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.

wiggle.co.ukwiggle.co.ukOpen ↗

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
chapmancentral.co.ukchapmancentral.co.ukOpen ↗

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.
chapmancentral.co.ukchapmancentral.co.ukOpen ↗

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.

uktrailerco.co.ukuktrailerco.co.ukOpen ↗

(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

(2) 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