Customer Reviews

Huffy Disney Princess Girls' Bike (16-Inch Wheels)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

First the good point:

My 4-yo daughter loved it when she saw it. Very cute-"looking" bike, very girly-girly. Kids who love the whole Disney princess style of any product will like the appearance.

Sadly, that is where the good part ends.

The bike is a continual bag of frustration. I have a lot of cool tools and am relatively handy, but no matter how hard I tried I could not tighten hardware on this bike so that it would STAY tight. And, adjusting so the brakes would work was near impossible. And small parts were so cheaply made that 1 of them actually broke during building. After a week of use, so many parts of the bike were loose and flaky I took to a bike shop, where for $40 they tightened and tuned it up. And, the bike shop experts themselves told me this bike was "junk" and that it would never be satisfying.

Think it's fixed now? Nope. Within a few weeks the chain started coming off after less than an hour of use. I adjusted and tightened and put back out. Chain comes off again.

There is simply no way to tighten this so the chain doesn't come off again, and each time I try I am down for a 90-minute project that needs 2 adults.

So now, we have a bike that is only 4 months old that sits in the garage.

Lesson learned: you get what you pay for, and be wary of a $69 bike.

Total junk, and one very unhappy little girl.

Bike arrived mostly assembled in a retail box. The bike had several deep scratches on it and the nuts and bolts needed to assemble the bike were tossed in the box loose. At first I thought this was a return, but every still seemed to have factory wrapping. Why they could not put all the nuts, washers and bolts in a bag is beyond me.

The parts that were not assembled were not the most simple of items (handle brake, seat, tires, etc.). The instructions were terrible. When it came to the seat, something I figured would not be too difficult, I had to guess as to which parts to use as the instructions were not clear. Being a pretty handy guy, I was getting frustrated as I can be a tad OCD when it comes to making sure things are assembled correctly. My Father-in-law came over and he could not make heads or tails of the instructions either. Now that both of us were stumped was exceptionally rare.

Having parts left over, I kept them as I was sure I would figure out where they went to. They went to nothing structural as I would not let my kids play on an unsafe toy, but the instructions gave no indication as to where they went. I finally did find when they went as I noticed the grip on the hand break had an spot for a tightening screw and nut.

Over all, the bike is very solid and my daughter loves it. It wasn't too hard to assemble, but clearer instructions would have made it a snap. I do wish they had invested in better packaging so that the amount of scratches and the risk of parts falling out of the box in shipping would be reduced.

Assembly is easy - the only tricky part is the brake assembly, which requires some effort to get it right. All other parts are just put on, screw tight, hope it holds. All parts fit and assembly (with brake) was done in half an hour.

Overall quality is my major gripe here - the pedals are not spinning easily, but are stuck time and time again, the clamp that arrests the saddle does not have my confidence, the training wheels attachment is flimsy, and so on.

I do not trust this bike to last more than half a year, something's gonna give before that. Probably one of those tiny parts that are essential to the bike (like the pedals, saddle clamp, etc.) and can not be replaced easily.

I do not want to state that the bike is unsafe or even hazardous - but in my opinion, it is not built to last and the quality in some areas is quite poor.

Would I buy this again? Sure - my little princess loves it, so far nothing broke off, and who knows, maybe it lasts until she needs a bigger bike. At this age (she is four ...), color and tassels are much more important than good functionality - and I do not see any big hazards that could harm her.

First off it should be mentioned that this is a very sturdy bike that looks like it will last well past it's usefulness which is the most important thing. Aside from the plastic chain guard this think is built like a tank. The instructions are plain terrible, VERY small print and not in any useful order. It seems that they wrote instructions for 6 bikes and crammed them into one book to save time. This makes it confusing as you have to skip over entire sections that don't apply to you bike. The brake adjustment instructions were totally useless and I just had to figure it out on my own. That's really the only hard part about assembling the bike. If there was even a remotely decent manual the assembly would have been a total breeze.

The one thing I didn't like that took a star off was the total lack of reflectors aside from the pedals. Sure the kiddo is probably never going to ride it at night on the street but I found it pretty shocking that they didn't include this. I'd of gladly replaced the bell with some reflectors...

Nothing is perfect in this world so I'd say I'm quite happy with the bike and would recommend it to anyone..

My 6 year old daughter received this bike as her very first bike. She wanted the fringe on the handlebars and the fanny pack and this bike certainly delivers! Her face lights up when she is riding it! It's durable and easy to learn to ride, I can't wait until we can take the training wheels off! :)

The bike was as described, and as we had expected after looking at it in stores months before Christmas. The price was similar (maybe a little more), and shipping was free. Bike arrived boxed, and was easy enough to assemble with the instructions. The frame was scuffed/scratched towards the bottom on the left side from packaging/shipping. Overall, no complaints and our daughter was delighted Christmas morning and since.

Mostly I just want to say how terrible the assembly directions for this bike are.

I went through the manual probably 10 times looking for the brake assembly and finally found it not actually in the manual, but on a separate loose page.

The brake assembly was extremely difficult and following the directions was extremely useless. I finally had to go online for help and discovered that you actually need to loosen the cable from the wheel to get enough slack to have any hope of getting it to reach the handbrake itself. Once I figured this out, there was a lot of work involved getting it to the right tension so that the brake would grip easily, but not drag on the tires.

Really frustrating assembly experience, but my daughter does love the bike.

This bike does not work. Every time my daughter brakes, the pedals get stuck and will no longer go forward. Such a waist of $70!

This bike is very poor quality. I agree with all the other reviews. The instructions are so poorly written, it is nearly impossible to follow. The bolts and washers are very poor quality. The bike I received had a loose handle bar that could not be tightened. This is a design flaw in my view. The bike was not safe to ride as the handle bar kept flopping down and physically could not be tightened to stay in place. I had to return due to the unsafe nature of this bike. This seems consistent with multiple reviews on this product. While the price is enticing, the product is not worth the value. I recommend selecting another bike, preferably from a different manufacturer.

Huffy - as well as any retailer like Costco that sells this bike - ought to be ashamed of themselves for selling this as "easy to assemble". That's what it says in big letters on the packaging for the bike. In indicates it can be assembled in 5 easy steps. That's a lie. There are actually THIRTY (30) pages of instructions in tiny type - plus a couple of extra pages thrown in - presumably because of complaints from the public. My wife and I are both college graduates who are reasonably handy, but we are now four hours into trying to decipher the obtuse instructions and if it were up to me I would just take the bike back to Costco. But my wife is doesn't like to give in. I consider this junk and will stay away from Huffy products from this point forward.