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I am taking a good hard look at these. Are they worth the money?? I already have a BOB trailer for heavy commuting/touring, etc. Should I be looking at a different brand??

Our daughter loved going to school in the trailer. At about 8, she got her first ride on an Adams, and there was no turning back. Our daughter immediately took to it because it gave her a chance to participate.We put thousands of miles on our Trail-a-Bike, almost off of it going to school. The effort required is much lower than that for a trailer. Even though it makes the bike less stable -- I was delighted with it, too. I added a fender and a tail light, and that made it almost perfect.

I own three different brands of trail-a-bikes, including the Adams tandem (two kids) trail-a-bike.

I'm least happy with the Adams hitch as it has the most play in it. I don't think you need to hold out for the Adams brand.

If you're considering buying new, I'd get a Burley Kazoo or a Piccolo. As cplager said, the Adams has a lot of play in the hitch, which can make it hard to handle. Or, if you already have a kid's bike your child enjoys riding, look at the FollowMe tandem.

+2 for the Burley Piccolo. It is expensive but has a voracious used market when the kids grow out of it.

One of my trail a bikes is the $89 WeeRide Co-Pilot. As long as you make sure the rear hub is well greased, I found it works nicely. The only reason I usually use my Trek trail-a-bike is that it has gears.

And before buying anything new, I'd definitely checkout Craig's list...

I bought my 3 and a 1/2 year old daughter an Adams Trail a Bike. She loves it though she stretches to pedal. It does have play in the hitch but I cant comment on how it compares to other brands as this is the only brand I have used. I tow mine behind a vintage road bike and it rolls well. I bought mine new, if you are buying used make sure you are getting the front removeable part of the hith that stays on the lead bike when the trail a bike is not in use.

My youngest daughter loved riding on our Adams trail-a-bike. It was nice, though, when she could reach the pedals (via crank arm adaptors) on our Tandem Tuesday.

We had an Adams Trail-A-Bike and replaced it with a Giant Half Wheeler because excessive play in the hitch created a tail wagging the dog situation. The Giant was not the perfect solution either but Burley was in the throes of bankruptcy and had stopped making Piccolos. Now that they are back in production I recommend the Burley Piccolo as the best trailer dike design since the hitch only moves in one axis. Alternatively you could look at a tandem. While they are less flexible you can comfortably ride with bigger kids and have better control and handling.

I picked up a used Adams trail-a-bike for my daughter a few years back. She loved it, but it did take some getting used to for both of us. First I noticed, like others mentioned, it has a lot of play in the hitch. This made the first few rides harder than normal because I felt like I had to balance and compensate for my daughters movements. But once we got through the learning phase it wasn't bad at all.

I just opened one of these up today for the kids. I agree, check every spot that should get grease (the seatpost, stem, pedals, hitch interface, hub and crank). Darn thing is HEAVY, but the kids love it. For the price of a used Adams, I thought why not ... and resale is decent (at least around here) regardless of brand...

--attached to the 26er frankenbike special
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