Customer Rating:  
Summary: Rear-wheel steering explained
Comment: The whole time I was researching this product, I thought that the rear wheel steering was linked to the front wheel - countersteering to provide a reduced turning radius. And I couldn't see from any of the photos or the owner's manual how that was supposed to happen.
Since neither Amazon's nor the manufacturer's description makes this clear, here's how it works:
The rear wheel steering is only used when the parent is pushing with the pushbar. You lock the front wheel, unlock the rear wheels, insert the pushbar, and you can steer it from behind. When it's the kids turn to drive, you remove the pushbar, lock the rear wheels, and unlock the front wheel.
Maybe it's just me, but this certainly wasn't clear from anything I'd read online.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Kettler Trike
Comment: This trike is awesome. It has real tires (not plastic) and is a very smooth ride. The steering is easy and convenient with an adjustable height control. If you have a young one, the seat belt is a necessary addition. My one year old son LOVES this, even though he always hated strollers!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Still worth the money!
Comment: We bought this trike for our son two years ago. He loves it, and we do too. The handle is nice and long, so that even my husband at 6'2" can push it easily. We love the tires because they are air filled, they have good traction and we have not had to refill the air in two years. There is a little bucket behind the seat which our son uses for his sippy cup and small sticks, rocks etc..
The trike is pretty stable when riding wider circles and on flat ground, but he has tipped over on uneven ground, which is to be expected on any tricycle.
Best of all is the feature where you can lock the steering wheel, and the back tires start swiveling. It is sooooo easy to go for walks with your child even if he doesn't know how to steer yet. Our son had a blast when he was smaller.
The reason why we didn't give five stars is that there is no handbrake like a lot of the other Kettler tricycles have. When our son rides a little faster he has no way of stopping. So he has to put his feet on the ground which slide along until he comes to a stop, or he ends up colliding with something. Also the blue front wheel cover will not stay where it is supposed to be and creates some friction between the tire and the cover. It is possible that there was a piece missing to hold it in place or that we put it together wrong after we brought it home. In any case my son gets frustrated with it.
These two issues however are still quite minor, and so I would recommend it to anyone interested in buying this trike. It WILL outlast many children.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A bike great for kids
Comment: this bike is amazing, we have a dirt driveway, and it has no problems. the handle is very strong and easy to push around the bike. the lock out features are also great. It was worth the money.
Customer Rating:
Summary: most popular trike on the block
Comment: We have had this trike a little over 2 years now. It is a great tricycle, but some of the features were not as useful as I thought they would be. The trike is sturdy, and gets a lot of use being as it is the favorite of the younger kids on the street.
Some particulars:
The push rod. We used it a fair amount. The push rod is the only parental-control feature we really needed. Probably the best use was as a back-up in case the child got too tired. I think I had visions of taking some of the same walks with the push-rod as we did with the stroller, but I now know that if you need to push the trike the whole way, chances are the child is young enough he/she doesn't really care what the mode of transportation is, and you are better off (and happier) with the stroller.
The auto-freewheel is a disadvantage for the beginner, but turns into an advantage later. I think the marketing angle is that you can push your child using the push rod and their feet can just rest on the pedals. That's fine but once they can do it themselves you won't be pushing much, and if the need to be pushed a lot, then probably they would be just as happy if not happier with a wagon. What I didn't realize is that a child who doesn't have access to a regular trike (where the pedals always move) can have a hard time catching on to the pedaling motion since these pedals don't force the motion. This was more of a problem than I expected. However, later this feature makes the trike more fun because they can pedal really fast and then coast.
The rear wheel parental steering is unnecessary. Using the push rod you have leverage to lift the front wheel off the ground, thus you can steer when you need to, so I rarely used the real wheel steering and I forgot it existed.
The front wheel steering lock keeps the child from turning the steering wheel. I used this some, but if you're using it because the child isn't cooperating direction-wise, then they will probably figure out how you locked the steering and unlock it anyway.
I like the air tires. It makes for a smoother ride on our cracked streets.
Get the red bell.Kettler Bell Red Metal Bell
The dump bucket on the back is not essential but the kids like to carry things around in it.
We later got the tandem insert, and you can look for my review on it. I'm not as happy with the tandem as I am with the trike, but it too is much enjoyed by the kids and made the trike even more of a hit than it already was.
We bought the trike for a 2yr old, but in retrospect there was no rush, and a wagon would have been just as welcome and easier to figure out at that age. I'm surprised that the product description says the age range starts at 1, I would say it should start at 2. One thing I've noticed, the Air Navigator can't seat a child as close to the handlebars as some other trikes (in fact the tandem insert seats a child closer to the handlebars than the bike can do without the tandem!), so if your child is 2 or less, you might want to go see this trike at a bike shop and see how it fits.
I've discovered that other sturdy trikes do exist. If you don't need the parental control features, visit a bike shop and look at a Trek Trikester.
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