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As the wee man quietly gurgles and shits himself again over in the corner of the room...
Yes our very own bundle of joy arrived just before Christmas.
In an STW way I am already thinking about bike trailers.
What's the score then.. How old does the wee one need to be? What to look out for in a good bike trailer? What is the go-to option? And what's the second hand market like?
Fill your boots STWdadsandmums
Thule/Chariot and Burley are good brands.
I'd steer clear of cheapy ones from Halfords, etc. Not very solid/rigid in my experience.
Normally you can put kids in once they can hold their head up properly, so 8-9mth onwards. You can get baby inserts for some brands, though I'm not sure I'd want to put a really little one in.
Second hand market is strong - i.e. good brands hold there value well. Keep an eye out on Gumtree, etc. as people don't want to post them you can get a pick-up only bargain. I got a v good condition double Chariot trailer, with all the extras, covers, jogging wheels, etc. for £160, but I was very lucky! Normally you'd be looking at £250 or so I imagine.
We have a chariot. Before that we borrowed a cruzer which we used from when littlemisszokes was about 6 months with a sling. Reason for change was the cruzer was borrowed and the owners needed it back, but the chariot is a much better product, if pricier. LMZ much prefers it, used to fuss over bumpy bits and much happier now.
when they can hold their head up though I did take mine out on gentle off road ones in the car seat in the trailer without issue but i was nervous the first time I did this
IMHO dont spend loads as they get limited use[ 6-12 months tops] and a seat behind you is much better [the trailer is very draggy] as they can see and you can talk to them
Bought a used Chariot 1 place from here in 2009/2010 for maybe £250. Used it for 5 or so years including annual 3 week touring camping trip with our 2( 1st trips done pre 2nd child, then together in various guises(oldest in trailer, youngest in baby seat then oldest on tag along, youngest in trailer etc). Then when we got to oldest on own bike, youngest on tag along we sold it on some other classifieds for cough*ahem. maybe more than we paid for it.... That said we bought in the UK and sold in France.
Based on that I would say buy quality, ideally 2nd hand then sell it on. Have great adventures together.
We got a cheap Halfords one. Absolutely fine for fire roads etc but not up to proper off-road. But it suited us fine. Folds up nice and small so it fitted in the van easily. Gathering dust now, accidental stealth ad 🙂
thanks folks.
And did you get one of those bendy flag things?
Got a double chariot for sale in Manchester if you want to look at it
We used double chariot with baby 2 from about 3 months with baby insert. Got one for sale if you fancy it as he’s now moved onto the bigger size insert. He loved it, happily snores for 2hr nap in there, moving or stopped.
the insert let’s them lie back and holds the head better
Had a Chariot 1 and couldn't recommend it enough. We used it loads, cycling, running, in town (with the little town wheels you can get). Our son started in it at 8 weeks but we had the baby sling attachment and padded his head didn't <span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">fall off (he still has his head attached 8 years later).</span>
Transformed parenthood for us, from being house and car bound to having non-car mobility. Best thing we ever bought.
As others say, buy second hand and sell on. Doing this meant we '''rented" ours for £100 over 4 years (when we replaced it with a tag along thing).
When he couldn't/wouldn't sleep I used to go out running with him at 3-4am, good memories 😃
Got a Burley Ladybug for sale, It's a double, I've owned since new and it's done my three kids. It a few years old now, but I need the shed space, it's the same as a Burley D'lite but different colour scheme. Has the stroller attachment (3rd wheel and push bar) so it converts to a buggy you can push around. Would be looking for pick up as it's pretty big to post, even though it does fold. Located Surrey/Hants border. Comes with a bendy flag
Let me know if you are interested and I'll get some pics sorted
https://burley.com/product/dlite-2007/
I have the cheap halfords double on the c2w (nursery is at work). it is absolutely fine for road and spins round the park. my 9 month loves it but I'm limiting it to 30mins more because it is bloody cold than the trailer
IMHO dont spend loads as they get limited use[ 6-12 months tops] and a seat behind you is much better [the trailer is very draggy] as they can see and you can talk to them
We used ours until each child was about four years old. A friend of mine is a doctor in an A&E department here and he told me about some horrendous injuries with children carried in child seats on bikes.
Remember going up hills with one kid in a child seat and two in the trailer to shorts of faster daddy faster, hard work that was, but excellent training !
We have a second hand Burley trailer which has had some use, but we worried at putting an infant in it as there is no real isolation from rough ground. This leads to lots of head shaking as the kids travel.
Our family cycle rides have been transformed when we managed to get hold of one of these..
http://www.en.tout-terrain.de/trailers/singletrailer/
I bought it second hand and now our rides are limited by the 4yr old not the 10 month old. The youngest sleeps enjoying his plush 6 inches of xfusion cushioned suspension. It truly is a remarkable device if a little too pricey new for me to commit to buying one in the past. There is a separate seat for infants which can be fitted and it has a sturdy roll cage if the worst was to occur.
The previous owners have used it well, taking it to the Alps several times and it seems almost brand new. We are nowhere near as adventurous!
I highly recommend it
I bought a bog-standard 2 wheel trailer with a formed steel base. I made a mount which took the car seat in a forward facing orientation, and mounted the mount to the trailer with a set of vibration isolating mounts - these are used for mounting electronic equipment into landrovers and the like.
This kind of thing, but mine were an hourglass type shape.
Our kids both survived a large number of offroad trips. Large volume soft tyres and the vibro-mounts, combined with common sense made for comfy trips. I might have even rolled it a couple of times - once he didn't even wake up.
A year later... Got a burley d'lite second hand and been for many adventures. Suspension so wee man is fine on bridleways and fireroads. Would recommend to anyone.
I have a bog standard halfords one that's been perfectly fine round country parks and fire roads etc.
In good condition and free if you can collect from kettering nn16.. All mine are old enough to ride themselves now so is no use to us and just in the way.
Could possibly get it to wellingborough if it's easier for collection.
I got a Bellelli double bike trailer. You can get them from Halfords for £200 but I got mine barely used from Facebook classifieds for £80 ish I think it was.
Used twice so far - our little girl slumped a bit in it and didn’t look that comfortable so haven’t used it since early last summer. She was about 16-18 months at that point. Going to get it back out in the next few months for some spring runs along the cycle track - although my mtb is no longer qr so I may have to toe it with my (luckily disc brakes) road bike.
The trailer has a solid moulded base and is very stable - feels better than the cheapy ones to me.
Transformed parenthood for us, from being house and car bound to having non-car mobility. Best thing we ever bought.
Very much agree with this!
We've not got two little ones (3 month old and 2 year old) and me and the OH can go out cycling almost like we used to before we had children! They love it, and often both start falling asleep, which means we get to stop for a relaxing coffee - moments like that almost never happen without the trailer!
Trailers are great in the winter too, as if they're refusing to put gloves/boots on etc just a blanket will keep them nice and warm in there.
We have a Hamax Outback which we'd also thoroughly recommend. It's got 20 x 2.0 tyres at about 15psi and suspension to keep them comfy and huge windows.
The boot/storage area is massive as well. I've had a 2 year old, 4 year old, and his Frog 16" bike in the back before.
Our second hand £75 Burley did 5+ years with us. It was used to move office for work (filing cabinet!) across Sheffield, took the kids to nursery daily for a while, multiple off road jaunts including some blue trail centres and memorable sections of red at Nant y Arian...
I managed to tip it on its side once at Sherwood jump park, both lads were fine and thought it funny...
Brilliant kit that we gave to friends as the cover was succumbing to UV and s few scrapes...