Riding bikes rocks!! (So does Schwinn.)

When I was a kid--13, 14, 15 years old--I rode my bike all the time.  I rode everywhere.  If I wanted to go to a friend's house, I rode my bike.  Dairy Queen?  A short (5 mile) bike ride away.  Around the corner to feed the neighbor's cats?  On my bike.  I rode and rode and rode.  I loved riding my bike!

When I was almost 17, I moved.  I moved to a different town in a different state.  I didn't know anyone.  Most of the friends I made lived a little further away than I could ride, or down roads I didn't want to ride.  Oh, and also, I could drive.  

The trouble is, biking is an activity I always loved. I remember going across the street with my daddy to PJ and Bradley's "field" (I have a feeling that field isn't as big as I remember it) to practice riding.  That's where I learned to ride without training wheels!  I remember riding my bike to Autumn and Amy's house, to Emily's house, to Carrie's house...I rode everywhere!  I always loved it.  And then?  Then I grew up and got out of the habit.  You could probably say I got lazy.

Last summer, when Little Lou was 6, she said she wanted to learn to ride without training wheels.  We tried once or twice but she was slow and distracted and terrified.  We put the bike away for the winter and decided we'd try again in the spring.  I told her I wasn't putting the training wheels back on.  My baby girl learned to ride!

Then the inevitable happened.  She asked me to go on a bike ride with her.  People, riding a bike is NOT always like...well...riding a bike.  You've heard it said that once you know how to do it, you know how to do it, right?  Sometimes you're taller than you used to be, or heavier than you used to be, or don't have the balance you used to have.  Sometimes it's scary.  And sometimes you have to pretend it's not scary because your favorite 7 year old girl ever wants nothing more than for you to ride around the block with her.  I sucked it up, pulled out my bike, and rode two laps around the block with that little princess!  It felt GREAT!!  And we both wanted to do it again.  Lots more times.

There was a problem, though.  You see, there are 5 people in my family.  Three of us are big enough and strong enough to ride bikes without training wheels and go for real rides.  One of us really wants to be that big, but just isn't strong enough quite yet.  One of us is 2.  It's really hard to take family bike rides when you've got 3 riders, 2 potential passengers, but no transportation for those 2!

My kids were so very excited (almost as excited as their mommy!) when this giant box showed up at the door!

We ripped it open, pulled out the parts, and put together our brand new Schwinn Trailblazer Bike Trailer!  (This video is actually the second time I put it together, later that day.  It just shows how quickly you can set it up!  Ignore the part at the end where I put the shade on backwards.)

My kids LOVE it!  

Bugsy prefers to ride his bike, but some days we want to take rides that are too long or fast for his legs.  Some days his asthma is really bothering him and even though he begs and begs to ride his own bike, his actions tell me he doesn't have the energy to do so.

On days like these, the Schwinn Trailblazer is perfect for both of my boys to ride in together!  They're both comfortable, there's plenty of head room, and they both get to feel the breeze on their faces as we speed through the neighborhood!

Some days, though, Bugsy's feeling strong and we're not rushed and he can ride his bike.  On those days, Stinky is the king of the bike trailer!

I LOVE that the Schwinn Trailblazer Trailer is a double trailer, so both boys can ride, but that there's a third "crotch strap" in the center, so that if Stinky's riding alone, he can ride comfortably right in the middle!  (Make sure that, even in a trailer, your little ones ALWAYS wear helmets!)  I also love the huge compartment behind the seat!  I use it to store a tire pump, my keys, a couple diapers, and whatever else I need while we're out.  There's more than enough room for a picnic lunch, and if I needed to grab a few groceries, there'd be room to store them too!

I love love LOVE that I can pack up my kids and take bike rides now!  We don't even need to wait for The Hubby to get home, because Little Lou's a good enough rider that I can manage.  (If Bugsy's going to ride by himself, I wait for The Hubby.)

Did I mention that the Schwinn Trailblazer Trailer can also convert to a jogging stroller?  It does!  And it's a very smooth ride, too!  Comfy for my boys, and easy for me to push!  The handle's adjustable to whatever height the jogger needs.  It's great!  

I love the Schwinn Trailblazer Trailer!  I honestly have very few negative things to say about it!  It is very easy to assemble, very easy to attach to the bike, and I can't even feel it behind me.  I can definitely tell I'm doing more work to pull 80 pounds of little boy, but that's just because I am moving an extra 80 pounds.  It's not any more difficult to ride with the Schwinn Trailblazer than without it!  In fact, I love it SO much, that when I saw a similar Schwinn trailer on clearance at a local store a few weeks ago, I called my sister, who drove an hour and a half to come get it!  Schwinn's bike trailers are THAT good!

Friends, I am not just telling you about Schwinn's bike trailers because I love them.  I'm telling you about them because it's fall.  It's cooling off a little.  The weather is perfect for you to get outside and ride bikes with your family.  Some of you have kids.  Some of them are little.  You need a good solution to safely manage those little ones while you ride!

I'm also telling you about the Schwinn Trailblazer Trailer because I want you to be active.  I want your kids to be active.  There's a growing childhood obesity issue in the United States, and the only way we're going to reverse it is by teaching out kids healthy lifestyles.  It's a great idea to tell your kids about exercise.  It's a great idea to take your big kids out and run with them, play with them.  It's an even better idea to start when your little ones are...little...involving them in your exercise routines, so that they will be ingrained into them.  

Take your little ones for a bike ride!  If you don't have a bike trailer already, consider a Schwinn Trailblazer Trailer!  You won't be disappointed!  (And you might just end up being able to capture a snapshot like this one of "Poppy's Posse!!")

I received this item at no cost to me in order to facilitate a review.  I was not compensated in any other way.  All opinions are strictly my own.

Dear Phil & Ted

Thank you for being amazing.

Thank you for creating awesome, safe products that help mommies and babies be safe and happy.

Thank you for being innovative, both in your products and in your community support.

Thank you for creating a brilliant "recycling" program!

Love, love, love,
A satisfied customer

~~~~~~

Okay, so I feel like that's all I need to say, but since I'm supposed to write a review, I'm not sure that is enough.  I teased you over a month ago with pictures of my new (to me) Phil&Teds Sport stroller, and then never told you about it!  I'm sorry about that!  Life's been crazy lately.  Life's been a LOT crazy.

One thing that's made life crazier, and at the same time much more sane, is that I have been exercising more!  If you know me personally, you may know that when I was a kid, I was very active.  In elementary and middle school, I was athletic.  (I was also on the Spell Bowl team.  That's a story for a different day.)  In high school, I was in marching band.  I carried a trumpet or a marching baritone, depending on the year.  I lifted weights.  I was sleek and strong.  I was a runner.  I played volleyball.  I played basketball.  I had energy to spare!  And then I grew up, got married, and had 3 kids.  Energy took a nosedive and so did my drive to be fit and healthy--until recently!  

When I decided to start exercising again, I knew that walking would be a staple and that I'd love to start running again.  I used to love it.  I stopped because of injuries, which still haunt me 15+ years later, but which I am confident I can overcome with training.  I never started again because I got lazy and didn't have the right equipment.  This became especially apparent when I had my third child.  Did you know it's hard to walk/jog/run while pushing a sit-n-stand double stroller?  They're heavy and awkward and weird.  So when I decided to start exercising, I realized I'd need a jogging stroller.  The trouble is, jogging strollers aren't cheap, and I didn't know anyone that could loan me one or hand one down to me.

The Scoop

Phil&Teds graciously agreed to sign me up for their Buggies For Good (BFG) program!  Buggies For Good is a program in which Phil&Teds accepts donations of used strollers, refurbishes them, and donates them to good causes.  There are some amazing stories on the Buggies for Good page of their blog!

I received my Phil&Teds Sport very quickly!

Of course, I wanted to put it together immediately.  It was refurbished and didn't come with instructions, though, and while much of the assembly was really intuitive, there were some parts I was unsure of.  I couldn't easily find the instructions, but a simple chat with a WONDERFUL live online customer service agent later and I had printed instructions in hand.  Overall assembly probably took me about 10 minutes.  I was SOOO excited to try it out!

The kids were more excited about the boxes.

Thank you, Phil & Ted, for providing my children with over three consecutive hours of interactive, quiet, cooperative play!  (Yes, the box is from an explorer, but the stroller itself is a sport.)

We have used and abused this stroller already, and I've certainly got a lot to say about it!

The Good

The doubler seat.  I love that it can be used on the front (infant-toddler formation) or on the back (toddler-toddler formation).  I love that it doesn't really add any length to the stroller either way!  It's great to have a double jogger that's really about the size of a single jogger!

The veratility!  I love that there are 4 different ways to adjust the front seat, from upright to totally flat!  I love that it can be used from birth as is, and I also love that there is an optional infant cocoon that offers additional security for a tiny baby.

The ride.  I love the smooth ride my boys get in this stroller!  We have a much cheaper brand of sit-n-stand stroller as well, which now sits in my garage.  The Sport from Phil&Teds is a MUCH smoother ride for the kid!  They're excited when they see it.  Stinky actually comes running!  Steering and handling are great as well.  I do need to pump up the tires a tad, but otherwise, the steering is super easy!

The Room.  The seats are plenty roomy for my munchkins!  In the single or infant/toddler position, the front seat can hold up to 88 pounds!  That's a BIG kid!  And in the toddler/toddler position, the front child can be up to 55 pounds and the back child up to 35 pounds!  This means that, with my children, we've got about 10 more front seat pounds AND 10 more back seat pounds before either of my little guys outgrow their positions!



The handlebar.  I love that the handlebar can be adjusted for taller and shorter drivers.  My hubby is about 6 inches taller than I am, but it's perfect for either of us!

The Bad


The brake.  I get frustrated every time I try to put the brake on or off.  It's a bar across the back of the stroller.  I like that it operates both wheels at the same time, but it is difficult to turn on and off.


The unfolding!  Folding isn't so bad. But the unfolding?  HORRIBLE!  It takes a long time.  It doesn't always work the first time.  I'm left with a baby in the car seat and two kids running circles around me as I try to get this stroller ready.  It's a little annoying that I have to remove the doubler seat every time I fold it, but I'm willing to make that sacrifice for the in-line feature!


The shins.  I told you I haven't run for a long time, so maybe I have crazy form, but I feel like I have to run REALLY weird in order to keep from hitting my shins on the doubler seat.  This isn't a problem when I'm walking, just when I'm running.


The pricetag.  In my "real" life, the one where I'm not a review blogger, but rather a stay at home mom in a one income family that has to make a lot of sacrifices in order to live without that second income, luxury is really not an option.  I understand that the quality and standards of Phil&Teds product are very high, but unfortunately that puts the prices out of range for moms like me.


The Evaluation


Overall, I really enjoy the Phil&Teds Sport!  As with any stroller, there are definite pro and cons.  For me, the pros outweigh the cons.  Most of my cons are more of annoyances, anyway, rather than actual problems.  I have done a lot of reading, and from my understanding, most of my "cons" have been corrected or updated in newer models.  (The Sport is still available from amazon.com but is no longer available straight from Phil&Teds...although you COULD potentially buy all the parts and build one yourself!) I love my Sport stroller!  


Phil&Ted, you get two thumbs WAY up from this mama!