AndrewP

Rear mounted seats are cheap and OK up to about age 3, but they dont make seats for 2. Trailers can take 2 and also have the advantage that toys, books, food can be carried. Tag along bikes are great fun for the children age 4-8. They also have the advantage that you can rest and let the child push you along.

meb

Actually saw someone last summer that had a trail-a-bike for a 4 year old with a child trailer behind the trail-a-bike for an infant.

Ritz

Wow, that would make for a loooooooooong rig. WWW.TOURDEPANTS.COM .

Michel Gagnon

I have done that a couple of times on flat terrain, when my then 6-year-old daughter was telling me that she was pedalling, yet all I could hear was the damn click-click a freehub does when coasting. So I decided to coast too ! Needless to say that after 1-2 blocks, she understood.

But there also was a time when she saved my bacon. One winter day, I had my commuter bike + trailercycle, and the 20-year-old left pedal blocked. Jammed bearings! Grear, especially since we were climbing a 3% grade and doing a left turn at that time !

So all we had was 6-year-old Ève on the trailercycle, plus Sophie in the child trailer, but she didn't count, except as dead weight. So Ève was spinning gloriously in 1st gear to make us get over the intersection. Once I got my left foot out of the toe clip, I was able to pedal with the right foot only.

Ritz

My son brought a Rans Screamer recumbent tandem to my attention at the LBS the other day. I think it was love at first site for both of us, now we just have to find a spare $5,000.00 and we'll be in bid-ness. WWW.TOURDEPANTS.COM .

DieselDan

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You CANNOT use a child seat with any trailercycle.

You can use a child seat and a trailer

You could use a trailer and a trailercycle, but that's a long rig with two joints.

To take both, use a trailer.

I have many parents use a seat as a mobile time-out seat while the kids ride in the trailer.

woody_1029

I have pulled my daughter in multiple MS150s; first in a Co-Pilot trailer for 2 years, then on a Trek Mountain train pedal trailer for the last 2 years. It really is not that hard. Like anything, everyone, including the kid(s) adapt to both mileage and time. The Co-Pilot was good for the first 2 years as we stored stuff in it for our daughter to play with (books, boom box, dolls, etc..), as well as other necessities. As she got older, she became bored. It was then we made the change to the pedal trailer. She and I have adapted to that and I guess we will use it for another few years.

The additional weight you will pull with either type of trailer is hard at first. When you move to a pedal trailer, balance also plays a major role in how you ride. I found the Co-Pilot easier in that I did not have worry about how my daughter was leaning in her seat, or if she was turning around to look at something. Believe me, you WILL feel it.

In any event, I have logged some major miles with both, and most have been enjoyable.

cdnguy

Wouldn't you feel like an idiot though if anything ever happend while pulling this rig and your kids got injured?

mhawker

After recommendations from members on this site and others, my wife and I bought an InStep Quick N EZ trailer from Target. Looked online since local store didn't have them in stock. But while out, found a Target Greatlands store that had 6 of them! Not on sale as others had found, but eve at $100, it seems like a good little trailer.

One thing I wish it had was some sort of sun shade. Minor issue.

Michel Gagnon

Well, wouldn't you feel like an idiot if you drove your car and anything ever happened on the road – i.e. a collision ?

To me, that's exactly the same. Each time you go out and use a vehicle – whether a car, a truck, a trailer, or a bicycle with or without trailer, you have to ride according to your abilities.
For two years I have cycled with a bicycle + trailercycle + child trailer. I found the setup very stable and very easy to ride on roads and streets (except uphill, maybe), but I used a Trek 520 touring bike with a very rigid rear end and a Burley Piccolo which is much more stable than a Trail-a-Bike attached around the seatpost. And my vehicle combo was full of headlights, taillights and reflectors.

One definitely needs to look often in the mirror and one needs to take right turns a bit further away from the curb, but those are minor considerations. The only places where I found that vehicle combo problematic is on dedicated bike trails and multi-use paths!

By the way, the "combo time" is over because kids grew up. So I now use a real tandem + trailercycle.

Gardener

Thanks for the thread, folks. Very informative. Going to show my fiance pictures of the Burley Solo in anticipation of our coming daughter. I like hearing your tales of the tandems,, get's me to thinking...

bwengle

I appreciate all the good information. I'm a new forum member and have been researching trailers and trail-a-bikes for my children 3 and 6. We aren't doing any long, hard rides. Just recreational such as rail-to-trails. I purchased a Bell trailer on sale at Toys-R-Us. I wondered if anyone had any experience with a bicycle tow bar (such as Trail-Gator) versus a trail-a-bike. What should I be looking for in a trail-a-bike and what price? Price-wise I can do better at Target than on Ebay, but am I better off getting a used higher quality bike on Ebay. Thanks.

oldskoolboarder

I can beat that. I saw someone in our neighborhood w/ a custom triple tandem, trail a bike, and trailer.

Ritz

Choo-Choo! WWW.TOURDEPANTS.COM

DCCommuter

That was probably me. This year I have the tandem trail-a-bike so I can take all three kids.

I find the trailer really improves the stability of the trail-a-bike. What's tricky is that the bike, the trail-a-bike and the trailer all have different turning radii, so you have to be careful going through gates and around obstacles.

Scott A

I, too, am interested in a trailer bike. But which one? The InStep looks to be a POS upon close inspection (but I've never actually used one), but I can't afford a Burley Piccolo. What do I get? Any advice or reviews would be helpful. Thanks!

masiman

Burley's are/were the better performing rig but they are no longer being manufactured.

After them people seemed to like the Trek and Adams. DieselDan may be able to weigh in more.

europa

But no-one really answered the question about the cheaper variants. It's nice for you lot in the US to talk about the top line brands with gears, but they aren't available here in Oz, all we get are the cheap, heavy variety with single speed gears. So, how good are they? You see see a few selling second hand, all are going for not much under retail but all have 'little use'.

Richard

Michel Gagnon

While not as stable and long lasting as the Burley Piccolo, the Addams Trail-a-Bike is very good for moderate use... and is still available.

I used with my daughter a single-speed Trail-a-Bike and wore the hitch in about one year. It hadn't become unsafe, just a bit wobbly. However, we had ridden 1800 km during that year (including some loaded touring), which is more than what most people will ever do.


Now I will suggest that you either get the multi-speed version or that you ask your bike shop to change the standard cog for a larger one. With the single-speed Trail-a-Bike, I found that Ève was pedalling a a good clip only when we were going faster than 25-30 km/h... which doesn't happen often at touring speed.

DieselDan

I just finished testing a Sun Tug-A-Bug. The results are a disaster. The coupling flared out frightening fast. This was a fleet test at a beachside resort.