Reviews for Kettler Flipper child bike seat

The seat, once installed, has been really good. My 1.5 year old can ride in it for more than a couple of hours, with a couple of short breaks. My actual Flipper answered one main question I had and gave two surprises. After my experience with the Flipper, I would choose it again over the CoPilot Limo and over the Topeak Babysitter. The answered question is that the "Natural Suspension" actually seems believable. The seat really does flex downward a good amount when I push it down. I can't tell whether that really means the suspension works well in practice, because I'm looking forward, but my boy doesn't cry or scream when I've hit small potholes, so there's no reason to doubt that the suspension is a good thing. By the way, suspension seems like an essential feature to me, because any child seat is directly over the rear axle, and without suspension, every single bump would go straight up to the child's spine. (In contrast, a bike rider's seat has the bike's tubes, and the rider's legs, to absorb some of that shock.) The first surprise: the mounting kit comes with plastic spacers for a variety of seat tube diameters. I seem to recall that there were spacers for each of about 4 or 5 possible seat tube diameters. But what if your tube size is not any of the 4 or so diameters? The manual doesn't say. Also, I seem to recall that the manual does not teach how to measure seat tube diameter for the person who is without a measuring device and who is not familiar with the divide-circumference-by-pi formula. (Luckily, I happened to have a measuring device.) Before buying this product, I would recommend measuring your seat tube diameter and calling Kettler directly to confirm which, if any, of the spacers can be used. Second surprise: I wonder whether the Flipper would slam into the rear spokes (and damage the spokes) if the bike should tip over (e.g., tip over while on kickstand, or while leaning on wall). I wonder this because my bike has tipped over twice already (with no one on it, during my clumsy installation), and the Flipper has twice dented and bent the sides of my existing tubular-steel rear rack that is under the Flipper. So, I wonder, if I didn't have the existing rack at all, would the Flipper have bent far enough inward during the fall to hit the spokes and do harm? I would not bet against the harm. To be safe, I would recommend having a rear rack under the Flipper, if there's space. (I had to saw down the upturned prongs atop my Tubus rack to make it fit under the Flipper, but most racks don't have such prongs, and many or most bikes have taller seat tubes than the rear seat tube of my family's tandem bike. I chose this seat over the CoPilot Limo and the Topeak Babysitter because the CoPilot Limo lacks at least the Flipper's suspension ("natural suspension"), and the Topeak lacks at least the Flipper's seat-reclining ability. Also, I read descriptions of the Limo as having 3-point harness, as opposed to the Flipper's 5-point harness, and 5-points seem safer than 3-points. Also, the Topeak seat's included rack is a cast metal type, and is aluminum, which makes me believe that it cannot be safely "widened" to fit the 145mm rear hub spacing of my tandem bike, as opposed to the standard 135mm rear hub spacing of a standard "mountain bike" that I'm guessing the Topeak was designed for. (In contrast, tubular steel racks seem safe to "widen".)