Originally Posted by
mikalo
Why? does it not work well?
I'll forget the price if it works, hours of fun and taking kid to school riding instead of driving will pay off the tandem rack quickly.
Over the 35+ years I've been involved with cycling, I've seen 100's of these "brilliant ideas that were going to revolutionize cycling" come and go. Most worked marginally but had major drawbacks of one kind or another, and were usually invented by someone who had no real experience with cycling.
But in my haste to chuckle at what I see as yet another "wanna-be" bicycle or "instant" tandem invention, I sometimes forget that:
A. Others may not give a damn for my sense of "bicycle purity"
B. Others may actually have a functional use for such an item!
And this might be one of those instances. That "stick" may well suffice for taking a child a couple of miles to and from school every day and as such, offer both parent and child as many happy hours of togetherness as a $5000 tandem! That may be a valid application.
But personally, I fail to see it's purpose. You can't "tow" your child significantly faster than they are already able to go on their own, as they still have to steer their own bike. Go too fast and they'll either panic or simply lose concentration on the road, both possibly leading to trouble. So you wouldn't get there significantly faster than if the two of you just rode your own bikes.
The stick doesn't keep them in a straight line behind you either. Again, they are free to steer their own bike. And if they veer off too far to the side, (like kids often do), the stick will disconnect from your bike and drop to the ground while still attached to the front of your child's bike. Translation? A potential pole vault!
And lastly, it would appear the connection on both the stick and rack are very delicate bits of nylon or ABS plastic. I would not expect them to either hold for two adults, nor last very long even with a parent/child.
Still, it might have certain "useful applications". Do be VERY aware, though, that children tend to steer where they are looking. See a puppy on the other side of the chainlink fence? Off the sidewalk and into the fence the bike goes! But no harm done, (usually), because the little one is only capable of riding at 5 mph. Now tow the child with this stick and double their speed, but still leave them in full control of steering the bike ....... potential disaster.
So if you can't ride faster, you can't ride safer, and you'd have to "teach" them how to ride with this thing anyway, why not just teach them to ride their own bike properly and accompany them?