A few weeks ago,
we celebrated Little Ones first birthday. We had a small party and had a lovely
few days, but one of the more difficult tasks was deciding what to get him for a
present.
The age of 1
seems to be a funny time for toys and activities. Most of the really cool stuff
is usually for age 3+ whereas a lot of baby toys that are suitable from birth
or 6 months are a little too simple now to occupy Little One for any length of
time.
A little too
young still for shape sorters and activities that require a bit more thought
and a little less hitting, we were really racking our brains to find a present
that would be really useful and suitable for his age.
After a couple of brief shopping trips and ‘in-store trials’ we found the Smart Trike.
The most
appealing thing for us was the versatility of it. We went for the 4 in 1 Vanilla version which starts off essentially as a 3 wheeled pushchair. Baby is
strapped in and has a guard rail. The steering and pedals are deactivated so
steering and speed is controlled entirely by the person pushing and Little One
just enjoys the ride.
The second stage
sees the harness removed and perhaps control of pedaling returned to the
child. Stage 3 removes
the guard rail and gives steering control back to Little One while keeping the
big handle at the back for parental control and Stage 4 removes the handle leaving
you with a proper trike suitable for a 3 year old.
At £59.99 we this did feel like an expensive present for a first birthday, but the longevity
of the product means that this will give us around 3 years of service and
immediately gives Little One a new perspective on walks and he will slowly
start to take the controls. Little One
absolutely loves this trike. As soon as we put him in, he instinctively reached
for the handles and tried to steer himself, he cottoned on after a few walks
that he can’t control where he goes, so now he hold his arms out and tries to
grab anything that we go past.
Assembling the Trike
was a bit of a different story however. My husband is usually pretty good and
logical about assembly and isn’t fazed by the most complicated of Ikea flat
pack furniture, but this thing had him flummoxed. The basic assembly of the
frame is pretty straight forward; most of it is click lock and the instructions
are pretty clear. The problems came when trying to assemble the front wheel and
steering mechanism. Because of its multi-functional approach to steering there
is a very specific way to assemble the front wheel and the instructions don’t
show clearly enough where everything goes. We got there eventually but there
were occasions where we were concerned we had a faulty product or had broken
something in the process. I can’t explain in words exactly how we got it to work,
if you are having problems, feel free to write to me and I will get my husband
to explain in more detail.
I have read
reviews and heard from friends that the steering doesn’t work and that you have to tilt the trike onto its back wheels to turn it. This definitely isn't the case and we have had no
such problems and the steering is, in-fact, really easy and light. You
literally just turn the handle left or right (while moving forward) and it goes
exactly where you want. I am guessing that other people’s problems with
steering might be related to the same issues we had with assembly or how they have the wheel
catch set.
Other features
include a UV sun shade, (this is good but if it gets too windy becomes a bit
annoying) a storage box on the back wheel axel and, what Smart-trike describe
as a ‘Trendy Parent Bag’. This is useful, but I will let you make your own
decisions on the ‘trendiness’...! It's a great addition though, because it means you can go out for a walk without needing to take a bulky bag with you. The seat has a long back support and comfortable padded shoulder straps.
We have tried it
on a few different terrains and I can confidently say that grass and tarmac are
fine. It is not really suitable for stony paths or ‘off-roading’ as although it
has rubber shock absorber tyres, it can get a little shaky.
In all this has
been a great purchase for us, Little One loves it and we can’t wait to get him
started on steering and pedaling when the time comes.
There are many different colours and styles of Smart Trike available, details of which can be found here. We purchased our Smart Trike from Argos for £59.99.
*We were not paid or sponsored to write this post. All opinions expressed are our own.
A x
Product Review: Smart Trike 4-in-1 Vanilla. A few weeks ago, we celebrated Little Ones first birthday. We had a small party and had a lovely ... esmarttrike.blogspot.com
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