Thoughts on "kid tandem" trailers

I have a Burley Piccolo trailer that I ride with my 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son. Both of
them enjoy it (as do I) and it is never boring. The Burley Piccolo is probably more expensive than
most kid trailers, but it handles very well and is quite well built and will handle a kid up to 85
pounds. I have never had any problems The way it is built, I'm sure it would even work with my wife
back there--but she just gave me the "you got to be kidding" look when I asked her to take a ride.
The Burley doesn't hook to the seat post like many do, instead you use Burley rear rack called a
"Moose rack" and the trailer hooks to the rack. The trailer has 6 speeds.

To be honest, I'm not sure if it helps them learn the rules of the road, each one is different. My
4-year-old son usually just wants to go faster. The faster we go, the more he laughs. When I stop
for a stop sign or traffic, he yells at me to go faster. I just can't get him to understand that
there are things out there that can really hurt us, and that's why we need to slow down sometimes.
But my older daughter is already starting to tell me what to watch out for, so it seams to be a good
road safety tool for her.

In short, you don't want to pass up this opportunity with your kids. It's a great time for everyone.

Brian

"Joseph Santaniello" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

So I have been thinking about one of those trailers that have a seat and pedals. I have read some
posts about them and seen suggestions about renting one first, etc. But around here there is
nowhere to rent one, and I haven't ever even seen one in person. So all sorts of things like
sizing, quality, handling, etc I'm going to just have to take someone's word for.

Any thoughts or experiences anyone would like to share? My main concern is that this is supposed
to be fun and should help him learn about the rules of the road etc. But will it be boring, or
"for little kids", or will it teach him to NOT pay attention to traffic, or have some other
undesired effect?

Thanks,

Joseph

The Piccolo looks pretty good but it seems eyelets are needed to mount the "moose" rack. Problem is
my bike doesn't have rack mounting eyelets. Any idea how the rack could be mounted without eyelets?

Joseph

In brian hughes said:

I have a Burley Piccolo trailer that I ride with my 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son. Both
of them enjoy it (as do I) and it is never boring. The Burley Piccolo is probably more expensive
than most kid trailers, but it handles very well and is quite well built and will handle a kid up
to 85 pounds. I have never had any problems The way it is built, I'm sure it would even work with
my wife back there--but she just gave me the "you got to be kidding" look when I asked her to take
a ride. The Burley doesn't hook to the seat post like many do, instead you use Burley rear rack
called a "Moose rack" and the trailer hooks to the rack. The trailer has 6 speeds.

To be honest, I'm not sure if it helps them learn the rules of the road, each one is different. My
4-year-old son usually just wants to go faster. The faster we go, the more he laughs. When I stop
for a stop sign or traffic, he yells at me to go faster. I just can't get him to understand that
there are things out there that can really hurt us, and that's why we need to slow down sometimes.
But my older daughter is already starting to tell me what to watch out for, so it seams to be a
good road safety tool for her.

In short, you don't want to pass up this opportunity with your kids. It's a great time for
everyone.

Brian

"Joseph Santaniello" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

So I have been thinking about one of those trailers that have a seat and pedals. I have read some
posts about them and seen suggestions about renting one first, etc. But around here there is
nowhere to rent one, and I haven't ever even seen one in person. So all sorts of things like
sizing, quality, handling, etc I'm going to just have to take someone's word for.

Any thoughts or experiences anyone would like to share? My main concern is that this is supposed
to be fun and should help him learn about the rules of the road etc. But will it be boring, or
"for little kids", or will it teach him to NOT pay attention to traffic, or have some other
undesired effect?

Thanks,

Joseph

Quoted message said:

The Piccolo looks pretty good but it seems eyelets are needed to mount the "moose" rack. Problem is
my bike doesn't have rack mounting eyelets. Any idea how the rack could be mounted without eyelets?

I have seen trailerbikes and trailers mounted via a seatpost connection. How good/bad they are I
haven't a clue.

Cheers, helen s

~~~~~~~~~~
This is sent from a redundant email Mail sent to it is dumped My correct one can be gleaned from
h$**$*$el$**e$n$**$d$**$o$*$t**$$s$**$im$mo$ns*@a$**o$l.c$$*o$*m*$ by getting rid of the
overdependence on money and fame
~~~~~~~~~~

Joseph Santaniello <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

The Piccolo looks pretty good but it seems eyelets are needed to mount the "moose" rack. Problem
is my bike doesn't have rack mounting eyelets. Any idea how the rack could be mounted without
eyelets?

They have little gadgets that go around the frame tubes near the rear wheel, that can be used to
mount a regular rack in case there are no eyelets.

But whether such gadgets would be strong enough to support the rack with trailerbike attached is a
good question.

The Piccolo's owner's manual says to call Burley and talk to them before trying to attach a moose
rack to a bike without the eyelets. That makes it sound as though it may be possible if you do it
right. Piccolo web site:

burley.comdefault.aspxOpen ↗

--Brent bhugh [at] mwsc.edu

Quoted message said:

In brian hughes said:

I have a Burley Piccolo trailer that I ride with my 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son. Both
of them enjoy it (as do I) and it is never boring. The Burley Piccolo is probably more expensive
than most kid trailers, but it handles very well and is quite well built and will handle a kid
up to 85 pounds. I have never had any problems The way it is built, I'm sure it would even work
with my wife back there--but she just gave me the "you got to be kidding" look when I asked her
to take a ride. The Burley doesn't hook to the seat post like many do, instead you use Burley
rear rack called a "Moose rack" and the trailer hooks to the rack. The trailer has 6 speeds.

To be honest, I'm not sure if it helps them learn the rules of the road, each one is different.
My 4-year-old son usually just wants to go faster. The faster we go, the more he laughs. When I
stop for a stop sign or traffic, he yells at me to go faster. I just can't get him to understand
that there are things out there that can really hurt us, and that's why we need to slow down
sometimes. But my older daughter is already starting to tell me what to watch out for, so it
seams to be a good road safety tool for her.

In short, you don't want to pass up this opportunity with your kids. It's a great time for
everyone.

Brian

"Joseph Santaniello" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

So I have been thinking about one of those trailers that have a seat and pedals. I have read
some posts about them and seen suggestions about renting one first, etc. But around here there
is nowhere to rent one, and I haven't ever even seen one in person. So all sorts of things like
sizing, quality, handling, etc I'm going to just have to take someone's word for.

Any thoughts or experiences anyone would like to share? My main concern is that this is
supposed to be fun and should help him learn about the rules of the road etc. But will it be
boring, or "for little kids", or will it teach him to NOT pay attention to traffic, or have
some other undesired effect?

Thanks,

Joseph

Joseph Santaniello <[email hidden]> wrote ...

Quoted message said:

So I have been thinking about one of those trailers that have a seat and pedals.

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Any thoughts or experiences anyone would like to share? My main concern is that this is supposed
to be fun and should help him learn about the rules of the road etc. But will it be boring, or
"for little kids", or will it teach him to NOT pay attention to traffic, or have some other
undesired effect?

I have an Adams Trail-a-bike, the Starter model. I got this brand (over the Burleigh and Trek
models) because it was the smallest one; my 4-year-old couldn't reach the pedals on the other other
models. We also had to swap the suspension seat for a regular seatpost, set all the way down, to fit
him. The bike attaches to a seatpost mount on my bike.

My son loves the bike, even more than riding on his own bike (partly because we don't have a good
flat place to ride without driving somewhere). I don't think he's learning the rules of the road,
but stop signs and crossing streets are good opportunities to teach about traffic dangers. And the
bottom line is we get out riding frequently, so he's growing up with cycling as an integral part
of our life.

One advantage of the trailer bike is that we can go on far longer rides than he'd be able to go on
his own bike. We've done several-hour-long organized rides that he loves - nothing better than
stopping every half-hour for cookies!

Michael

Joseph Santaniello said:

Any idea how the rack could be mounted without eyelets?

I saw something for that in the Nashbar catalog (or maybe Supergo). It was for a specific brand, but
I suspect it would work universally, maybe with a little coaxing.

Quoted message said:

Joseph

--
Rick Onanian

"brian hughes" <[email hidden]> a écrit dans le message de news:
[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I have a Burley Piccolo trailer that I ride with my 7-year-old daughter

and

Quoted message said:

4-year-old son. Both of them enjoy it (as do I) and it is never boring. The Burley Piccolo is
probably more expensive than most kid trailers, but

it

Quoted message said:

handles very well and is quite well built and will handle a kid up to 85 pounds. I have never had
any problems ...

I have used the Addams Trail-A-Bike and the Burley Piccolo trailercycle. The Burley is much more
stable but also a bit higher. My oldest child was barely able to safely pedal on the Addams (i.e.
reach the pedals on the downstroke) when she turned 4 and I don't think she would have been able to
pedal the Piccolo before she turned 4.25 or 4.5

As for learning rules of the road, she is curious and tends to inquire a lot. So she learned a lot
through questions like "Why do we stop?" (stop sign), "Why do we continue even when there is traffic
on the side street?" (green light), Why don't I squeeze by traffic? (it's unsafe)...

Finally, she is now 7 and I trust her to ride safely in traffic... for short distances. I stay
behind her and slightly to the left to watch her and "protect" her. She behaves well but sometimes
need a few directives as to when it's better to hug the line and when it's better to stay further
out, when to avoid bike lanes (like those wrong-side lanes popular in Montréal) and when to use
them. Her main limitations are the length of time with heavy traffic (concentration lasts only a
limited time), steep hills (up and down) and obviously difficult intersections, so I plan
accordingly.

Regards,

Michel

Sounds like you all have a lot of fun.

Now I've seen something called a "Trail-gator" that is a sort of trailer- bar that temporarily makes
the kid's bike a trailer by lifting the front wheel and locking the steering in place. It looks good
for my purposes because most of the time it would be ok for my son to ride by himself; there are
only a few "transport" stages that would be on roads with cars where we would need to use the hitch.

One drawback is that there is no gearing like on the purpose built trailers. And with his single
gear 10" wheels he's not going to be contributing much in the way of power. Not that he needs to,
just he probably would like to be helping.

I know what you mean about concentration. My son is good about paying attention to the occasional
car or tractor, and is quick to say, "Car! Papa, go in the side and stop!" and he zooms to the side
of the road watching the car the whole time and not paying attention to the fence/ ditch/trees at
the side of the road. Takes time I guess.

On the subject of not using bike paths even when they exist, it's nice to see that I don't live in
the only place that has thrown away untold amounts of money on building some un-safe and essentially
un-usable bike paths. It seems like they have gone out of their way to make some of the bike paths
around here accidents waiting to happen. That is if you don't get a flat tire first.

Anyone have any experiences/thoughts with/on the "trail-gator"? (They have it at Nashbar)

Joseph

In M Gagnon said:

"brian hughes" <[email hidden]> a écrit dans le message de news:
[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I have a Burley Piccolo trailer that I ride with my 7-year-old daughter

and

Quoted message said:

4-year-old son. Both of them enjoy it (as do I) and it is never boring. The Burley Piccolo is
probably more expensive than most kid trailers, but

it

Quoted message said:

handles very well and is quite well built and will handle a kid up to 85 pounds. I have never had
any problems ...

I have used the Addams Trail-A-Bike and the Burley Piccolo trailercycle. The Burley is much more
stable but also a bit higher. My oldest child was barely able to safely pedal on the Addams (i.e.
reach the pedals on the downstroke) when she turned 4 and I don't think she would have been able
to pedal the Piccolo before she turned 4.25 or 4. 5

As for learning rules of the road, she is curious and tends to inquire a lot. So she learned a lot
through questions like "Why do we stop?" ( stop sign), "Why do we continue even when there is
traffic on the side street?" (green light), Why don't I squeeze by traffic? (it's unsafe)...

Finally, she is now 7 and I trust her to ride safely in traffic... for short distances. I stay
behind her and slightly to the left to watch her and "protect" her. She behaves well but sometimes
need a few directives as to when it's better to hug the line and when it's better to stay further
out, when to avoid bike lanes (like those wrong-side lanes popular in Montréal) and when to use
them. Her main limitations are the length of time with heavy traffic (concentration lasts only a
limited time), steep hills (up and down) and obviously difficult intersections, so I plan
accordingly.

Regards,

Michel

Joseph Santaniello <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Any thoughts or experiences anyone would like to share? My main concern is that this is supposed
to be fun and should help him learn about the rules of the road etc. But will it be boring, or
"for little kids", or will it teach him to NOT pay attention to traffic, or have some other
undesired effect?

I have treated my kids on the trail-a-bike (we call it "the pony"😉 like tandem stokers -- they have
responsibilities back there, and I do too, as the captain.

As captain, I make sure the stoker knows where we are going and how we are getting there. I alert
the stoker to bumps, turns, and upcoming stops.

The stoker can't lounge around back there -- she needs to pedal. She is also responsible for
signaling. The stoker also calls out hazards such as: "car back", or "dog up".

I have done rides as long as 30 miles with a kid on the bike pony. See: groups.google.comgrOpen ↗
oups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm=001901c0061d%24122e0d00%240201a8c0%40skye1&rnum=3&prev=/gr-
oups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26q%3Dgoldenrod%2Bducks%2Bpetersky

or tinyurl.comjynmOpen ↗

for a story I posted regarding a trip I did with my daughter three years ago.

Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky ([email hidden]) Home of the meditative bicyclist:
home.earthlink.netWelcome.htmOpen ↗