Schwinn Meridian

For about a year I have looked at 3 wheel bikes(trikes)intending to get one for my lady friend. I ride road bikes for exerciser and pleasure and wanted her to accompany me when I leisurely explore small country towns or cruise bike paths.She has balance problems and is not able to ride a 2 wheel bike at this time and I felt she could ride a trike..To be honest, I choose this trike because it was the cheapest deal I could find on line.. Sorry honey..I never expected this much quality for the price though..The Low Price and the fact that it's a trike is the only reason I bough it....Being this cheap I felt it may be light duty and not very well made. I hoped it would get her riding before we trashed it and she got on a two wheeler..BOY was I SHOCKED.I opened the crate, saw this trike and fell in love..The trike arrived UPS, no damage, none what so ever, zilch but there was one hole in the box where an axle rubbed..The box had been opened and taped closed..Everything was in the box, no missing parts to my surprise due to the fact all the staples had been pulled loose on top of the heavy card board box and it was clear to see someone had taped it closed again using packing tape..I have mechanical skills so assembly was no sweat..Someone who has less skill may need to ask a few questions. There is an 800 number supplied. I did not call it so I can't say if it works or not.For assembly you will need metric tools. I recommend sockets and metric allen wrenches.. A strong Phillips screw driver may be handy too..My trike had two flat tires but there is nothing wrong with the tires.New rubber can be expected to slowly leak at times because before rubber ages a tiny bit of air can seep through the rubber even when there are no holes in the tube. No telling how long those tires had sat in storage.I squirted some slime in the tubes (like I always do with new bikes ) and inflated the tires. They are holding air well..The instructions are a single page tucked in the owners manual. Hard to find and not really good when you do.There was NOTHING mentioned about trikes in the owners manual. Strange..BUT if you insert the back part to the bike to the main frame and bolt it together using the 4 bolts and nuts provided you will get past the hard part.I hear complaints about the fenders...Mine are great..The fenders will need to be adjusted to cover the tires.. Do not bend the nice shiny metal braces.After the fenders are installed you can slightly bow the center brace to line the fender with the top of the tire..with an adjustable wrench you can grasp and slightly bend the bottom part of the fender braces outward to line the fenders up with the tires..If you are careful you can get them almost perfect..Someone could drill the fake lights ( red reflectors ) located on each fender from behind and install LED's through the back.. Fill the hole with something to keep water out. Hook up a battery and have red lights for night riding..Done correctly this would be nice..When you assemble the two main parts..Think of the front of the bike as the bike and the part with the long axle as THE REAR PART.The rear part attaches to the bike where the rear wheel normally goes.It has flanges that GO INTO not over the matching flanges on the main bike frame..Put them INSIDE where the back wheel normally goes. They fit tight and may not be easy to get INSIDE. A ball bat or other heavy wooden object, covered with rags to protect the pain will help bang the parts in place..You will also need to connect a short chain during assembly but do not fear. It comes with a master link that you clip in place using pliers.I have a chain tool and I replaced the factory short chain with a better chain that I had on hand. I made a replacement short chain out of a long chain using my chain tool..I recommend that everyone buy a chain tool and learn how to use it..All bike and trike riders should know how to splice a bike chain.The photo's do not do this bike justice.The basket is strong and BIGGER than I thought it would be.My 5 year old grandson loves riding in it. Place more weight slightly to the right because the right back tire does the pulling and needs the weight for traction especially going up hills..It will coast down hills very FAST... you may want to hold slight pressure on the hand brake at times.. Always be careful costing big hills and use the brakes to keep your speed in a safe range. I feel safe on the trike at about 17 MPH..Install a bike computer.. Keep up with your miles. This will encourage you to ride more. Gives you goals..Yes. I Recommend this bike and I recommend people get it from Amazon. They have always treated me well and they have the best deals on line. I love this product and I am impressed with Amazon's service..My lady friend is very happy with her new trike. We have ridden it tonight all over the farm.. I believe it will be good for some park trails too.I regret now that I did not get one for myself so when she rides hers I can leisurely ride along side..Did I say, I love this trike? The seat is big, soft, comfortable and nice too..The angle of the seat in relation to the peddles makes it fun and easy to ride.It almost feels like riding a stationary bike.. Comfortable with more leverage..The ONLY thing I did not like about the entire package is the cheap plastic peddles. Ouch.They are NOT what I know as cruiser peddles and they will not spin freely when I give them a spin.. That is how I check my peddles. If I spin them I expect them to rotate at least 10 times on their own before slowing to a stop..I suspect these peddles NOT have BEARINGS at all..They look like Cheap Mountain bike peddles that retail for about 7 bucks a set..They are Really cheap crap for a Schwinn.But when you saved 200 bucks, you can expect something to be cheap..We will just replace them and not look back..Wallyworld sells Cruiser peddles with bearings for about 12 bucks..I like THEM much better but in all fairness the Mountain Bike Peddles may not allow your foot to slip off due to the way they are made...Quality like this, sold this cheap, is a bargain. Cheap plastic peddles and all...Better get you one while you can.. Good luck Chief.

After reading the reviews, I was truly terrified what condition my Schwinn will arrive in. Fortunately, the box arrived in good condition, no holes, dents, etc. I opened the box and looked at all parts. Thankfully all parts, fenders, etc. were in good condition, no dents on fenders, no scratches... all wrapped in card board and areas of styrofoam for cushioning during transportation. I took my Schwinn to a good friends house whom builds bicycles as a hobby. Our friend had all tools I do not have, like bicycle lubrication and tool to snap the bike chain together. After the build which took our friend a good 3 to 4 hours, the Schwinn came out amazing... rode very smooth. We did notice a few "hiccups" in which the Schwinn arrived in. The front brakes had to be readjusted because it did stick. Our friend had to remove the front brakes and readjust it. We noticed one of the rear wheels spun in a wobbly not so smooth looking spin. He says it's because the axle is probably bent, but could be replaced. Other then those issues the Schwinn was a joy to ride around and I look forward to riding it very soon when the weather gets better! A few helpful notes to mention if this is relevant to you: I am 5 feet 2 inches tall, i opted for 24 size, which worked out great. I do need the seat to be adjusted 2 inches higher which was easy to do. I also noticed there is a lable indicating the basket can only hold 20KG, which is 40 pounds. I was hoping to give my senior german shepherd rides in the basket but he's 80 pounds so that won't work.

This is a great bike, but you need to understand what you are buying. It is very well built for the price, arrives mostly assembled and needs little time or tooling to complete assembly. If you aren't confident assembling bikes, adjusting the brakes, etc then taking it to the local bike shop would probably be a good idea. I found it quite easy to put together, needs just a wrench set, Allen key set, pliers and a bike pump.The only major fault with the bike is that it is single speed geared. Despite being an Aluminium frame it is a pretty heavy bike, and being designed for cargo and likely targeted at weaker riders I am actually very surprised they don't offer a version with multi-speed gearing. Only one rear wheel is driven so there is no expensive differential/transmission gearbox which would probably make the bike cost twice as much or more. If there was a geared option (even just derailleur with no differential) I would have given it five stars. The lack of gearing is a pretty big limitation if you aren't using it on mostly flat ground.I've mostly got around the lack of gearing by adding a front-wheel electric hub motor. This works very well with the bike and makes it vastly more pleasant to commute with and especially when lugging the groceries up the hills around here. The fork drop-outs are nice and tough, I feared stripping them with the hub motor and purchased a torque bracket kit, but it turned out to be unnecessary (so far at least). But... my hub motor is only 250 watts, basically as strong as I am peddling moderately hard, which works out pretty well. A 1 kW hub motor might be a different story. This is not a bike you want to drive very fast anyway. Being a non-leaning delta configuration trike with a fairly high centre of gravity you *will* tip it if you take corners too fast without leaning. Much above 25 km/hr it becomes basically impossible to keep up peddling because of the medium fixed gear ratio, which honestly is pretty much a safety feature because taking a corner that fast without extreme leaning will flip it over and hurt you. This is a cruiser bike for leisurely trips, fast gears are probably not required, but lower gearing for hill climbing would be very desirable.Otherwise it is a comfortable, sturdy bike, made from pretty good quality parts for the price. It was certainly cost optimised to hit a price point, but the cost/value trade-offs are quite reasonable. The 26" tires are nice and wide for heavy loads and a smooth ride, they do have standard tubes (which might benefit from a little slime/sealant or better valve cores, I lose about 10 psi a month). The rims are aluminium alloy and the spokes are stainless, not sure about the glands I assume they are brass or stainless? Unlike many other cheap Chinese bike wheels they have bands to prevent glands rubbing on the tube inside the rims and the wheels themselves are true and tight when they arrive. The seat is large and comfortable, the adjustment range offered in the seat and handle bars is pretty wide and should fit a large range of different sized humans. It is a large bike, 26" after all, but it is also long and moderately wide and heavy so smaller people might find it a challenge. I'm a 1.85 metre 100 kg male human and it works well for me. The rear fenders do indeed attach only on the "inside", which means the can vibrate and even rub on the wheels if you don't install them correctly. I found they lined up pretty well with minimal fiddling as long as you tightened the three fasteners up properly. You can add a little bit of biasing by bending the struts slightly if needed - I did not need this to prevent rubbing but did it to make them well centred aesthetically. The rear axle and its bearings looks like they might have skimped a little here, it hasn't failed yet, but it might eventually need some work.I've added a computer, bell, electric lighting (front, rear and wheels) and a front basket to mine. All the creature comforts, especially for riding at night which I do a lot of. Combined with the electric assist hub motor it is now a very nice ride indeed. Schwinn please make a multi-speed version! Without it the bike is kind of a terrible experience in hilly terrain. (It is fine on flat ground though.) Better yet someone please make an after-market gearbox for it?! The shaft on the coaster sprocket/transfer idler is longer than the standard hubs (because it doubles as an attachment for the rear axle assembly) so all the after-market gearboxes I've looked at don't work for it without modification; it would require a custom axle 25-50 mm longer than normal or some changes to the chains and frame to mount a standard hub gearbox elsewhere. I am kinda tempted to build this myself at some point, because it is really the only thing that stops this bike from being truly excellent.