Customer Reviews

Schwinn Hitch Hiker Trailer

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

 

 

I was looking for a good deal on these bike trailers that will have a short life at our household. Our twin girls are about one summer away from learning to ride without training wheels, and we want to do a lot of biking with them.

I think I found just the right product, buying two of these Schwinn models. You won't confuse these with the high quality Schwinns of your Baby Boomer youth, but they are made well enough. I expect they'll last at least a few years with minimal maintenance.

Assembly can be figured out easily, which is good since the instructions are for entertainment purposes only :) but have on hand both metric and English allen wrenches. It took about 20-30 minutes to put together the first one, about 15 minutes to assemble the second one. The hardware is cheap, so be careful tightening bolts and screws, and make sure you have the proper alignment of the pieces before tightening. If you've put together furniture from IKEA, you know what I mean.

The connection to the adult bike seatpost is solid. A block of aluminum holds a sturdy pin that attaches to the trailer arm. I leave the connection on the adult bikes and remove the post to detach the trailer. Quick and easy. And pretty stable. All of these kinds of trailers will have a little wobble because the connections are joints, but this trailer does not have a lot of play in the design. When trying this out for the first time, I would recommend holding your bike straight up and asking your child to get on the trailer (helmet on? check!), then walk your bike very slowly so they can get the feel of the thing, which they will think is weird. Only when they feel comfortable moving along slowly should you (in my opinion) get on your bike and ride.

My one complaint is that the bike trailers arrived scratched. One had minor scratches on the trailer arm, but on the other, the arm is scratched up pretty bad. The box was banged up but taped, indicating that one trailer had been bought, used, returned, then sold to me as new. I chose to keep it and not make a big deal out of it because it's structurally ok and I want to get riding. But I wish Target had been straight about the condition of them. The scratched up one should have been sold as used or repackaged.

We have three kids -7, 6 and 2. The 7-year-old can ride his own bike on family bike rides, the 2-year-old rides in a trailer and the 6-year-old needed something in between. We bought this trailer bike for her. It was easy to put together and seems to be built well-enough. It's not a top-of-the-line bike, but for the few years our family will use it it will be very sturdy and functional. The best of everything just isn't always the most practical when extra cost is involved and you'll only be using it for a few years. Honestly, I think it will last several other children past ours.

She quickly customized it with anything she could find that was pink and/or purple. After that, she and her father took off. Initially, it was tricky. The bike trailers really well behind an adult bike w/out a child on it. With a child who doesn't really understand balancing on a bike it gets more difficult to ride. When the child sways from side to side it does pull the adult bike off balance. HOWEVER, she quickly developed the balance she needed to make the ride more smooth. She needed to learn to trust her dad to not tip them over because she was trying to over correct when she felt unbalanced. Once she figured this out, everything was golden. She peddles and actually contributes to the ride. My husband will let her push both of them by herself. What a great way to use that over-energetic child to make something EASIER for a change! I think that her balance on her own bike will come much more quickly now that she knows how to make it happen on the trailer bike as well. Good all around. Now it's the first thing on her list to do when her dad gets home. -And off on a family bike ride we go.

We're happy with the purchase. It would be nice to have one extra hitch for another bike. It's a bit of a pain to switch it from bike to bike because you have to remove the seat to do it.

I will follow up with the some of the same info as the first review on this item. My daughter (almost 4 yrs old) HATED this at first, but after the first full ride around a block or two - she LOVES it ! Of course, its a little akward at first, but as long as your child stays somewhat stable its a nice ride. My trailer bar also came scratched up pretty well, but did not look like it was used, just poor packing of the parts by Schwinn (made in china, if you werent sure). For $100 bucks, its worth it and I am hoping it gets my lil gal closer to learning to ride her own bike without training wheels. I would tell my friends to buy this item.

After reading the reviews online I was a little hesitant to purchase the Hitchhiker but took a gamble due to the price. It did have it's issues. The pedals they sent were the wrong size and they had to mail me the correct ones. The gear on the rear wheel wasn't quite tight and it made a clunking sound occasionally. This was easily fixed by removing the back wheel and hand tightening the gear. The hitch seems solid to me but it did take a little of my own engineering to attach it to my wife's older bike. Her seat post was smaller than all of the adapters included and I had to create my own shim to let it attach solidly. I've heard of some being damaged or scratched but mine seemed to be in good condition when it arrived. I will admit that the customer service is great. With both issues there was no arguing and immediately sent replacement parts and/or told me what to try to fix the problem. I did not have the bearing problem that I heard of but I feel confident that they would take care of it should it happen. Is it a perfect product? No. Is it worth half the price of comparable products with a little wrench turning? Absolutely.

This is awesome for my family! My son loves riding it, and my husband and I love being able to ride as a family. We went for a 10 mile ride the other day, and our 4 year old had an absolute blast the entire time. The only issue I had was when it was delivered, it did have a few minor scratches, so the packaging could be better for transport, but they were purely cosmetic, and wasn't a dealbreaker for us. If you have a kiddo between 3 and 7 that can't keep up on their own when you're either riding or running and want to be able to exercise as a family, get this thing. It's great!

Prior to purchasing this item, I had seen a few people using similar products on our local bicycle path. I was intrigued and did a search on the web to find a similar product. I found several similar products on-line. They ranged in price from $50~$60 to several hundred dollars. I found the Schwinn Hitch Hiker to be the right fit for what I wanted and was willing to pay. It is a great way for my son and I to spend time together and get a good workout at the same time. I especially like the ease with which you can attach and detach the Hitch Hiker.

Easy installation, solid construction without high-end brand-name stickers and costs, my 4.5 year-old loves it.

I got one of these and straight out of the box, if you do not adjust it, if it was like mine, it will not be a good experience. the wheel was pulled unacceptably hard against the chain, which will long term cause excessive parts wear. there needs to be a very small amount of play in the chain to let the bearings in the wheel, crank, chain, and freewheel to spin smoothly and do their jobs. I am not a fan of the removable front beam, and if you have a place to put it unfolded, a standard nylon insert nut allows a more positive joint lock. I would treat this like any department store bike, it NEEDS going over and proper adjustment, because the original assemblers are possibly incompetent(yes I am aware there are probably well done ones, but also lots of bad)

That said, my 3 y/o(who is as tall as many 5 y/o)loves it, it works well once it is adjusted, and I would buy it again. I knocked a star off it because in the hands of a mechanically challenged/bicycle newb, this is a mess in the box, and will likely be a pain without someone knowing the ropes helping you get it dialed in. its sad when a company spends the time to make a decent product and then half ass its assembly (and packaging) so it defeats itself in the market.

The down and ugly, if you aren't comfortable setting chain tension and giving a bike a tune-up, I would look around for a local bike shop before ordering and get a quote for a tuneup and add that to the price (a better one may be cheaper in that case),but if you are, mine was worth getting.

I wish I spent more money on a better trailer. This one wobbles a ton. I even modified it by adding some more washers and it is now only barely tolerable.

My mom purchased these bike trailers for my twin daughters for their birthday. I read the reviews and was a little suspicious about whether or not to buy them since there were some poor reviews. I decided to go ahead with the purchase anyway and am so glad that I did. We have put about 100 miles on each bike since we have received them and they have been perfect and without any problems. Actually we went on a 17 mile bike ride on the creeper trail in Virginia. There were 7 other kids with us along with their parents and they all had to rent the bike trailers. Every single one of them had some sort of issue. Ours were perfect the entire 17 miles. The only thing that I can say to be aware of is that they need to be fastened kind of tight for safety. Sometimes that makes it difficult if you are not super strong. My husband is always with us though, so I never have a problem. And also, since there is an attachment that goes under the seat of you bike, you need to make sure that the seat wont be too tall for you if it is raised 1-2 inches from the base. Othwerwise you will love this bike! We most certainly do!!