trailer bike advice

On Sun, 06 Jun 2004 19:35:34 +0100, audrey <[email hidden]> wrote in
message <[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

As sonandheir is far too big for his bike seat, we're going to be
buying a trailer bike soon. Are they all pretty much of a muchness,
or are some recommended and some to be avoided?

Best: Burley Piccolo or second-hand Islabike - these have a hitch on
a special carrier rack.

Not bad: Adams Trail-A-Bike folder; this is the most compact in
folded form of all the ones we looked at, and we did a couple of
thousand miles on ours without problems then sold it for half what we
paid.

Features to look for: aluminium wheels, gears (for larger children),
bottle of some sort, adjustable reach on the handlebars, mudguard and
rack eyes (ours had braze-ons for a carrier which was much
appreciated; we got a Nimrod adjustable rack which is now on Michael's
24" MTB)

As ususal fit is the main thing. But if you want a personal
recommendation than as I say we found the Adams Tral-A-Bike shifter to
be excellent.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/?ProductID=5360007346

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

you know? said:

As ususal fit is the main thing. But if you want a personal
recommendation than as I say we found the Adams Tral-A-Bike shifter to
be excellent.

thanks for the advice, Guy. But how do you work out fit for someone
who is going to grow considerably during the life-time of the bike?

--

email = audmad aaatttt hhhottt mmmaailll dddoottt ccccoommm

On Sun, 06 Jun 2004 20:33:45 +0100, audrey <[email hidden]> wrote in
message <[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

As ususal fit is the main thing. But if you want a personal
recommendation than as I say we found the Adams Tral-A-Bike shifter to
be excellent.

Quoted message said:

thanks for the advice, Guy. But how do you work out fit for someone
who is going to grow considerably during the life-time of the bike?

When they get bigger it gets easier to adjust the trailer bike to fit;
when they are tiny sometimes putting the bars close enough for them to
reach means the grips are above shoulder height. Also even some 20"
trailer bikes have too high a standover height for a small child, and
they can't reach the pedals properly. If they can get on and pedal at
the outset they should be OK later, though.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

you know? said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

As ususal fit is the main thing. But if you want a personal
recommendation than as I say we found the Adams Tral-A-Bike shifter to
be excellent.

Quoted message said:

thanks for the advice, Guy. But how do you work out fit for someone
who is going to grow considerably during the life-time of the bike?

When they get bigger it gets easier to adjust the trailer bike to fit;
when they are tiny sometimes putting the bars close enough for them to
reach means the grips are above shoulder height. Also even some 20"
trailer bikes have too high a standover height for a small child, and
they can't reach the pedals properly. If they can get on and pedal at
the outset they should be OK later, though.

He was on a hired Adams in Grizedale forest t'other day and could
pedal that, so he should be fine.

A
--

email = audmad aaatttt hhhottt mmmaailll dddoottt ccccoommm

The Burley Piccolo is the bees knees (sp?) - light frame, solid mounting,
widely adjustable, gears, durable. They're about 350 quids from wiggle but
worth every penny. They occasionally come up 2nd hand in the CTC mag or on
the CTC message board.

Whatever you do, please please don't buy a 99-quid gas-pipe-special from
H*lf*rds - it will put sonandheir off cycling for life!

Huw Francis

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

Quoted message said:

As sonandheir is far too big for his bike seat, we're going to be
buying a trailer bike soon. Are they all pretty much of a muchness,
or are some recommended and some to be avoided? I'm looking to spend
as little as possible (ideally will try to pick one up from ebay/loot)
but don't want to make false economies.

Audrey

--

email = audmad aaatttt hhhottt mmmaailll dddoottt ccccoommm

you know? said:

On Sun, 06 Jun 2004 19:35:34 +0100, audrey <[email hidden]> wrote in
message <[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

As sonandheir is far too big for his bike seat, we're going to be
buying a trailer bike soon. Are they all pretty much of a muchness,
or are some recommended and some to be avoided?

Best: Burley Piccolo or second-hand Islabike - these have a hitch on
a special carrier rack.

Isn't the Piccolo slightly better than the Islabike in that it doesn't
flop over sideways at low speeds?

But, yes, having the rack mount means the trailer pivots over the back
axle of the towig bike, making for a much more stable ride.

Tim
For those who have trouble distinguishing, cynicsm, sarcasm, humour etc,
try mentally inserting smilies thoughout my post until it either
matches what you'd like to read, or what you'd expect me to write.

(Jon Senior urc)

In article said:

Whatever you do, please please don't buy a 99-quid gas-pipe-special from
H*lf*rds - it will put sonandheir off cycling for life!

Daughter seems perfectly happy on 130 quid's worth of Trek. It's heavy,
but that's my problem.

ian

Ian G Batten <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Daughter seems perfectly happy on 130 quid's worth of Trek. It's heavy,
but that's my problem.

I've also got the Trek - only used it in anger once, but it performed
really well over mixed terrain including a fair bit of track (Parkland
Walk in N London in case anyone's interested).

My daughter (5) is too young for the gripshift gears yet but hoping
they will be useful soon.

Eugene

Just zis Guy said:

On Sun, 06 Jun 2004 19:35:34 +0100, audrey <[email hidden]> wrote in
message <[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

As sonandheir is far too big for his bike seat, we're going to be
buying a trailer bike soon. Are they all pretty much of a muchness,
or are some recommended and some to be avoided?

Best: Burley Piccolo or second-hand Islabike - these have a hitch on
a special carrier rack.

Ones without that sort of hitch do vary in where the hinge point is.
I found a Cycle Design Tag-a-Long handled noticeably better than the
Mongoose Alleycat we also tried (and not as nicely as the Piccolo,
but it was a lot cheaper than the Piccolo).

Quoted message said:

Features to look for: aluminium wheels, gears (for larger children),
bottle of some sort, adjustable reach on the handlebars, mudguard and
rack eyes (ours had braze-ons for a carrier which was much
appreciated; we got a Nimrod adjustable rack which is now on Michael's
24" MTB)

I considered one of the clamp-on sort of racks you can get for suspension
bikes etc., but never actually bought one.

Another feature that might be useful is that some models have a hingeing
boom which folds to let the trailer bike fit in a car boot more easily.
If you never plan to take it anywhere in a car, that won't matter, and
if you do but need a rack for the towing bike anyway and said rack will
also take the trailer, it won't matter either, but for some people it does.

audrey said:

As sonandheir is far too big for his bike seat, we're going to be
buying a trailer bike soon. Are they all pretty much of a muchness,
or are some recommended and some to be avoided? I'm looking to spend
as little as possible (ideally will try to pick one up from ebay/loot)
but don't want to make false economies.

Burley Piccolo - ex-hire from the hire shop in Wadebridge. Should be
about £200 give or take. Serviced before delivery - excellent service
from the shop.

http://www.uktrailerco.co.uk/

(Just a happy customer).
--

Cheers,

Al

thanks to everyone for the input and advice. I think we're going to
go for the adams-with-gears or similar - budget simply won't stretch
any further than that and we can't put off the purchase until it might
(1). I'll keep a close eye on ebay for the next couple of weeks, then
off to wiggle if nothing comes up.

ta,
Audrey

(1) sonandheir will probably be ready for a full size bike of his own
by the time Daddy Finishes Writing His PhD and Gets A Proper Job
--

email = audmad aaatttt hhhottt mmmaailll dddoottt ccccoommm

On 8/6/04 10:29 am, in article [email hidden],

audrey said:

thanks to everyone for the input and advice. I think we're going to
go for the adams-with-gears or similar - budget simply won't stretch
any further than that and we can't put off the purchase until it might
(1). I'll keep a close eye on ebay for the next couple of weeks, then
off to wiggle if nothing comes up.

The other option is to get him a decent bike and use a trailgator or
similar.

Much cheaper in the long run than a trial-a-bike and a separate bike.

...d