Tagalong Trailers

So, as part of the complex wife, shop and me negotiations surrounding my
new Mount Vision I also bought a Trek tagalong trailer (with gear, even)
for our five year old. For minor medical reasons it's unlikely she'll
be able to ride a bike herself for a few years, so we thought it the
best way to allow us to get out and about with our seven year old who is
becoming a keen and competent cyclist.

They're neat things. Hitched to the back of a rigid hybrid you can feel
the weight when moving off, especially up hill, and the handling is like
riding a small motorbike with an inexperienced but enthusiastic pillion
(turn in understeer followed by massive oversteer), but we rode around
the local parks and sidestreets for an hour or so much to everyone's
enjoyment. Because the passenger can do some work it keeps them warm
and interested.

I think when the MV arrives I shall have a crack using that, because the
one thing that was noticable was the lack of braking. about 110kg
combined passenger weight, plus probably 10 or 15kf of trailer, two V
brakes struggled.

ian

"Ian G Batten" wrote in message
...

So, as part of the complex wife, shop and me negotiations surrounding my
new Mount Vision I also bought a Trek tagalong trailer (with gear, even)
for our five year old. For minor medical reasons it's unlikely she'll
be able to ride a bike herself for a few years, so we thought it the
best way to allow us to get out and about with our seven year old who is
becoming a keen and competent cyclist.

Ah, been there, done that!

I found that putting the trailer in low gear minimised the chances of Small
Person sending you into unexpected trajectories due to Fierce Pedalling.

You'll be on a triplet yet ;-)

--
Guy
===

WARNING: may contain traces of irony. Contents may settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

"Ian G Batten" wrote in message
...

So, as part of the complex wife, shop and me negotiations surrounding my
new Mount Vision I also bought a Trek tagalong trailer (with gear, even)
for our five year old. For minor medical reasons it's unlikely she'll
be able to ride a bike herself for a few years, so we thought it the
best way to allow us to get out and about with our seven year old who is
becoming a keen and competent cyclist.

Yup, my daughter (now 11 and sufficiently confident to be going to France
this summer on the European Bike Express and doing some riding over there)
shifted onto a Trailerbike when she got so big I couldn't see over her head
when she was sat on the crossbar seat. She had a few years then pedalling,
learning basic roadsense, learning not to get freaked out by bigger road
users and getting to like the idea of independence. Excellent bits of kit!

Phil B
York, UK

Be careful they don't get over confident. Son of a friend of mine used to
practise standing on the saddle whilst travelling along

Woody

Ian G Batten writes:

They're neat things. Hitched to the back of a rigid hybrid you can feel
the weight when moving off, especially up hill, and the handling is like
riding a small motorbike with an inexperienced but enthusiastic pillion
(turn in understeer followed by massive oversteer), but we rode around
the local parks and sidestreets for an hour or so much to everyone's
enjoyment. Because the passenger can do some work it keeps them warm
and interested.

And it can turn the most plain sailing of transpennine trail riding into a
technical challenge requiring extreme concentration! I've taken my 5 year
old nephew out on an adams trail-a-bike off the back of my Marin a few times
and he loves it (shouting 'faster faster!' all the while) while I find it
really rather good training just keeping us on the track with all the
wiggling and turning round to wave etc!

I think when the MV arrives I shall have a crack using that, because the
one thing that was noticable was the lack of braking. about 110kg
combined passenger weight, plus probably 10 or 15kf of trailer, two V
brakes struggled.

I've had people express surprise that I would attach a trailer bike to an
FSR, but personally I had no problem with it and also appreciated being on a
better quality bike (with disk brakes) over attempting the ride on one of my
sister's rigids.


Claire
--
Still prettiest by far.