Customer Reviews

Fisher-Price Smart Cycle Extreme

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is the 4th Smart Cycle we have purchased over the last 2 years (returned 3 previous thank goodness for the extended warranty). The earlier model, Basic Smart Cycle, has a known failure in the chip board which caused repeated returns to the store including one straight out of the box. When we called the fisher price customer service they were extremely helpful and sent us a refund which covered the cost of the new Extreme Version which we have had over a month with no problems. The customer service rep stated the old model, still available in many stores, has a known technical glitch which causes high failure rates. She had received over 2 dozen calls just that day on the earlier model but NONE on the new EXTREME. Both our 3 year old and 5 year old love playing and really work up a sweat while learning basic math, letters, and problem solving.

The biggest draw back we saw to getting the Extreme (which vibrates when you hit things on the road) was the battery-drainage issue. It is supposed to take 4 D batteries to allow this vibrating. However, those won't last long given the strength of the vibration. Here's how we fixed that problem.

1) Open the bike up by unscrewing the side panel and taking it off.
2) Look inside the bike and find the battery compartment. Drill a small hole in it.
3) Find the red and black wires inside the bike that are saudered to the back side of the battery compartment. Pull those 2 wires off of the battery compartment.
4) Feed the wires through the hole you drilled, pushing the wires into the batter compartment.
5) Put the side panel back on the bike (you're done in there).
6) Open the battery compartment and pull the red and black wires further through.
7) Drill a hole in the battery compartment door (the one you normally unscrew to change out batteries).

At this point you should have already bought a 6V DC adapter. Cut the end of the wire off so that you just have wires to work with.

8) FEED THE WIRE THROUGH the hole in the BATTERY DOOR that you just drilled.
9) Pull apart the 2 small wires that make up the DC wire. One of those small wires will be black, and the other will be black with white on it. (usually)
10) Peel back some of the black rubber on each (about an inch) to expose the copper inside the wires).

11) Twist the copper part of the bike's black wire around the copper part of the DC adapter's black wire. Wrap electrical tape around the copper so none is exposed.
12) Twist the copper part of the bike's red wire around the copper part of the DC adapter's white and black wire. Wrap electrical tape around that as well.
13) Secure the wires inside the battery compartment so that the kids can jostle them loose. You can duct tape them in there, or use a hot glue gun like we did.
14) Close up the battery compartment and you are done!

If you bought a variable adapter instead of a 6V, then you will want to set the adapter to the correct voltage and then glue it to that setting so that the kids can't accidentally change the setting. We bought a variable adapter (which means it can deliver more and less than 6V). Ours was a 1,000 milliamp. (not sure if you really need to know that though). But for $8 and 20 minutes of labor, we never have to buy D batteries! :)

Living in a rainy climate, we thought the Smart Cycle Extreme would be a great way for our son to get indoor exercise and he did like it, but it really is an elaborate seat for joystick games. Of all of the games on the cartridge, and the buggy and practically identical Thomas the Tank Engine cartridge (all the same lame games, but with trains), only two require the child actually pedal the bike. And even then, pedaling is not necessary. Most of the time our boy just sat on the thing and used the joystick and pressed the buttons. If that was all we wanted him to do, then we could have paid the same money for a better game system for him. He gets better than this from games on [....] and those are free! If a company is going to make a stationary bike for kids, then why not make it so the kids actually have to pedal? And then make it fun for them to pedal! What they've done here makes no sense.

The Extreme Smart Cycle is well worth the money spent as it provides hours of educational fun for you children. It helps them learn with letters, numbers, shapes, spelling and character identification. Additonally you can also purchase additional cartridges if you feel your kids are getting a little bored with the included disk.

Bought this cycle for my nephew for Christmas and one of my Aunts bought him the Spongebob game to go with it. The two games we have are identical with the exception of a few pictures of the spongebob characters.

The cycle is solid and seems very nice, looks cool.
The games are kind of lame, and the learning aspect is very subtle with a very small range.
I was expecting more with today's gaming industry, I thought having decent games with well thought out education interlaced was a given.

The games arn't as good as the ones I played as a young boy back in the early 1990's. (Reader Rabbit comes to mind)

Also, and I know this may sound kind of mean, but I wish there was a resistance setting the parents could covertly change from underneath. The pedals rotate completely free of resistance, and the kids just arn't getting as much out of it physically as I would have liked.

Overall my nephew who is three years old enjoys it, but I would of liked to see better programmed games. At this point, if a game came out that looked better to me I would pay as much as I payed for the cycle to get it.
I will not be buying anymore of the existing games, they appear to be a waste.

I bought this for my very active 4 year old hoping to release some of his energy. He LOVES it! It is very educational, teaches them to recognize numbers and letters and count. Very few toys keep his attention for more than 5-10 minutes, but he will play this for 30-45 minutes. I highly recommend!

We bought this for our son for christmas. It was a serious HIT. But when he went to play one of the five games we got him for it.. He could only do the pedaling. The joystick would not click down and in order to play some of the other games, you needed the joystick. We got a replacement which works fine for now... I know fisher price can be a bit chinsey on its product quality so just put it together and be sure it works before giving it your little one. He has a blast with it though. Loves this thing. We let him play with it 3 hours before bed and he is knocked out and ready to sleep by the end of it. I would buy this as a gift for someone. I reccomend this product.

So far so good. It was for a 4 year old and he seems to like it. Be sure to get more games right away, as the one that comes with is pretty repetitive. I was disappointed in the CARS game. The Hot Wheels one was much better. The graphics on the three I've seen were very crude. In 2009 I expected them to look better than a 1993 Nintendo. But not too bad for a 4 or 5 year old. ( But most of them have probably already experienced Wii or PS2/3 games )

I bought the SmartCycle Extreme for my two children aged 3.5 and 5 yrs old. This is a fantastic toy for kids who like video games but who need to burn off steam. I like everything about this toy, except that they eat batteries. Some of the other customer reviews include information on how to tinker with it to make it AC adaptable, but personally it makes me nervous to mess with the toy, and it would probably void the warranty too. So instead we've opted to invest in some Energizer rechargeable batteries and that is working out great.

This was a gift for my 4 1/2 yr old for xmas and he can spend an hour on it. I think the graphics are rather "old school" and there doesn't seem to be a lot of variety to what the game does, but it does hold his attention which is all that matters. Plus he is exercising and doing something educational so that makes me happy. So far it has been duarable.