This is our 4th ER, we've had 2 striders and 2 pedal bikes for my 3 boys. I was on the fence about getting this or going to a Seeker 20 (or Woom Off 4). I decided to give this a try and see if it could be a less expensive alternative to a full-on mountain bike. We ride trails but our green mtb trails are very smooth and flowy. I wasn't quite ready to go for 8 gears and hydraulic brakes on the kids bikes though.

My main complaint is the shifter - it's just too stiff downshifting. I took it apart and lubed the cable and the rear guide. It felt a bit easier for me, but still way too hard for the kids. They can shift it up, but for riding trail this won't be sufficient.

I don't know if the gears are quite low enough. I did the math before I bought this and I thought 1st might be low enough to climb easy trails - with the seeker 16 single-speed they cannot make it up much of an incline and that's about like 3rd gear on this. It might be OK. I feel like 4th is a little tall though for a small kid - I feel like the 4 speed range is very usable, but it would be nice to have the overall a little lower. And unfortunately not an easy change with a belt drive.

I had planned to change the tires for knobs - and was leaning toward a 2.25 because that is what they were used to riding, but based on the offset in the gear hub, it doesn't look like I will have clearance. I hope a 1.95 knobby will fit back there. Front should be fine. The stock tires are OK I guess, but I…