[email protected] wrote:
> Has anyone any ideas on...
> 1) where can we find details of sensible off-road rides in and around
> Oxfordshire?
Try Sustrans:
<http://www.sustrans.org.uk/>
and Waterscape:
<http://www.waterscape.com/cycling/>
> 2) what kind of trailer/tag-along/seat is good for a 4 year old?
For a child as old as 4 I'd suggest either a trailerbike or some way to
tow the child's own bike.
A rack-mounted trailerbike is generally more stable than a seatpost
mounted one. That means either the Burley Piccolo or the Islabikes.
I'd recommend the Islabikes for 3 reasons:
1) It's British made.
2) It's a lot cheaper than the Burley.
3) My wife and daughter use one, so we know it works well.
£200 new:
<http://www.islabikes.co.uk/bike_pages/trailerbike.html>
or you can try to find one second-hand. I bought ours from a uric
regular who advertised it here. The best places to look, though, are
eBay and the CTC classified forum:
<http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=6acfb444dc20d4d8b7d258a157acba72>
Bear in mind that you will need to use an Islabikes rack, which may mean
removing your rear rack if your bike already has one.
An alternative is a way of towing the child's own bike, like the
Trailgator mentioned by Luke. The child's bike always seems to tilt
alarmingly to one side when I see these, though. I'm not encouraged by
the things I've read about their stability and their ability to teach a
child to balance.
When my son moves up to the trailerbike, I intend to get a FollowMe for
my daughter:
<http://www.followme-tandem.com/english/>
If you search for the recent thread headed "FollowMe" you'll find a
useful mini-review posted by Rob Abram. It should be a lot more stable
than a Trailgator.
> My biggest concern is that i may not be able to face loading 4 bikes +
> tag-along on and off the car. It may all be too much trouble loading
> them onto a roof rack or bike rack. What's the simplest, low-effort
> way to transport bikes for family days out like this?
Well, we tend to ride them
If we're driving somewhere with the bikes (i.e. we're going on holiday
and want to have the bikes with us) then my bike and the wife's bike
will go on the roof. I'm very satisfied with my roof carriers, which
are an older equivalent to the Thule FreeRide 530:
<http://www.thule.com/Thule/ProductPage____33550.aspx>
The trailer (not previously mentioned) hangs on a boot-mounted bike
carrier that my dad bought from Halfords years ago for transporting my
bike to and from university. I haven't yet transported the trailerbike
by car (except for when I bought it, when the car contained no children
and I was able to fit it in the back), but I think it should go on the
rear carrier quite happily.
Towball-mounted carriers are supposed to be good, but I've never tried
one so I won't write any more about them.
--
Danny Colyer <URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/danny/>
Reply address is valid, but that on my website is checked more often
"Daddy, put that down. Daddy, put that down. Daddy, put that down.
Daddy, why did you put that down?" - Charlie Colyer, age 2
