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 G Batten" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
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.
"Ian G Batten" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
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!
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!
Quoted message said:
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.
