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My 4 year old boy has now moved from balance bike to Frog 43 - yippee !!
He loves to ride, but does get tired out, so we are looking to get some sort of hitch to help when he's too tired to carry on.
Narrowed it down to the above. Tandem looks good but is 4x the price of the Gator.
Anyone tried/used/have these and any opinions on them?
I'd like to go off road too, nothing crazy, just towpath stuff and Dalby Green run.
Thanks
Bookmarked, in same boat, just picked up bike for the wee lad and can see this would be ideal.
We have 2 trailgators - they do the job, but set up has to be spot on otherwise your passenger will be leaning over (a lot) or their handlebars will not be straight. The clamps do mark the kids' bikes too. Hitching is a bit fiddly but not too bad. I tend to leave the hitch on one bike. They are cheap, especially second hand. The clamp that holds the trailer bar when your kids are riding on their own really needs flat drop outs - I've got cowled drop outs on my bike and this makes it fiddly to attach.
I've not used the Follow Me, I think I'd have to see one in the flesh to see if it's worth the money.
Niggles aside, they do the job and let us attempt longer rides knowing that if the kids get tired, they can have a tow.
I had a Trail-Gator and loved using it with the kids. We did Dalby upper green a few times with it and it mean't the kids could do a fair bit of riding and get towed when they got [s]lazy[/s] tired.
It is a faff getting it set up at first but once you've got it all straight you know what needs doing the next time you use it. have a few goes on the street before you take it to a trail.
The only thing you have to watch is if you go on a long ride and the kid starts to fall asleep while being towed.......
Not long bought a follow me. Not managed to use it yet though (other than attaching to my commuting bike to get it home). Its not light but I wanted a solid connection to the towing bike that did not involve the seat post.
Did this a while back...
http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/followme-or-trail-gator
Got a Follow Me and very happy with it.
Thanks very much Blobby - Tadcaster here I come !!
I had a Trailgator and the comments about setup are spot on, it's tricky to get bob on, scrapes the bike headtube (which didn't worry me too much as it had 3 boys to go through, resale of 0) and they all complained it leant them over too far. I wouldn't recommend it, and I had 3 goes at getting it right.
Used a Tag A Long more (£10 off EBay locally) and now just the youngest is on 20" with some gears, just give him a push on the harder bits. A few years training on the 16" single speed has toughened them up anyway 🙂
Does the follow me fit on a 29er? The website isn't entirely clear, it mentions 700c commuters but that's a different proposition to a stooge running 2.4s (or b+).
We've moved our follow me on but what a terrific bit of kit.
I reckon it should be ok on a 29r. The critical thing is from axle to tyre edge. If you take a commuter running 700*38 and add mudguards etc it must be close to 29r size. Give them a call and ask they were very helpful when we bought ours.
Tandem Tandem Tandem Tandem Tandem Tandem Tandem Tandem
Nothing comes remotely close to a kiddyback tandem. Buy one whilst they are young and you will get 10 years of use. Four is the right age to start. Thorn still make them. Buy used. if you can. A Dawes Twocan went for about £250 on ebay last month!
Never regretted our for a minute. And I ran it with a Burley Piccolo rack mounted tag along as well.
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and with tagalong added
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Those pictures are taken about 14 years apart!
We had a Thorn Voyager, the one for kids at the back, at it was simply ace. Have now sold it to a mate, who says it's the best thing he has ever bought. So much better than a trailer bike.