I bought an Adams Trail A Bike the other day from my LBS. I tried it out with my 4 year old daughter in the parking lot and everything seemed fine so I took it home so we could go out on a ride. Less than a half a mile from my house it started getting really hard to pedal. I looked back for a sec to see if she was dragging her feet, she wasn't. I kept going for a couple seconds and all the sudden the wheel locked up completly and I swerved a bit and slid in the loose gravel and we both fell. I cut myself up pretty bad on my elbow and knee and banged my head off the road. She was unhurt just scared.

I took it back to the LBS as soon as we got a ride home. They checked it out and said the freewheel came loose somehow. He apologized and said that is something they don't check because it comes pre assembled. He called Adams to report what had happened and they called him back a little while ago. They told him they haven't heard of that happening before and it was probably because my daughter wasn't peddaling to tighten it up. I didn't read that she had to anywhere and I wasn't told that she had to either. If there had been a car behind us it could've been a lot worse than it was. I just wonder should I call them myself and express my displeasure or should I just let it go and chalk it up to a freak accident and bad luck?

That doesnt make a lot of sence to me. So i have at least 4 miles a day where i am towing a bike with no rider.

I dont use an adams i use a trek mt train 206.

The LBS should have checked out the TAB, period. A properly assembled bike or TAB does not require the user to pedal for the bike to stay together. It is not the responsibility of the bike rider to pedal to keep the freewheel attached to the hub.

Unfortunately, if they are trying to lay blame for the accident on your daughter you may want to consider suing. I don't like that idea, but you have to consider if it is ok to let them (LBS or Adams) blame your daughter for what happened. Take pictures now, start making notes of the sequence of events in case you decide to go that route. I sincerely hope they do something better than what you have written to resolve the situation.

Norco/Adams had a problem a few years ago with freewheels coming unscrewed. That problem gets compounded by yougins back pedaling too much, which can cause the freewheel to come unscrewed. I hope the LBS tightened the p!ss out of the freewheel with a chainwhip.

First find a new bike shop. That should not have happened. The bike, or TAB should have been gone over by the mechanic front to back, top to bottom. EVERYTHING should have been tightened. Did they lube the chain?
Next call Adams and voice your displeasure, send an email, or ten. Include a link to this thread. There is no excuse for anything coming loose on the first ride. For any reason.

First find a new bike shop. That should not have happened. The bike, or TAB should have been gone over by the mechanic front to back, top to bottom. EVERYTHING should have been tightened. Did they lube the chain?
Next call Adams and voice your displeasure, send an email, or ten. Include a link to this thread. There is no excuse for anything coming loose on the first ride. For any reason.

Lube the chain? Why ruin an already good application of lubricant that the shop cannot get?

Lube the chain? Why ruin an already good application of lubricant that the shop cannot get?

Probably did not need to lube it, but they should have checked that it did have the factory lube. They apparently assumed everything else was good to go on the bike. Maybe they did nothing more than take it out of the box.

I'd want to know if the rim was straight, gears adjusted, bolts checked for tightness, etc.

I bought an Adams Trail A Bike the other day from my LBS. Less than a half a mile from my house it started getting really hard to pedal. They checked it out and said the freewheel came loose somehow. He apologized and said that is something they don't check because it comes pre assembled. They told him they haven't heard of that happening before and it was probably because my daughter wasn't peddaling to tighten it up

I bought one a few years ago from REI. Exact same thing happened. I called REI and they told me the same thing. I tightened it up myself by stepping on the pedals and pushing my weight down on it. That did the trick and no problems since.

Thanks for the post. Now I'll go check our Burley.

As far as suing - why? Mistakes happen and no one was hurt badly. Stuff happens. It makes sense that they wouldn't think to check it because in any other application the freewheel would fully tighten itself. If anybody screwed up it was Adams because they specialize in this type of product and should make sure the freewheel is properly torqued up before they ship it. The argument could as well be made that you should have stopped operating the bike when you first noticed it wasn't functioning normally.

FWI, I have one of the new Chinese Burley Piccolo's. I got it through mail order and the factory build was atrocious. Absolutely everything that could be assembled poorly was and I had to dismantle and reassemble completely. That said it does work excellent now and the hitch system appears to be bullet proof.

My 3 1/2 yo was on the trail-a-bike yesterday for a total of about 8 miles and didn't pedal once. No problems.

This same exact thing happened on our Trek Mountain Train 20" TAB the first weekend we were using it. I bought it used at a garage sale but it had seen very little use. The first weekend we had it I hooked it up to my Stumpjumper for my 4.5 year old daughter and then hooked our trailer to the TAB for my 2.5 year old daughter. We rode 32 miles in the first 2 day and the kids were loving it. Then my daughter started complaining that she couldn't pedal so I stopped and found the rear cog jammed into the frame. I pulled the wheel off and tightened everything up and we haven't had any trouble since.

I hate to say it - but I am glad I am not the only one that has had this issue and that it does not seem to be related to the brand of TAB.