Follow Me Tandem

Price seems very steep. I use a Trail Gator for towing my 6 year old. It works really well, but wouldn't allow you to have a second child on a seat (the Trail Gator fits to the seatpost). I got mine for about €70 on Amazon. Folds up small and can fit on the bike when the little one wants to cycle herself. She absolutely loves being towed along, and giving me the odd push with her pedals. It means we can cover a much greater distance than if she was cycling herself. Halfords have them for about €90, see:

http://www.halfords.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_11101_catalogId_15551_productId_213103_langId_-1_categoryId_212384

ok, seeing as no one seems to have any further information on this, do you mind me asking where you priced it up for £220, and did that include delivery, I see cyclesense.co.uk have it for £210, but charge £10 to deliver to the UK, however when you select Ireland, that £10 disappears. I don't know if this means that they don't deliver to Ireland, or if they price the delivery separately

Here is another German site, selling it for 239euro but it's not obvious whether that includes shipping or not - you have to register to get a definitive shipping quote by the looks of it.

Somewhere else that might be worth checking is LikeABike in the UK. They don't seem to list the FollowMe tandem on their website but we bought a bike from them recently and they included a small leaflet/brochure on the FollowMe in the box so if they are advertising it I assume they may resell it too so it could be worth contacting them.

smacl wrote: »

Also used the trail gator with my seven year old, and it works well enough. It's pretty sturdy and folds up well when not in use. I found it took a bit of getting used to, about half an hour on the local cycle track.

The follow-me looks more stable with the lower connection position, but also looks like it would have a far wider turning circle that could cause problems on certain routes. This is particularly true where you have narrow sections of track with turns. We took a family break cycling the greenway in Mayo last autumn which was full of such obstacles, making child towing quite a bit more difficult than using any kind of regular road.

Thanks smacl. We hope to do the Greenway at Easter and that in part is what is leading me to purchase this

I ended up buying the tandem from Velorution back in the spring. I moved house and the road outside was quite busy. The tandem has been a good solution to keeping the 3 yr old safe on the road until we get to footpaths or when we need to get to somewhere in a hurry

Downsides are the price and the weight. Outweighing that is that it is a very effective piece of kit. The centre of gravity is very low and therefore very stable for both cyclists. The set up is very rigid and the childs pedaling is transferred very effectively. On the flat my three year old can push both of us along under his own effort. Inital attachment is reasonably tricky, but there afterwards attaching and reattaching is easy.

While unattached the childs bike is minimally impacted. There is a socket strapped across the downtube and two pegs on the front wheel, much like stunt pegs. When not attached the kit pivots up on the adults bike and is attached with a strap to the saddle.

It has been a great success for us and I would not hesitate to buy it again, but it is expensive.
Tandem Crop.jpg

I can have a go at answering all your questions

With the late evenings and some busy weekends I have not used the tandem for a few weeks. Last night while in the shed working on another bike I noticed a few spots of surface on the tandem. Tiny amounts that would be dealt with with a rub of a cloth and a bit of oil. This was after using the tandem in a heavy shower when I was last out. Nothing to spook me, it would not be as bad as the few spots of rust you might get on a chain if not lubed after a spin in heavy rain

My son is very attached to his stablisers and will not allow me to remove them. He is well able to cycle without them having been a demon on his balance bike before, but I have decided not to push the issue as I do not want to put him off cycling. There is no doubt that the tandem would handle better if he took them off. I am careful when riding over speed bumps or taking corners. Turning circle is much wider with the stabilisers on. Again it is not a major issue but I do look forward to him taking them off. He is on an Islabike Cnoc which is a great bike, but it does not allow you to adjust the stabilisers up or down. So when they are on, they are on.

The name of the yoke on my bike escapes me. Its function is to stop the chain jumping around too much while mountain biking. I fitted it to stop chain suck and it had a reasonable impact. Its been 10 years since I went off road in anger so it is more of a decoration now.

I live in Skerries. PM me if you are interested in coiming out to see the tandem and we can see what we can arrange

Best of luck

Finally got around to ordering one online....now lets hope it arrives before Santa delivers my daughters new bike

nickibopp wrote: »

This is such an old thread I'm hoping some previous poster might have a Followme for sale second hand by now! Worth a try anyway ;-) ... thanks all...

Sold my one on last year