensable in a trike.
This is my first time posting a poll so I hope the polls allow for multiple votes. IS there some way to set up for multiple votes at one time?

[holliam]

I got a little lost in all the options. :) I got our Kettler on a super discount so it was way cheap. I am not sure I would have spent the money if I had not gotten the discount. That being said, we have:

Air Navigator, which canNOT use the footrest. Never been a problem for my 22 month daughter. We have the seatbelt, basket in front, bucket in back, and bell.

ETA: Of course, we have the pushbar too.

Holli

[vdrake71]

I think it all matters what age you buy for. We bought a Kettler for my DS when he turned one or was it 1 1/2, so we needed the seat belt and the foot rest. We have the bucket, the bell, and the basket. My son really likes the bell. My one feature that I thought was indispensable was the air tires.

[luckymom]

We got a Kettler for my son's 1st bday, and I somewhat regret it now (I'm very glad I got it on a super sale discount) We got one with pushbar/steering lock, seatbelt, bucket, belt, no air tires. Now that my son is almost two he really wants to peddle himself, but still can't reach the pedals with enough leverage to push them. We tried a tiny cheapo radio flyer at Target the other day and he was zooming around the store very happily. Since kids often move to tiny bikes with training wheels around three or so I'm not sure how much use we'll get from the kettler, and I'm honestly thinking of picking up one of the smaller cheap trikes that he can use and enjoy now. My son is in the 75% for height, so hes not short either. I do wish we had the air tires, but would not have spent full price on them. Oh, and footrest does nothing to deter my son from jamming his feet in the front AND rear wheels, dragging his feet on the ground or pulling the brake while you try to push him.



Lucy

[kijip]

No multiple vote polls, I think.

I would wait till 2 and 1/2 or 3. We did the whole first year birthday gift and the thing went largely unused for 2 years. I wish I would have waited.


The bell is Toby's favorite. The pushbar is less than needed for us.

[The Review Mommy]

The poll would only let me vote once (auto-freewhell), but I would have voted for these to:

Pushbar-must have, indispensible (we used *ALL* the time)
Air-tires-must have, indispensable
Seat-belt-needed for young
Hand-Brake-if you think the bell is "fun" try this out. It is a really cool feature.

We don't have:
Bucket
Bell-sounds cute though!
Basket
Foot-rest-we should have gotten this one, but we did ok with out it. Maybe it depends on the child/personality but we never had trouble with jamming or dragging feet.

Rebekah

[brittone2]

I think the only thing I would consider indespensible in using a Kiddio Supertrike 4 (very similar to Kettlers and made by the Kettler company) with our 2 y/o is the pushbar :)

We opted for air tires, and I'm very glad as we don't have a paved driveway, so DS will primarily ride (on his own) on grass and very fine gravel. The air tires are nice for pushing him around the yard. I don't think that everyone needs them though...if we were still living in our old neighborhood where DS would have been riding mostly on sidewalks and our paved driveway, then the cost might not have been worth it.

I also think the features any given family will find necessary depend on the child's age. We bought DS's trike for his 2nd bday and never missed having autofreewheel or a parent lockout for the steering. For a one year old, it may have been a bigger issue. We also have no footrests and although DS can't reach the pedals at their farthest distance from the seat (when they are turning) he does just fine. We don't miss having the "navigator" feature (swiveling rear wheels) but again, if we used our trike as more of a "stroller" with a one year old, maybe we would have preferred having that feature. For a 2 year old, we don't miss it at all.

Answering your questions...the Air Navigators all have air tires. You can buy a Navigator, which does NOT have air tires. But the "Air" indicates the tires are air tires. The only models currently made with air tires that I can think of are the Air Happy and Air Navigator. There are still Air Jumbos (which were made at one time a few years ago) available used on Craigslist or Ebay.

If the Air Navigator doesn't have a bucket, you might compare the price of a new Air Happy (air tires, but no dump bucket) to a the $125 price. You would be giving up the Navigator rear swivel wheels, but that might not be something you need.

Buying the trike for DS's 2nd bday worked perfectly for us. He was instantly into it, and he LOVES being pushed around in the yard (especially by daddy who tends to push him very fast over all kinds of bumps LOL). He can't yet pedal independently as he still can't get his legs around for a full revolution of the pedals, but he certainly enjoys it. IMO, at least for us, waiting until 2 meant we were fine skipping some features like autofreewheel, parent lockout on steering, Navigator rear wheels, footrests, etc.

Enjoy!!

[squimp]

There were several things that I found important but were not on your list, so I didn't vote. Here are the things I found important, in order:

Push bar, air tires, dump bucket, brake

It's a tricycle, not a stroller. I have several strollers, so I didn't want the foot rest or auto freewheel thingy. I like having the pushbar, because it allows me to grab her if she's going too fast, and push her when she's tired or exceptionally slow. She uses the brake to slow herself down, so I think it's a good safety feature.

We love the Kiddio Supertrike 4. She received it at Christmas last year (when she was 2.25) and she learned how to pedal soon after that. I think a fully loaded Kettler would have been overkill for us. Probably a metal Radio flyer would have been fine too.

[anamika]

Hi all,
thanks for the input.
The pushbar is not on the options b'cos I already know this will be indispensable to me.
Someone is selling the Air NAvigator for $125 but I think this too expensive. Any opinions?
Thanks again,

[brittone2]

Well, I think it is expensive if you aren't SURE that you need the Navigator wheels (swiveling rear wheels), for example.

It is quite a bit of $$ off of the current price, and used Kettlers generally still sell for quite a bit of money on ebay (even if they aren't Air Navigators), so it depends on how you look at it. The price probably isn't unreasonable (at least compared to what I see used Kettlers sell for), but it might be too much if *your* family doesn't need the swivel rear wheels and/or air tires, kwim?

One Step Ahead sells non-Air Navigators if you don't think you'll need air tires (which I don't think are a necessity if you live somewhere where DC will ride mostly on smooth surfaces) for a decent price (at least their prices were good at one time...haven't checked lately, but it is their own version).

The Kiddo Supertrike 4 has air tires, seat belt, dump bucket, pushbar, etc. for a reasonable price (a little over 100 shipped) if you can still find them (not sure what has happened since TRU split from Amazon and they don't carry the Kiddio ST4 in brick and mortar stores anymore).

I can't remember what Kettler's warranty is, but if it is 3 years, and you are buying it used, you are losing some of the warranty. The Kiddios have only a 90 day warranty I think (which I was okay with). I think the OSA version of the Kettler also has a "lesser" warranty than the "regular" kettlers.

I guess I can't advise you on whether 125 is a good price...it just depends on how your DC will use it. If you would absolutely, positively want an Air Navigator, no matter what, and the only alternative is buying it new, that probably isn't a crazy high price (at least, compared to what they tend to sell for in general). But if you don't need some or all of those more elaborate features, you could get a nice trike like the Air Happy or a non-air Navigator brand new for not much more (or consider something like the Kiddio ST 4 if they are still being sold).