Bikes for kids/Trailerbikes etc - advice needed!

Hi Folks,

I was wondering whether those of you with kids had any advice on the best type of tagalong style bikes. I'm doing some research on behalf of my landlady. Her youngest is now too big for the child seat. He does have a little bike of his own but isn't yet at the stage where he is able enough to ride freely on the road (just turned 5). I think a tagalong is preferred. I hear that trailerbikes (like one that IslaBikes produced) are more stable and are attached to pannier mounts via a special rack. How easy this are to detach from the adult bike I don't know.

Then there is the trailgator which seems dead easy to attach and detach and has the benefit of fitting to a complete bike (with the front wheel raised). It is also the cheaper option (which is a good thing).

Has anyone used tagalongs that attach to the seatpost with qr? Are these pretty stable?

Any top tips gratefully received...

My 2p I have a 7 yr old and a 4 yr old.
Trailer gaitor. Utter shite. Great idea, but rubbish quality. Broke 2 of them. Probably fine for pootling along to the park on the smooth, but useless for anything more strenous.

Have 2 tag-a-longs (one folding that I got new for £10 from a monastry auction of all places). These are great. Stable and strong, take them off-road without a worry, and the boys love them. You can pretty much ride as if they are not there. NOTE: The newer square coupling system is a LOT better than the old one, which seemed to make the trailing bike lean for a lot of folks. Not light though, unless you pay silly money for the uprange ones. Also you can use your bike without them in seconds without a load of TG rubbish hanging off it.

When then were small (say, under 4) I replaced the ordinary seat on the tag-a-long with a bucket-style one originally from a top tube mounted seat (which is useless unless you have a REAL sit-up-and-beg Dutch style bike, otherwise their head is in your face/chin/chest all the time, and it's a bistard getting on and off as you can't slide forward off the saddle). I used this with the bars raked back, and took the pedals off (as they catch on stuff). It has 5 pint harness, and worked brilliantly on and off road - they loved it. Easy to fit just using the normal top-tube mount kit with a couple of extra holes drilled. Took 'em all over on that on and off road - kept my sanity together!

I have a schwinn tag along, it rocks.

https://www.lfgss.com/thread8868.html
https://www.lfgss.com/thread24563.html
https://www.lfgss.com/thread31997.html

Some tips in all of the above

it rocks.

Have you tried adjusting the coupling?

I'll get me coat...

I'll get it for you.

Thanks for the above (even the last few bits of banter - I lol'd). I did have a search for threads but the terms I used didn't bring up anything so ta for the links above.

Think I'll have a search around for 2ndhand tagalongs. There were a few on ebay but not much in the London area. Will definitely look for one with newer couplings though.

We have 2 kids, now 6 and 8 yr, boy and girl.
We used to have 2 trailer bikes. The 1st one was such a success that we bought a 2nd one (used).
Started using them when the kids were 3 - 4 yr.
Big, big fun and also practical.
We've just sold one, because the kids can ride their own bikes very well now and 2 trailer bikes was a bit too much.
But at the age of 6, 7, they still like it a lot., and so do the parents.
I did some quite serious offroad rides with MTB, sometimes on road with a racing bike, but also with a dutch touring bike.

The nicest one (componentry, alu frame, geared, QR, foldable) is a Giant HalfWheeler. This is the one we still have. It's with a QR on the seat post and that is very convenient.
Negative: very instable. Needs some 0.1mm shims...
The one we sold was a cheap one from a DIY market. Bought it for EUR 25, 35 or so. Foldable, but no QR and single speed. Had to remove seat post to connect it. But it rode very well, felt very stable.
I think the geometry of the Giant is better than the DIY one. It fits better.
I had to make some modifications to the DIY market bike, but after that it fitted also very well. A had to make an adapter for the handlebars, because these were too far away from, the saddle. I did this with a centre piece of a regular handlebar and Cinelli Spinaci's. Then is was multi-adjustable.

I wouldn't spend a fortune on a bling-bling trailer, but buy a simple one. Upgrade it with some good MTB or RR parts. Cheap, excellent ride, fun fun fun.

Has anyone had experience of this type:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Trailercycle.jpg

Isla bikes use the rack mount, and I believe Skully has a one off that works on the same design.

I'd prefer this than the clamp on type.

Certainly all the comments I've read say that these are more stable. I guess it depends how long the kiddy will be using it before he is independent enough to cycle on his own (i.e. whether shelling out £200 can be considered). I've not spotted any secondhand ones, not even the older Islabikes version.

Has anyone had experience of this type:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Trailercycle.jpg

I really would avoid those. Unless you have a rack as solid as a..well, seatpost, to couple it to, it's going to wobble and bend about like a bitch - there is a lot of force going through that coupling.

So you may as well just couple it to the seatpost. Trust me, till you get to a hill, you won't know it's there.

A word on geared ones. Sounds like a good idea, but unless you kid/s is a LOT more advanced than mine at 4,5,6,7, they won't have a clue what to do with gears, and it's them wot changes them, not you. Ergo, waste of money. Anyway, you only really need a "boost" up hills, when a SS does just fine as you pretty soon get to the speed where you can feel the benefit.

I have a tagalong with the square bracket mentioned ^. It's relatively stable and the kids love it. Get some mudguards though or the poor buggers get covered in mud. I put a crud catcher on the linking arm.

I also have one of these :

It's fine for much bigger kids/bikes than in the pic. I used it on villa-ru jr till he was 7-8. The good thing is it flips up and you ride off as normal (albeit with a heavy piece of metal strapped to the back of your bike).
Easy to ride attached along the road and then unclip and ride together at the common / park / wherever, re-clip when they're knackered.

Ooh, that looks interesting, I hadn't seen one of those. I think having the ability to ride independently or hooked to the adult bike is a great idea.

Interesting to hear about the non-seatposty ones though, thinking about it, I see how it's probably too much weight to put through the average pannier rack. Good tip on the mudguards too!

Thanks for the advice - makes the difference to hear practical experiences of these things.

Rack doesn't fit (and look nice) on most of our bikes (race, MTB), so were excluded.
Besides that, I got my Giant for free from my boss (Giant), so any other type was not considered.

Gears: you're right. In the beginning, those kids have no clue, but after a while you can tell them to switch to "2" or to "5" e.g.
I experienced both SS and geared. Problem with SS is that most of the times, the kid is riding a wrong gear. Mostly too big, so pedalling is almost no option.
I select the gears myself or (if the kid co-operates) tell what gear to select. Works fine with Shimano Revo shift: cheap, light action, works well. Better than SRAM MRX, which is more or less standard on every kid bike.
Offroad we ride low gears. No need to push at higher speed, but kid can really help in snad, uphill and in forrest.
On road a higher gear, of course.
If you go for SS, I recommend to look into the gearing. You may try a few and end up with a lower gear.

**Finally: didn't Hilary offer a really fantasic one a couple of times, UK hand made?
**Was a great bike.
Check with Hilary, he may still have it and as far as I remember, the price was very, very reasonable. After a couple of years, you can re-sell for the same amount.

Couldn't resist to place these ...

2 Attachments

Lovely! Great to see some tagalong off-roading action! :)

Needs some extra force.
E.g. if you climb middle ring on your own, you need the granny with a trailerbike.
Most stress is on the upper body and arms though. Have to adjust your riding style too. Impossible to ride exact lines, so you cannot choose narrow paths. You mostly end up in the big spots with mud or sand.
Have to stay in the middle of the trails, so the kid doesn't get all the branches and stuff (hands, face).
Would love to try a suspension version once (e.g. Tout Terrain Streamliner).