camille west

Can anyone offer advice on purchasing a tag-along / trailer for my mountain bike? I have a 5 year old and we will ride on the road / parks, etc. Which brands are sturdy, easy to use, etc??

samundsen

I don't have any advice, but I am looking to get the same thing. The brands I know of are Adams Trail-A-Bike, Trek Mountain Train and Burley Piccolo. The Burley is the pricest (and probably the best), but it requires a special rack on your bike, so that may not be an option.

My LBS sells the Trek, and REI sells the Adams. I don't know which of these are better, but the prices are similar.

Sverre

mcketi

I can't offer too much in the way of comparision, however, I have a Adams single speed which is now being used by a second child, so the trailer is about 5 years old. We have had no problems with the bike at all.

I have seen one of these trailers that folds or collapses in the middle. From our experience this would be an advantage, as we have often had to drive somewhere to start our rides.

Not much to go on I know, but hope it helps.

DCCommuter

I have a burley Piccolo, an Adams Shifter, and an Adams Tandem.

The Burley is the cadillac. It was expensive (about $350) but they typically sell used on Ebay for about $250 so they retain a good deal of their value. It has two features that make a difference if you ride a lot. First, it attaches to a special rack, so the pivot point is above the real wheel contact patch, which is the theoretical ideal for a trailer. This makes it a lot more stable than seatpost mounted trailers, and lowers the center of gravity. Second, the hitch uses ball bearings so it doesn't loosen with wear and can be serviced.

The Adams is the market leader. I picked up both of mine from Ebay. They don't hold their value as well as the Burley, which means you can get a good deal on a used one. The higher-end Adams models (Folder, Shifter) fold, which is a benefit over the Burley. The Adams attaches to the seatpost, which is a little wobbly and takes some getting used to. Compared to the Burley, it's easier for the kid to steer you by leaning one way. The big complaint with the Adams is that the hitch has no bearings, it's just metal-on-metal, so over time it wears and develops play, which makes the whole rig wobble. I recently replaced the entire hitch on the tandem at a cost of about $60.

The tandem is no longer manufactured, and they tend to go for over $400 when they come up on Ebay.

There are a number of lower-priced lower quality knock-offs which I would stay away from. A trailer bike that doesn't work well is no fun for you or your kid.

One problem that they all have is that the cranks are too long for young kids. My twins are almost five, 42" tall and have a leg length of 18 1/2" (inseam). With the burley, with the seat down all the way it's 21" from the seat to the pedal at the bottom of its rotation. The Shifter is 20" if you don't use the suspension seatpost and turn the seat mounting bracket upside down. The tandem is 20" on the front and 19" on the rear. The only way they could pedal with their butts on the seats was for me to get pedal shorteners at about $70 a pair. This also solves the problem that the cranks are 140 cm when a length of 100cm would be better suited to their leg lengths.

All of mine have gears so I can't comment on the value of gears vs. single speed.

It takes about a mile of riding for everyone to get comfortable and then it's a blast.

samundsen

I would probably get the Burley if it hadn't been for the fact that the rack can't accommodate panniers. With the seatpost mount models the trailer bike will (hopefully) clear my existing rack that usually holds one or two panniers as well as the u-lock. Currently I'm leaning towards the Adams Shifter, which REI sells for $180.

My 5 year old will start Kindergarten in the fall, and I hope to be able to pedal him over, maybe leave the trailer bike at the school, and ride on to work.

Michel Gagnon

I (we) have used a single-speed Addams Trail-a-Bike for 1 year, 1800 km and litterally wore through the hitch. A replacement hitch didn't seem to be available in my neck of the woods.

I have used a Burley for 4 years and over 6000 km so far, and plan to use it for 3 more years. That includes city trecks, long day rides, loaded tours and some Winter riding. Way more stable, and if you plan to do a significant amount of riding, you and your child will appreciate the stability.

Regarding the Burley rack. It is a very sturdy rack. Definitely more stable and sturdy than a Blackburn rack and probably in the same league than Tubus racks. If you need to tow the Piccolo with more than one bicycle, you can buy extra racks for around 60-60 $ U.S. (110 $ CDN, but at that time, our dollar was very low).

And by the way, that rack is a great one for panniers, as you can see here, on the top figure: https://www.bicycletouring101.com/GagnonFamily.htm. The load shown there is light, but we were on a day tour. I have put loaded panniers more than that when touring with my eldest daughter, and the single bike + Piccolo + load behaved quite well indeed. Loadwise, the only problem of all trailercycles is that you can't put much gear on top of the rack for obvious reasons.

samundsen

Ok, I was reading the online manual for the Burley where it was stated "...do not exceed above weight limits by attaching a rack, panniers, or other cargo to the Piccolo.". I realize now I was reading it wrong, it's not talking about the rack it's talking about the Piccolo itself. My mistake.

Are those Arkel panniers? I'm using an Arkel Bug and the Arkel Utility Basket. When I looked at the shape of the Burley rack it seemed to me that the Arkel lock system would not be able to fit on the rack.

madhouse

I have an Adams Tandem... before they modified the hitch from a P!$$ poor design to a poor design. I will stop and tighten the bolts on the hitch every 10 miles or so.

If we pull the Adams behind our tandem it is very stable. A lot more attention to detail is required behind my mountain bike and I wouldn't consider pulling it with my road bike or letting my 125# wife pull it by herself. I have managed to ride some short mountain bike trails... at low speeds but it required a lot of upper body strenght... that can't be good for the bike!

camille west

Thanks for the great info., very helpful!

Michel Gagnon

Yes they are.
The two hooks and the bungee cord attach securely to the rack. The central lock can't be secured against the rack, but it really does not make a difference for road cycling (even on our bumpy streets). And when the Piccolo is installed, the lock abbuts (sp.) against the fixture of the Piccolo.

As for a rack on the Piccolo itself, I have installed one in spite of Burley's directives. I found that it is a great morale booster for my child to have her panniers too. In terms of stability, however, it's very important to keep the weight at a minimum. So for dayrides, I usually kept their raingear in one bag and sand toys in the other. And when touring, the rear bags are used for sleeping bags and the top stores a foam mattress.

DieselDan

If you can't find a replacment hitch for an Adams, you can shim the hitch mating surfaces with cut pieces of soda cans. Be careful not to cut yourself.

bcspain

The Trek trailer hooks on to the seat post, and requires no special rack. It comes with a number of shims to work iwth a variety of post diameters. It attaches to the hitch with locking linch pin, and it also folds in the middle for easier transport, also via a locking linch pin. The one I have has a 20" wheel and a 5 speed shifter. I bought it locally about 3 years ago, and have had no trouble with it. We tow it behind our tandem with our granddaughter on it. There are pics posted in a couple of places if you want to see it.

Happy trails.

DCCommuter

I recall from one of the owner's manuals that the weight of the rider of the trailer bike should be less than half of the rider of the "tractor" bike.

Replacement hitches for the Adams are available here: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/trailrcy.html#hitch

samundsen

Is the Trek hitch similar to the Adams hitch? Does it also develop play over time? I can easily find Trek and Adams trailer bikes around here, but so far I haven't found a Burley dealer that actually has any of these in stock (all can special order, but I'd like to check them out in person first).

bcspain

I can't say, as I have never seen the Adams product. The Trek goes down over the seat post with a split clamp arrangment that has 2 bolts in it to secure it. The hitch portion is a big solid piece of steel, 3/4" x 2" welded to this clamp. It has a hole in it for the lynch pin. The trailer sits over this piece with a fork that the linch pin goes through both sides of. I haven't noticed any play in it, but I do occasionally have to tighten the clamp. What I like about this is you can get extra hitches and pull the trailer with any bike you have by just pulling the lynch pin and moving to the other bike. What I don't like about it is that you have to remove the saddle to install it, but like i said , if you buy extra hitches, you only have to do that once.

DieselDan

The Adams hitch attaches to the seatpost, but there is a universal joint that is connected to the trailercycle that is joined into the hitch with a pin. The Trek/Gary Fisher hitch yaws on the seatpost.

Craig Thomas

Last night I bought the Adams Trail-a-Bike from REI for $180. I rode it for a couple of miles with my kids. It is a bit wobbly for me. I'm sure I could get used to it though. Well, I called my the bike shop where I purchased my Trek, and they had two of the Burleys in stock (REI doesn't carry them here). It's costing me another $170, but if it's just a little more stable, it's worth it over the long haul. My 7 yr old can't handle the long rides yet, and I have a 3 yr old that will get years of use out of it. We're a bike family, and I don't mind the extra bucks to surpport our hobby. Haven't assembled the rack to my bike yet, but I'll post back our experiences as soon as we get a ride in with the new Burley.

DieselDan

Put a little more torque into the hitch pins, then add some chain lube. That should take some of the wobble out. You have to have a bit of wobble for the U-joint to work.

samundsen

I still haven't found any around here who has the Burley in stock, but several who said they could special order it. I did consider ordering it online (at bicycletrailers.com), but I'm concerned about assembly, so I'd prefer to get it from a local dealer.

The closest Burley dealer is REI, but they weren't too encouraging about special orders ("sometimes it can take months", they told me). The other LBS I called (Northwest Cyclery) didn't know what I was talking about when asking about "Burley Piccolo, a trailer bike". They thought I was talking about a regular trailer, and only after careful explanation did they seem to catch on. I did get my d'Lite trailer from Northwest Cyclery about a year ago, so I'll probably special order the Piccolo from them anyways.

Michel Gagnon

Bring them the web page if necessary. Just for reference, I ordered my Piccolo from Full Tilt Cycle in Ottawa, and it took a little bit less than two weeks to arrive. So unles there is a back order at Burley, the delay shouldn't be too bad.

DieselDan

A warnign about Burley: They don't have charge accounts for clients, they only accept Visa and Mastercard, but will do a COD. Their delivary time can be as long as three months. Some of their staff are idiots.

samundsen

I ordered the Piccolo today. The woman I dealt with at the LBS (Northwest Cyclery again) knew very well what I was talking about (the guy on the phone earlier in the week must have been a space case). We'll see how long it takes........

Craig Thomas

Just following up on the Piccolo - I'm very very happy with it. My son wants to keep going and going on it. Major relief, since he'd always complain about riding long rides on his one speed with the family. We'd always have to stop and wait for him.

When I first got it, I hooked it up to my road bike, and added our older Burley carrier trailer (with my 3year old) to the Piccolo. That was very cool. Bummer though, I read the guide later and it says to not connect anything to the Piccolo.

samundsen

I got a call from Northwest Cyclery today, telling me the Piccolo had finally arrived (Yay!). I drove over there with my bike so that they could install the rack. Their mechanic proceeded to "install" the rack in a half-assed sort of way that didn't follow the Burley instructions at all. When I pointed this out to him he got extremely offended and asked if I was an engineer. I said no, but that didn't matter, the Burley instructions are very specific about how the rack should be installed (level to the ground within 3 degrees). The rack was way out of wack compared to that. He said that didn't matter, that the way he installed it was "safe".

Also, the brackets that attach to the upper mounts where incorrectly installed (he'd used one long bracket instead of joining two brackets together so that they are adjustable). Basically, he'd never installed one of these before, and had no intention of following the instructions that come with the Burley.

I talked to the manager on hand, who promised that if I left the bike with them, they would get it installed according to the manual tomorrow. I decided to give them this chance, but I am also going to talk to the owner tomorrow (who is the one who sold me the Piccolo in the first place), and let her know exactly what I think of their mechanic and his attitude. I intend to go over every detail of their installation tomorrow and if anything is not done exactly according to Burley's instructions, I will call the whole thing off.

Yes, I am extremely pissed off. I had brought my 5 year old with me so they they could help get the bike adjusted for him, and he was very dissappointed when we had to leave without it.

bcspain

Must be a bad week for bike shops. I took our tandem in for a tune up, the guy promised me 4 days, had it almost 3 weeks, and I had to take it back after the first ride because it was in worse shape than when I took it in.