Top tip - Don't Buy a Bike Tutor!!!

Honey77

The Bike Tutor may sound great in concept; it's a bike seat which fits in front of your saddle for a toddler / young child. They have their own foot rests and handlebars. However, we have had a terrible experience which I would urge anybody to take into consideration.

The Bike Tutor arrived with a poor quality photocopied parts list. Nevertheless we struggled on to fit it. In a nutshell the Bike Tutor is clamped directly to your crossbar. We followed our instructions to the letter and as a result badly dented the crossbar when tightening the clamp. We contacted the supplier (bike-tutor.com) and he said there was supposed to be a protective strip to place between the clamp and the crossbar. There is no reference to this part in the parts list, fitting instructions or product brochure. He basically said that it wasn't his problem and that it was our fault for fitting the seat without this part - even though we had no knowledge of its existance.

3 weeks on and we are still awaiting delivery of this missing part, our bike is irrepairably damaged for which they admit no liability and they are yet to answer a simple question about what an extra strap is for!

Give this company (Bike Tutor.com / they also sell on Ebay) and this product a wide berth if you value your bike.

puffin-dad

Wow you really seem to hate them. We bought ours from Ebay a few months ago and have to say that my daughter and I love it. Yes the fitting was difficult and I did have to ask them a couple of questions but the service we got was great. We read their feedback on Ebay and the comments persuaded us to buy. The profile shows they have not been on Ebay that long but with 70+ people all thinking the seat is great we were sold.

We removed ours at the weekend and the clamp had not even left a mark on our frame let alone dented it, maybe we used a smaller spanner? but when fitting we tightened the clamp bit by bit until the seat did not move. I guess you could dent the frame as the clamp is all metal, but you really must have overtightened the bolts.

Like most people we did our research into the numerous child seats on the market and eventually decided upon the Bike Tutor as I dont feel confident enough on a bike to be constantly turning around to see what was going on in the back seat. More importantly however I wanted cycling together with my daughter to be special, I wanted it to be about us doing something together where we can talk and sing (badly) while we ride.

I hope you get what you want from the people at Bike Tutor. It seems a shame that your missing out on such a great experience.

We asked about the long strap and they told us it was an additional safety strap. They did however say that this was only really needed if your child refused to sit still and do as they are told. We have never used it. I hope this helps.

http://www.bike-tutor.com

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mumontherun

We read the above review with interest which prompted us to do some more research into the Bike Tutor.

We contacted them through the website and asked for a copy of the fitting instructions which were sent as a .pdf by return as I wanted to know just how hard it was to fit. They also included pictures of fitting solutions for the most common fitting problems (cables running along the top tube where the clamp would mount).

We then read every one of their 80+ feedback on Ebay in search of anything so damming as the review above. The seat was reviewed in Enjoy your Bike magazine which is also posted on their site. Again no mention of the clamp crushing frames but the editor did describe it as "Brilliant". We bought one.....

Arriving in 48 hours by recorded post we followed their advice and scheduled some time to fit it. 1 hour later and it was on. Solid, stable and very secure. We had some questions regarding the fitting of the handlebars so called the help line and left our number. 2 hours later and the phone rings and the chap talked us through the problem, sorted!

Our daughter loves it, and my wife and I fight over who is going to ride with her. We have just ordered another so we can both have one on our bikes so we can split the ride and they gave us a discount, with no queries.

Overall we love the Bike Tutor, yes its time consuming to fit and yes you have to think about the fitting to get the best possible riding position but this is made clear in the instructions and we were not expecting a simple clip on one size nearlly fits all.

We read everything we could about child seats both front and rear and made up our own minds. Our experience of the customer service has been very good but we weren't trying to scam a new bike out of them!

t4tomo

I have a more simple Leco top tube seat (only suitable when they get a bit older) whic comes with a big rubber sleeve to protect the frame. Available on ebay for around £20 inc postage. it works well with no frame damage.

Used to have (well actually still do in the garage somewhere) a more substantial seat fro younger kids which clamped to the head tube which was anovel solution and worked very well.