Great accessory for biking with kids!!

recriger

For anyone who has small children and likes to use their bike for exercise, I found a great tool. Our daughter just turned 3 and got her first bike a couple weeks back. My wife and I have been taking her out and riding as a family quite a bit. We weren't getting any cardio benefits from it but we had fun and baby girl had a blast.

I have been looking at a couple ways to let my daughter ride with us on longer rides. At first it looked like our only option was to get a 3rd wheel type set-up. It is a curved bar with 1 wheel that attaches to the parents bike and tow's the kid around. Good set-up but not cheep. Looking on-line I stumbled across a tow bar called a "Trail Gator" for something like $80. It is a steel bar that attaches to the parents seat stem and folds down along the back wheel support when not in use and clips into it's bracket.

When my daughter now gets tired I can unclip the bar, telescope it out, and attach it to the steering tube of her bike. It holds her front wheel off the ground around 3 inches and pulls her along just as the 3rd wheel set-up does. She can pedal or just ride along and check out the suroundings.

The only drawback I found was that every now and then she would pedal backwards and create drag as her break engaged. Not a big issue, but noticeable. It also may be a little awkward taking off the first few times, your pulling 30 pounds that likes to tilt a bit.

A few suggestions: first, replace the training wheels with a stiffer pair that has rubber wheels and a bearing on the axle. the cheap plastic training wheels sound like a bench grinder going down the trail. If you don't want to replace them, don't forget the wrench!! Losen the nut and swing the training wheels up out of the way. Second: Don't pedal while standing. going up hill I will often get up off the seat to put more weight on the pedals. This isn't good with a tow bar unless you are a real smooth on the pedals. When I stand I tend to lean the bike on each stroke, this is bad since it amplified the tilt of the trailer and scared my daughter.

Last suggestion is to get ear plugs!! She was having so much fun going "Super fast" that she wouldn't stop talking, screaming, laughing and looking for tigers for the whole hour. Nearly everyone we encountered on the trail broke into laughter listening to her go on.