Beyond the glitz, we found that the Roadster provides a smooth, stable ride, especially compared with similar low riders made of plastic. Due to its size and weight (17½ pounds), this trike is better balanced than our top pick in schwinn mountain bike independent trike mode, even on fast turns. Its steel construction is durable, and it has air-filled tires. During our most recent round of testing, the Radio Flyer 4-in-1 Stroll ’N Trike was our favorite tricycle in the bunch.
Parents didn’t love the harness, and kids preferred our top pick. The INFANS trike is about 4 pounds heavier than the Radio Flyer 4-in-1 Stroll ’N Trike; we think the added weight is why our kid testers found it harder to ride independently. schwinn mountain bike Like the Radio Flyer trike, this one also has plastic wheels, but they didn’t work as well on dirt pathways. We appreciated that the infant harness was padded across the chest, but it didn’t tighten as well as our top pick’s harness.
It was much harder to tip this trike over, due to those sturdy wheels and steel frame, and the harness was the easiest to tighten. Jenni’s 15-month-old daughter loved riding in the infant mode, often pushed by her brother using the parent handle. The XJD 5-in-1 Kids Tricycle is a trike that turns into a balance bike. It takes 10 minutes to build, and it’s easy to adapt from trike to bike by adjusting the two back wheels into one (they slide together) and removing the pedals. It’s sturdier than many of the trikes we tried, with hard rubber wheels instead of plastic.
It was difficult for Kate’s young son to get started on the trike, and he soon lost interest. Kate lost interest even sooner, when it took a whopping 54 minutes to assemble, mostly due to the number of decals. Jenni’s 3-year-old son also screamed in frustration while using the Big Wheel and found it didn’t move well across pavement or dirt. Like its namesake, the Big Wheel is better for bigger kids. It accommodates kids up to 70 pounds and 8 years old, and we’ve known older children who did, in fact, love it. But this trike is the most fun when it’s used to barrel down steep hillsides; even older, stronger pedalers will find it difficult to use for sidewalk travel.
It has four configurations, to take kids from ages 1 to 5. And it offers well-thought-out accessories—including a wide and adjustable parent handle—and a sturdy frame that prevents tipping. Our kids loved to ride this trike on many types of terrain, and Radio Flyer has a solid, two-year warranty program.