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My niece has one of these which isn't compatible with a trail gator as it won't grip the head tube. Can anyone recommend an alternative?
Thank you.
I use a TowWhee. It's quite pricey for what it is but works great.
https://www.followmetandem.co.uk
Really not cheap, but really very good.
We used one extensively with two children and sold it at about 6 or 7 years old for £100 or so.
More stable than a Trailgator, easy to load/unload the child’s bike and good enough that we used to tow around Dalby blue and bits of red (we also had - actually still have a LOCT so on the more interesting bits our sons rode with me while I towed their empty bike).
You don’t want a LOCT too do you?
Second the follow me tandem, we use it a lot to tow 4 year old on longer rides or up hilly bits. Easily does a moderate off road route to school.
My kids call my bike the tow truck now
We had two FollowMe Tandems, as we have 2 kids. Absolutely brilliant, although dropout/axle compatibility might be an issue on more modern non-135mm QR axles on the towers bike.
Now we use homemade TowWhees. Tubular climbing tape, some 6mm shockcord and a couple of knots. These are very different to the FollowMe though, and require a switched on towee, and good communication. I only used the Mon uphill slogs.
We had a trailgator and it was a bit shit, damages the kids bike if you do it up tight enough to stop it going wonky and heavy as ****. The follow me looked way better but it didn't seem to be compatible with my stooge or the Mrs bike and they weren't brilliant at Comms to identify whether it would work or not.
Once Hoppy jr was stable and reliable enough I moved him onto a retractable dog lead tow, lighter quicker to set up and means he has to ride still. It's still being used now to help him up bigger hills, falls down on twisty stuff but so do most of the fixed tows as well.
Can anyone recommend an alternative?
Yep, a piece of string, or thin rope to be precise. Have a search for previous threads on this. It's been done loads.
The kid needs to be competent and switched on, but once they master it its amazing what routes you can do with them along.
+1 for the FollowMe. It works really well (the pivot being behind the rear wheel means you can actually ride through the awful barriers that you get on British cycle paths) and, whilst it's not cheap to buy, like all decent kids' cycling stuff it works out cheap in the long run: I bought one secondhand in good nick for £140, it lasted through two kids, and six years later even at mates' rates I sold it for £90. So £25 a kid ain't bad.
Cheers all. My niece has literally just turned four so looking for something a bit more solid than a tow rope. She has bags of enthusiasm but does slalom a bit. She also has no fear at all, so is better kept on a solid fixing for the moment:-)
Another follow-me fan here. Hopefully they have now caught up with the new axle "standards".
igm - I want a LOCT!
i'll message you
I'm also looking for a LOCT or Mac-ride type seat if anyone else has one for sale.