Product Recall: Novara Afterburner Trailer Bike
July 3, 2007
REI members & customers,
Last week, REI discovered a potential safety defect involving the Novara Afterburner children’s trailer bike (pictured below), sold at REI retail stores and REI.com in 2007.
Because the Afterburner trailer bike that you bought may be hazardous to children who ride it, you must immediately discontinue use of it. If you have given the Afterburner trailer bike to someone else, please provide him or her with this letter immediately.
Because of our concern for children who may be using this product, in addition to notifying our members who purchased the trailer bike we are working in cooperation with the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The safety defect is in the quick-release mechanism that attaches the Novara Afterburner trailer bike to the lead bike seat post. We’ve found that the quick-release mechanism may loosen after repeated use, which could cause the quick-release to fail and the trailer bike to disconnect from the lead bike. If that happens when both bikes are moving, it could cause serious injury to the child riding the Afterburner trailer bike.
The integrity of our product and the safety of our customers are of the utmost priority, as such we’re contacting you now, while working on a repair solution that we will communicate to you in approximately two weeks. The goal of our solution is to provide you with an easy-to-install quick-release replacement part, which we will send to you with detailed instructions for installing it. We will also send information on having the replacement part installed at your nearest REI store (upon the part’s availability) if you prefer not to do the replacement yourself.
As always, per our 100 percent satisfaction guarantee, you are also welcome to return the product to us at any time for a full refund or credit.
We apologize for the inconvenience, and appreciate your help in implementing this recall. In the meantime, please contact us at 1-800-426-4840 with any immediate questions between 4 a.m. and 11 p.m. PT seven days a week.
Regards,
Michael Collins
Vice President
Recreational Equipment, Inc.