Next step after trail a bike?

[pennbikemom]

We've used a trail a bike with our now 7-year-old and it's been great. We've been able to take much longer rides than we ever would have without it.

Now our 3 1/2 year old can ride on the trail a bike. We hate to buy a new regular sized trail a bike because it won't fit our oldest for long. I'd been looking at the 24 inch trail a bike, which they say fits 7 to 10 year olds, but it seems to be hard to get.

I also asked about tandems at a couple of bike shops and heard it would be hard to find one that would fit a kid and a grownup. Any suggestions? Our little kid would happily ride a long time behind Mom or Dad but we won't get far with the 7 year old if we don't find a way for her to ride with one of us. (I also thought the trail a bike could get her ready for gears; we tried that last year on vacation and it was too scary. Gears will ultimately let her ride with us.)

[Praxis]

Short on time at the moment, but Bike Friday makes (folding!) tandems that can fit a rider something like 36" to over 6 foot in the rear.

[HardyWeinberg]

I see a guy around town who has this sliding bottom bracket thingy that he put on the rear seat tube of his tandom to raise the pedals up to where his <4 yr old can reach them and act as a stoker. The chain is of course at like a 45 degree angle for the kid's pedals going down to the front crank. It's otherwise a one-sized tandem (the rear seat's top tube is just a continuation of the front one, at the same height)

There is also a tandem t-a-b:

http://www.trail-a-bike.com/product/trail-a-bikes/original-tandem/

I noticed that Adams recently reclassified their t-a-b's so the 20" one is supposed to max out for age 6 or 7 and create market share for the 24"er for the up-to-10 yr olds. I think that is just artificial gerrymandering, I am sure your 7 yr old will have another couple years on your current t-a-b (unless we're talking about a really large kid).

[Phantoj]

Post the question in the "Tandem Cycling" forum for more discussion about kids on tandems. I ride with a 4-year-old. Tandems are expensive, but they're lots of fun!

[st0ut]

2 bikes with 2 trail a bikes?

[masiman]

If you would use it and have money that you want to spend on cycling, then a tandem is the most cost-effective way to go. The cost-effectiveness only works if you are and will be a cycling family though. For riding with kids check out Precision Tandems (http://www.precisiontandems.com/). On the left side of the page just a little down they have a section on a tandem and kids. This section (http://www.precisiontandems.com/artkidbackinstall.htm) shows how to install a stokid, kidback, child stoker kit (various names).

The nice part about the tandem is the flexibility. You can ride with a child or an adult. It takes me about 10 minutes to swap the bike between the two configurations by swapping and/or adjusting the crank, chain, pedals, bar and seat.

The Bike Friday and Co-motion Periscope (http://www.co-motion.com/) are great family tandems.

Good Luck.

[zonatandem]

The least expensive way to go is a used tandem.
As stated before a kiddie crankset or crankarms shorteners can let child ride full size rear of tandem.
Tandems with smaller standover room (that will fit smaller kids) include as mentioned: Co-Motion Periscope, Bike Friday's Family tandem. Schwinn and Trek also make some of their less expensive tandem models with low standover room for stoker
If you'd like, tandem can haul trail-a-bike so both kids + 1 adult can ride while other adult rides a single. Very do-able!
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

[wayne_imhoff]

We have a tandem(L/S) with crank shorteners( for our 7 yr old) and a trail bike(for our 4 yr old). When my wife rides the tandem we switch seat posts(a longer post with a shock absorber), my son uses a short post and a kids seat.