DCCommuter

Let's see, it's the first week of May. Everyone who ever dreamt of riding a bike is at the service desk trying to get set up for the summer. The shops are either understaffed, or their seasonal help is in their first week of on-the-job training.

Yes, it's a bad week for bike shops.

samundsen

I called and talked to the owner of Northwest Cyclery this morning and explained the situation. Drove over there this afternoon to check things out, and it seemed like everything had been installed correctly this time. I went over every connection point and compared to the Burley instructions, make sure they'd used the right nuts, bolts and washers, that the rack was level, and then took it for a test ride. So far so good.

I still won't recommend this LBS to anyone in the area (northwest Houston), just because of their original attitude. The owner seems like a nice person. Too bad the mechanic is an a$$hole.

garysol1 

We have had our Adams trail-a-bike for about a year now. I use my K2 mountain bike to pull it. My almost 4 year old daughter just loves the bike where as she hated the trailer because I think she felt claustrophobic in it. The Adams is a little wobbly when standing still but as soon we start to move most of the wobble goes away. I whole heatedly recommend it. BTW...It is the single speed version

samundsen

I got the Piccolo home this afternoon, and took the first ride with my 5 year old. It was sweeeet indeed. He loves it, absolutely loves it. The thing is rock solid, no wobble, tracks perfectly. He quicky figured out how the grip shift works, and just wants to faster, faster, faster.....

DieselDan

Venga, Venga, Venga....

bcspain

The shop I use, understaffed is an understatement...its a one man show. I understand and sympathize, but its still no excuse for sending a bike out in worse condition than it came in.

In his defense, I took it back in, and he did a great job, the second time around. Screw ups are going to happen from time to time, it's all in how it gets handled when it happens.

DCCommuter

Put a speedometer on that thing! He'll love it. Mine does.

timbentdude

I wanted a Piccolo but it wasn't in the budget. I did buy a Trek mountain train and like it alot for the money about $150 w/ my LBS normal discount. The only problem is alittle slop with the plastic bushing. I am considering using oil impregnated bronze bushings to make it more solid, or maybe some sealed bearing, when it wears out. I built it up with a special hitch to attach to my recumbent.

dedhed

On my Mt. train hitch I sawed a little more out of the slot of the gray bushing so it could squeeze a little tighter. I thought about making a shim sleeve out of piece of plastic milk jug also.

alanbikehouston

When the bike shop set up my Trek Moutain Train, there was "a little slop" because the plastic insert did not fit snuggly to the the bike seatpost. The tech claimed some slop and wobble was "normal". I e-mailed Trek, and they suggested putting a rubber shim between the plastic insert and the seatpost. And, addiing a rubber shim did help a bit.

Then, I bought a second mounting kit, to make it easier to switch the "Mountain Train" between two bikes. The second mounting kit came with a thin, black plastic spacer that fits snuggly around the seatpost, and has a "slick" surface. That "slick surface" enables the "Mountain Train" to pivots smoothly when going around sharp corners, and the snug fit eliminates slop and wobble.

The CORRECT method to install the "Mountain Train": the thin "black" plastic insert fits around the seatpost, at the lowest possible position, where the seat post enters the frame. Select one of the three grey plastic "sizing" inserts to fit around the black plastic insert. (Select the smallest size that will fit your seatpost.) The metal mounting clamp goes around the grey insert. When the bolts are tightened, there should be no slop or wobble, but the arm should pivot smoothly when the bike goes around a corner.

Because this product is used for children, Trek should "double-check" to see that the mounting kit includes EVERY necessary part, and an instruction sheet. One of my kits was missing the essential black plastic shim, and BOTH were missing instruction sheets. Not Trek's finest hour.

Michel Gagnon

While I agree with you that the original installation was botched, I'll offer two comments:

1. Unlevel rack
Unless the rack was really angled, it was safe. It's essentially a handling issue: with an unlevel rack, the Piccolo does not handle as well as it does with a level rack.

2. Struts
It's mostly a question of convenience. On my touring bike (25" frame), I have used only a single set of short stays because that's what make it level. On the tandem (23"-18"), I use the longest struts, so I have placed 3 bolts along the way to minimise bending moments and increase rigidity. IOW, use what works.

samundsen

I see what you're saying, however, it was very unlevel. He had installed it level/parallel to the downtube of the bike, not the ground, and then tried to convince me that was "normal" (told him I'd installed many regular racks myself, including on the same bike, and never had to install them that way).

Bottom line was, there was no reason for him not to follow the Burley instructions, except for laziness or carelessness. Hoever, in the end, it was done correctly.

I'm considering ordering a couple of extra racks, one for my road bike and another for my wife's bike so that we have a choice of what bike to attach the Piccolo to. Currently my wife is pulling a Burley d'Lite with our 3 year old, and I don't she'd mind having the 5 year push her instead....

aggie_grad

Where in Northwest Houston do you find safe to ride with your kids. I live in the same place (Copperfield) and ride with my wife and kids. I have a 2 year old and a 3.5 year old who usually come with us in trailers. If we ride our singles, each kid gets there own trailer but now that we have a tandem they have to share the nicer trailer. We haven't felt comfortable pulling the trailers on the street with cars (no shoulders). Lately we drive to Bear Creek or to Hershey Park, but both of these are <15 miles total and usually crowded with walkers. We would love to go west a bit and get to ride on rural roads but I hate to take a chance on it not being safe. I know how most of us in Houston drive and that is why it is hard to put my family at risk.

Please let me know where you have found to safely ride with your family. I would like rides 15-30 miles.

Thanks for any help you can give,
Aggie_grad

Dr. Moto

I wish I had done a bit more research before purchasing our Adams Trail-A-Bike (starter). First, the seatpost attachment, while sturdy enough, sets the center of gravity too high, and my 5-year-old tossing her weight around back there is pretty unsettling. Things are a little better when I attach it to a hybrid bike than to a regular road bike, but still wobbly.

Second, the coupling is the pits. It's a machined universal joint, and is already loose and wobbly (ours is only a few weeks old and has maybe 10 miles on it). I've tightened it as much as I can while still allowing freedom of movement, and it still has a lot of play.

Third, the so-called "quick release" joint is anything but. It's a threaded pin that goes through a socket arrangement ahead of the UV joint, then attaches with a collared nut on the other side. It's nearly impossible to remove the pin without a mallet or other impact tool, and doing so is a greasy, messy job. Definitely not something you'd want to do daily or out on the road unless you had to.

Finally, the entire rig is pretty heavy, probably 30-35 pounds or more before you add a kid. You need to make sure the towing bike is well supported before you try to hook this beast up, or it will pull both bikes over in a flash.

On the plus side: the fit for my kid is good so far, the seat is comfortable, the frame includes a curved bar that runs under the front sprocket to protect it when you set the rig down off the bike, and my daughter is having a blast despite all the product's faults.

I'm going to look at the Burley line as a possible replacement for this trailer.

We also have a conventional Trek 2-wheel trailer that attaches to the rear chainstay. I have no complaints at all about this trailer, it's been perfect.

dedhed

The CORRECT method to install the "Mountain Train": the thin "black" plastic insert fits around the seatpost, at the lowest possible position, where the seat post enters the frame. Select one of the three grey plastic "sizing" inserts to fit around the black plastic insert. (Select the smallest size that will fit your seatpost.) The metal mounting clamp goes around the grey insert. When the bolts are tightened, there should be no slop or wobble, but the arm should pivot smoothly when the bike goes around a corner.

Because this product is used for children, Trek should "double-check" to see that the mounting kit includes EVERY necessary part, and an instruction sheet. One of my kits was missing the essential black plastic shim, and BOTH were missing instruction sheets. Not Trek's finest hour.


That's interesting. I have bought 3 hitches between stolen bikes etc and have never seen a black sleeve. I have also returned one that had 2-#3 bushings and not the #2 I needed. I do believe the last one had an instruction sheet. I guess the parts packers must be lowest paid.

samundsen

We're in Klein, right off of Stuebner Airline and Spring Cypress Rd. It's a challenge to find places to ride, that's absolutely true. However, we've found lots of side roads and routes through subdivisions where traffic is light. Sometimes we do have to cross a busy road (one of the reasons why I decided to get a trailer bike and not just let him ride his own bike). We ride out our subdivision (Oakwood West), go out on Stuebner Airline then immediately take a side road (either Five Forks or Theiswood), depending on where we're going. We can follow Theiswood all the way to Louetta, cross Louetta and then keep going all the way to Meyer Park. It's about 4 miles each way.

We can take a side road that is parallel to Stuebner Airline all the way to the local grocery store (HEB at the intersection of Stuebner and Louetta).

Sometimes we drive to Burroughs Park (awesome park) to let the kids ride their own bikes on the trails.

I've found it difficult to go for longer rides (more than 10 miles total) with the kids because of the traffic around here. If it hadn't been for the fact that I live 7 miles away from work I would NEVER chosen to live in a place like this.

samundsen

Michel,

I have a couple of additional questions if you don't mind......

I have now started to ride with my son to school every day using the Piccolo. This is awesome, but I need to make a few "adjustments".

First, I am currently using the Piccolo on my MTB. I don't have enough heel clearance to ride with my Arkel Bug attached to the MooseRack. I'm thinking of getting a second MooseRack for my road bike so that I can leave the Piccolo at school and just ride straight to work (right now I ride home and switch bikes). What are your experiences regarding heel clearance using the Arkel panniers on this rack?

Second, how did you go about attaching a rack to the Piccolo itself? The holes on the Piccolo frame does not appear to be threaded, and there is no room between the frame and the cogs to really attach anything like a nut or a screw head.

Michel Gagnon

I don't have any problems. It's close, but my heels clear the panniers. However, I have the touring series (T-42, GT-54) which are a bit longer than the Bug, but have a tapered front end.

If I remember correctly, I used a #10 or #12 bolt with a nylock nut. On the right side, I installed the bolt head inside. I don't remember if I had to add an extra washer on the original wheel, because the hub didn't survive its first winter. At that point, I respaced the dropouts (from 130 to 135 mm) and rebuilt the rim onto an LX 9-speed hub, and replaced the twisting shifter (grip shift, I think?) with Rapidfire.

RRZ

I bought the Mountain Train last weekend and had no problems putting it on. Thus far I haven't noticed any play in the mounting clamp.

I think the real problem was that you had no instruction sheet. The Mountain Train comes with 3 grey plastic inserts (numbered 1, 2 and 3), a black plastic shim and the metal mounting clamp. The instructions contained in the Mountain Train booklet indicates which of the grey inserts to use, depending on your bike seat post's diameter (although in my case the numbering on the inserts didn't correspond to those in the book (i.e., insert #3 was #1 in the book and vice versa)--this fact was obvious as it is clear which insert is larger in diameter).

The black plastic shim is only needed if your seat post diameter is a certain size that doesn't work well with the size of the grey inserts. The booklet specifies which diameters use the shim and which don't. For example, <xx mm diameter uses insert #1, xx-yy uses insert #2 plus shim, yy-zz uses insert #2 without shim, etc.

The booklet also instructs you to tighten the two hex bolts on the clamp around the insert/seat post until you notice significant resistance when trying to rotate the seat post in the clamp. Worked like a charm for me so far with my oldest son, but my youngest son's legs aren't long enough to pedal, so he just coasts with the pedals in the middle position and enjoys the ride.

ftroche

I just bought the a used Trek Tag-Along and it's great. I dont think that they make it anymore, but you can find them used all over the place. It connects and disconnects easily. My 3 yr old grandson is small for his age, and he has no problem pedaling. We did have to put the seat all the way down for him to be able to make a full rotation but once we did that he has no trouble with it. My bike never felt heavy or out of balance, it was not anymore difficult to ride with him on the back.
I dont know why they stopped making it, I have read nothing but good things on the internet about it. Maybe they will start making it again, since when the used ones come up in Craiglist or ebay they are snatched up so quickly.
Schwinn has one also but I have read that when you make turns the kids part leans alot. I also read some complaints about the design being flawed. There were alot more good reviews of the Schwinn one than bad reviews though. Instep also makes one, but I dont know much about that one.

masiman

As of this writing, Trek still makes TAB's. They have 3 models to choose from.