Adams Trail-A-Bike Compact - 3 yr old
 

I went to Adams' web site and see there is a new "original folder compact". The compact is listed for 3-5 year olds instead of 4-6 year olds on the original folders. (shorter reach and shorter cranks) Since my little guy is turning 3 in April this definitely caught my eye. Does anyone have the compact TAB? How about any experience putting a 3 year old on a TAB? I see that Adams does sell a backrest and attached belt to help keep the kid on the bike. I have a feeling that my son would love this, although we'd obviously have to start with very short rides. We are currently riding with the InStep trailer.

http://www.trail-a-bike.com/product/...older-compact/

New for 2008 product. I don't think very many posters have one yet. I put my oldest on one at 3, but he was 32% larger then average at 3, and now he is literally off the chart at 9. His bike is a 16" Specialized Hardrock MTB with 26" wheels.

Most 3 year olds aren't that good at pedaling. Our current 3.5 year old is on a Burley and pretty much sits and hangs on. If it were sized for them, I suspect they would pedal some but not a whole lot. My first reaction would be to get the larger one as it might be useful for longer to you in that your 3 year old may not get much out of the TAB until they are a bit older, coordinated, taller, etc. If you have small kids, then yeah the smaller one could be more useful.

I don't think it will matter much either way though. If they like it they will ride it. Our 8 year old occasionally wants to ride the TAB, probably for the novelty.

Scroll down in this section to a few other discussions about trailer bikes. Last year when I was shopping, my very petite 4 year old could not even come close to reaching the pedals on the Adams. I found that the Trek Mountaintrain had a shorter seat tube by several inches. Still, I had to make two mods to capitalize on the lower frame so that she could pedal.

1) Get a shorter seatpost (you could cut a few inches off the included one, but I just couldn't do it!).
2) Invert the clamping hardware under the seat itself to drop another half inch or so.

With these simple changes, she will have years of potential use.

I did what Fibber do. I also added good old pedal blocks on the pedals (home made ones actually).

That being said, my oldest needed all that when she was 4 years old, and even with that she could barely spin around the regular Trail-a-Bike. A few years later, my younger daughter decided at 3.5 years old that she was old enough to ride that bike on her own... and she was able to use it without blocks and with the seat slightly raised!

So I'm wondering if you need the Compact Trail-a-Bike, and if you go that way, whether you won't shortchange the kid in a few years (or whether you'll need to buy the standard one anyways). If the standard Trail-a-Bike barely fits, then go for it. After all, there are no control issues as there are on a single bike.

As for age vs stability, I never had any problems with kids falling off or even having trouble staying on the seat. In both cases I did a short ride on flat terrain, then went to ride uphill through a cemetery. I'm not a fast climber, so both kids decided on their own it would be faster to walk: they stepped down incognito... and fell. Needless to say they never did that again! Training was done!

Finally, I believe in rearview mirrors. For me, it allows me to watch for traffic and to look at the child. They also have a rearview mirror which allows them to see who's coming.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. It sounds like 3 years old isn't to early and I just need to find the biggest TAB possible that he can fit in this spring.

Humble, let us know what you find. I have a 2 year old that will ride his bicycle with training wheels of course, 2 miles at a time. He is bigger than normal, but we also have been eyeing the compact model.

From what I hear, the "compact" model will be out sometime in late February.

I found a trail-a-bike at goodwill for $20 so I snagged it.... unfortunatly it doesn't have the clamp that attaches to the seat post. Anyone have an extra one they would be willing to part with cheap?

Here is the Adams one, but you need to check that you have a Adams or a Weeride model as I am not sure if they are interchangeable etc

http://www.amazon.com/Adams-Extra-Hi...657318&sr=1-17

Also keep a watch on your local Craigslist

thanks, the bike says Adams Trail-a-bike on it so I assume it is an adams. I was hoping not to spent more than I did for the bike for the clamp.

You bought it at a thrift store. The trail-a-bike was DONATED, with only the minimal cost of labor to price it and move it around. Your payment was more of a donation then a purchase. You may need to buy a chain, tire, tube, and freewheel as well. Still, your getting a deal over new.

Yeah I know I will have to put in some TLC. I was just hoping to find the part used. I'm well aware that it was a donation, When I got it, I figured that if I couldn't get it to work again It was no big loss.

I thought I'd come back with a status update. My little guy just turned 3 and I bought a standard Adam's Trail-A-Bike off of Criagslist.

He only has a 12 inch inseam so I cut off .5" off the bottom of the seatpost so the seat could be lowered to the bar. His legs were still about 1.5" short so to test it out I duct taped wood blocks with old D-cell batteries on the bottom as a counter weight. :) I' don't know if I'll come up with a better solution or just wait for his legs to grow.

We went on a few rides this weekend and he didn't have any problems or fear staying on. By the end of the weekend I was pretty much going the same speeds as with the InStep trailer. He doesn't really pedal, but I'm sure he'll figure it out on his own soon enough.

Here's the pictures. (After seeing these pictures I corrected the handlebars so he leans forward a little bit!)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3162/...9a5c76.jpg?v=0
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2107/...eebaf3.jpg?v=0

Excellent, looks like he's digging it!

LOL! He looks great on there. I am glad you adjusted his position somewhat as he looked a little too upright, almost leaning back.

You may have already run into it, but they do get tired from holding on. Take breaks before that happens if you plan on longer rides. I find our now 4 year old can do ~30 minutes, depending on terrain. The more trail riding, the sooner we have to break or swap TAB & trailer positions. My wife just started riding this season as stoker. So we yell back "Hey, are you pedaling back there!?!", the reply is typically "What are you talking about!?!" followed by a song or a look at that squirrel over there. I.e., don't expect him to pedal until next year sometime :). But as is evident in the picture, he'll have a blast riding with you.

If you feel adventurous, you should do the Chilly Hilly next year.

I recently bought the Adams TAB for my four-year-old (just turned four), who's average to short for his age. He LOVES it, and so do I! I shopped around, and I have to say that you get what you pay for. We looked at the Trek TAB, and aside from the local Trek dealer not having a clue about the product, it looked quite sub standard to the Adams.

Yeah, it's a much better riding position now that the handlebars lower. It is still a little awkward since the low position causes the grips to bend away from him instead of towards him. I know that he's still small for the bike so we'll stick with the 3-5 mile rides to the park for right now.

We did Chilly Hilly with the trailer this year . . . we'll definitely plan on doing it with the Adam's TAB next year!

We did 22 miles of gravel yesterday with my 4 1/2 year old. She loved it until the last 30 minutes when I kept hearing," My Hiney Hurts!" Today my Quads hurt! Sure it was only a 2% grade, but a 2% grade for 10 miles with a kid on a trailer bike felt like a 10% grade! I kept asking her is she was peddling and she kept saying "YUP!" Funny thing is after saying YUP, I could feel her start peddling again.

What was she selling? Do you mean pedaling?

Last fall we ended up getting our 3 year old his 1st pair of bike shorts, for exactly that reason. He never complained until we got upwards of 50 miles last fall.

This year he actually pedals regularly. He just turned 4 a couple weeks ago, but is well above average in size. I can certainly tell when he's helping our speed jumps a few MPH.

I only ask him to pedal on the real hills. That way he's fresh.