I bought a Ridekick trailer recently and gave it a run today around a 40km stretch of bike paths, with a few decent hills. I am 115kg (just over 250lb) and ride a 20kg recumbent trike, a Greenspeed Magnum XL. I placed a 10ltr water bladder in the trailer to give it some traction and was powering it on 2 x 12v, 15ah SLA batteries. I will be upgrading to 20ah Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries later but the SLA's will be fine until I get used to it.

The trailer worked well and pushed me along on flat ground at 23kph (just over 14mph). It handled well and when I wasn't using it, I didn't even notice it was there. I mainly used it to maintain my average speed going up hills, which is all I really wanted it for.

There was one problem. At the side of the control panel is a power lead to the motor. I found that this lead kept coming loose from the control panel. Although I had the battery pack tightly secured with the Velcro strap, I can only assume that the road vibration kept pushing the battery pack against the lead and disconnecting it from the control panel. When I got home, I stuck a couple of Velcro dots to the body of the control panel, wrapped a Velcro strip around the lead and secured the lead into the control panel, holding it firm with the Velcro strip. For added insurance, I placed a block of high-density foam between the side of the trailer (behind the motor) and the lead, so any movement of the battery couldn't dislodge the lead from the control panel. I'm taking it for a 70km ride (about 43.5 miles) tomorrow and will see if that has done the trick. I think it should. The next step would be to super-glue the plastic connectors together - but I don't want to do that unless I really have to.

At the run-out price of AUD$400 (approx US$315) it was a good buy. I'm riding across Australia next year and the trailer will give me some extra capacity for water, rations and equipment for the long stages across the Nullarbor. The extra assist up hills will certainly come in handy and it will supplement the range of the mid-drive kit I already have installed on the bike (with a 24v 17ah Lithium Iron Phosphate battery). Between the two units, it should give me a good 60km+ of assisted range and a bit of a boost riding up hills or into headwinds.

I'm happy with it.