Toddler trailer

firefish

Hi,
Has anyone ever used a toddler trailer to transport their child to creche etc? Trying to work out logistics of getting toddler to creche and then myself into work. Would be about a 5 minute cycle to the creche, and then 15 minutes into work. Are they safe? Are they cumbersome? Anyone know the best one to get and where to buy?
Thanks in advance!

mrsFitz

Not a big fan of the trailers , make the bike feel like a wet noodle, Burley are the best ones out there if you do go down that route
If it is one child would a bike seat not be a better option? One that you can take off and leave at the creche, you can get extra attachments for another bike if someone else is collecting your little one from creche.
hth

firefish

I thought the bike seats looked a bit unstable - and how big a child would they take? Though the distance between crèche and house isn't big so they might be a better option. However it will be different people doing pick up and drop off so person doing car drop off would have to remember to bring the seat

tomasrojo

Chariot Cougar is a great trailer for one child. Very good stroller too. Very expensive, alas. Stable. I have one and never found handling a problem. I never cycled on the road much with the kids, because everyone else was too nervoius about it, but I'm quite sure it would be fine. I've certainly never had any trouble when using the Chariot as a cargo trailer (another good thing about it is it's very handy for odd-shaped loads).

Doozerie has one too. If you search his posts you should find useful information.

CramCycle

I had been on about getting a cargo bike for ages as I thought the same about a child seat. Finances and the inability to fit the cargo bike inside my terraced house meant that I had to go for the bike seat.

Have to say, so far, he loves it, got it at 12 months and he thought it was hilarious. Sometimes I leave the seat there but usually i just leave it on and take it to work.

Makes the bike feel more upright, think it must be the weight on the back but have had no issues with balance etc and we have climbed some OK hills on it, short as they are.

Alek

I have both Chariot Corsaire (2 seater) and Hamax Siesta seat.

It is the seat that makes the bike feel like a noodle, however is much more convenient in the city. Trailer is super stable and except for the extra weight, it barely affects handling of the bike. It is also safer - drivers see it from miles away and behave accordingly However, putting "baby on board" sign at the back of the Hamax helps too.

If we have time, we always choose the trailer - for stablity, comfort, safety and huge extra storage space. For short trips we don't bother and take the seat.

We have traveled in Spain this year, 600km in three weeks, slow and steady and with many one-day stops, but we have managed to do a few mountain climbs no problem Fully loaded (me+everything=160kg), 32C heat and 12km/h average, but hey, everybody survived!

http://www.strava.com/activities/157723975

kenmc

firefish wrote: »

I thought the bike seats looked a bit unstable - and how big a child would they take? Though the distance between crèche and house isn't big so they might be a better option. However it will be different people doing pick up and drop off so person doing car drop off would have to remember to bring the seat

My 2 year old, 15kg daughter loves her bike seat (bobike maxi tour), which i've got on a planet-x kaffenbak. Have done several 8-10km trips with her no problem, nothing major in terms of climbing, but the bike feels fine. She's been in it since around 8 or 9 months.

Will be looking for either a longtail or a cargo bike for next summer,as #2 comes around xmas and will need to be dropped to creche from september too.

I think offlahero has a similar seat, maybe the bobike maxi rather than tour, and at least before #2 came along he and mrs offlahero used to alternate drop off and pickup leaving the seat at the creche.

check_six

We had a bike seat, but they're not great. The higher the seat is, the more noodly the bike gets. Depending on your bike you may have lugs or cables on your seattube which stop you from putting the seat in the optimum spot. Then you've got the awkwardness of the bike tipping over when you are trying to extract the child from the seat, etc. Essentially, the bike seat is a bit of a pain.

The trailer on the other hand is a great device. We got one when our second fellow was little. We got a budget trailer as we couldn't afford to shell out for one of those nice Chariot ones, but it still worked great. We could fit two kids in with bags no problem. We could also bring the trailer to the shops and stuff loads into it. It's easy to tow, it's nice and stable, and it keeps the weather out. We've found other road users give you a good bit of space when they see the trailer, you're definitely visible!

Also, the tow bar that you fix on to your bike costs <€10 so you can put one on every bike that may be towing the trailer. And most trailers will fold flat to transport in a car boot.

You can cycle normally with the trailer, but you'll find yourself taking corners a bit wider, and you'll start off in a lower gear.

I couldn't recommend a trailer highly enough.

fat bloke

Trailers are great. I had one for two years, used to bomb my two kids down to school in it. Great craic.

firefish

Fairly mixed views! Toddler will be 2 when we start bringing him to crèche so not sure how long seat will last after that. Also maybe not great for an Irish winter...I can see how a seat would be much easier for the city though. Would be worried about falling with the bike, toddler seems awfully unprotected in a seat, but it's such a short distance to go maybe it would be fine. Decisions!

Del2005

Is having the exhaust gases of every vehicle that passes pumped straight into a child's lungs a good idea?

rp

+1 on trailers, carried all three kids to & from creche until they couldn't fit in anymore, then passed the trailer on to a friend.
As for safety, we've had a few threads over the years, here's a post of mine making a case for trailer as safest option:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=56681640&postcount=5

rp

Del2005 wrote: »

Is having the exhaust gases of every vehicle that passes pumped straight into a child's lungs a good idea?

From what I have read, car occupants get the highest doses of exhaust.
See http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=64442000&postcount=313

Alek

Is having the exhaust gases of every vehicle that passes pumped straight into a child's lungs a good idea?

How does it differ from sitting inside a car in standing traffic, in example?

check_six

Alek wrote: »

How does it differ from sitting inside a car in standing traffic, in example?

Inside a car is a closed environment. Outside you have lots of air/wind etc. diluting the gases.

Del2005

Alek wrote: »

How does it differ from sitting inside a car in standing traffic, in example?

Any time I've been working at the back of a running car I can smell and sometimes taste the exhaust fumes. I very rarely smell car exhausts when sitting in the car, or walking past them, and I never taste them unless it's a badly maintained diesel.

Alek

Inside a car is a closed environment.

Its not, unless you press the relevant button You are still exposed to uniformly diluted exhaust gases and particles.

check_six

Del2005 wrote: »

Any time I've been working at the back of a running car I can smell and sometimes taste the exhaust fumes. I very rarely smell car exhausts when sitting in the car, or walking past them, and I never taste them unless it's a badly maintained diesel.

I tend to leave my car maintenance practice for when I'm at home rather than on the bike, so I don't notice the fumes. My young fella probably doesn't even know how to change an air filter, never mind a full service!

Del2005

Alek wrote: »

Its not, unless you press the relevant button You are still exposed to uniformly diluted exhaust gases and particles.

No your not. The gases coming out the exhaust is fairly concentrated, where the child is, while in the car it's diluted. But it's your children that are sitting in the fumes not me so I'll stop worrying about them if you don't

Alek

The gases coming out the exhaust is fairly concentrated, where the child is, while in the car it's diluted.

Its is the total exposure over time that matters.

Either way there is a link to relevant scientific data on this above, everybody can draw their own conclusion from it.

CramCycle

MOD VOICE: The OPs post asked the following: Are they safe? Are they cumbersome? Anyone know the best one to get and where to buy? While the current line of talk may err into the side of safety, I don't think that is a concern of the OP and may be best suited to a separate thread if anyone wishes to start one on pollution/cyclists/children. I think we are best move on from the pollution aspects.

CramCycle

Are they safe?
I know Namelessphil and others swear by their safety, having seen safety videos and crash test videos I agree, in fact that they look like the safest place to be. There design and reflex in the rare case of an accident seem designed to protect the child extremely well. I have to say I think they are possibly the safest way to move a small child by bike, followed closely by a cargo/long tail, then a child seat. Why do I have a car seat, because my OH does not care about science or proof, she trusts her gut and does not trust trailers. She is wrong but she will do more damage than any known vehicle on the road to me.

Are they cumbersome?
I have only pulled a bike trailer twice in my life, slow you down but other than being aware of their presence and extended length I do not think so. I don't think longtails or cargo bikes are either once you are used to them. Bike seats seem to divide people, they are not cumbersome for me, but I can see how they might be if not set up right for you and the bike. That said at the boards hill climb, namelessphil who was not competing beat me up the hill towing a young lady in a trailer.

Anyone know the best one to get and where to buy?
Longtails and bike seats can be got in Fitzcycles in Stillorgan and I found them great to deal with, Cargobikes I have to recommend ThinkBike for all their help while I was investigating, they even do trial runs for 24 or 48 hours. Trying before you buy is a must IMO, I got great offers for help from other boardsies to try things as well as from my LBSs. As for Trailers, I know from Doozeries tales, that there little one is nearly out grown the trailer and she is now racing in criteriums in Dundrum so you could enquire if theirs is for sale or if they have any recommendations of where to buy.

You might get a better deal online but they are not small or light things to be easily returned if an error is made.

NamelessPhil

Our trailer, after four years of great service, has been sold on to a clubmate. Our five year-old is readily cycling her own bike.

The trailer was great, easy to use and not particularly awkward. We took it on holiday to the North York Moors and it was great, she was tucked up with her snacks, blanket, teddy and CD player and stories and we did all the hard work up hills with 17%gradients.

We had a Chariot Cougar. Chariot was taken over by Thule who also make roof racks and it is now part of their brand.

I was the main user of the trailer and used it mainly for creche runs. I would use it at the weekend, cycle to the nearest DART station 10km away, lock the bike at the station and use the trailer as a buggy on the train and go out to Howth for the day.

Our trailer was used in all weathers, from snow, to torrential downpours and sunny hot days. The trailer came with a fly mesh and sunshade and a shower cover and a heavy duty waterproof cover for the really bad days. We also bought a fleece muff for the winter. Our daughter was warm and bone dry on the really wet and cold days, something that is not possible with a bike seat.

The trailer only required a simple attachment on the rear wheel skewer and both our bikes had this attachment, this meant that when the trailer was parked our bikes didn't have any cumbersome attachments such as a child seat. I'm reasonably small and a front fitting child seat would not have fitted on my hybrid commuter with a sloping top tube. This is something to consider if you and you partner are both going to use the seat, it will have to fit both bikes.

Trailers are worth the investment as a second buggy, and will last until your child is ready for their own bike.

BremoreDave

I've never used a trailer but this year I bought the 'WeeRide' Safe Front Child Bike Seat.
I haven't gone on any long spins with it , just a few kms down to the playground and back but my daughter loves going on it and I find the forward position a lot easier to control than the traditional rear seated position. Also easier to swing your leg over the bike when their is no child seat in the way.

NamelessPhil

It's worth gettng a kickstand for the bike if you're going to be transporting a child. It stops the bike from falling over while your trying to connect everything. They're fugly but functional.

Alek

True. On both bikes that take the child seat I have the biggest, ugliest and heaviest kickstand in the universe. But it is super stable even with a 2 year old kicking and screaming on top.

doozerie

NamelessPhil's post covers almost everything I could say about our trailer. It was brilliant. She did forget to mention that we hit a 20+% hill while in Yorkshire and with a triple chainset on my mountain bike it was very manageable - that's a measure of how well good trailers work, ours rolled really well and didn't feel like the anchor I worried that it might. I had V-brakes on that mountain bike, and they were perfectly adequate when descending steep hills with the loaded trailer.

The Chariot Cougar (and presumably other decent trailers) has a chassis which acts as a roll cage, so should the trailer ever be hit by a car or roll over, the child is protected. The harness is a 5-point one too, so the child should remain secured to the seat in the event of a collision/roll. For visibility we fitted a 180degree (i.e. visible from 3 sides) red light to each side of the trailer, to give full visibility from the sides, plus a decent rear light on the back too, so it was lit up very well.

NamelessPhil already mentioned why a front-mounted child seat wouldn't work on her bike, or mine either, but we reckoned a rear-mounted one would be problematic for us too as, amongst other things, it would be difficult to wear a backpack without squashing the child. I've seen people wearing a backpack with a child in a rear seat and it looks very uncomfortable for both parties.

CramCycle

doozerie wrote: »

The Chariot Cougar (and presumably other decent trailers) has a chassis which acts as a roll cage, so should the trailer ever be hit by a car or roll over, the child is protected. The harness is a 5-point one too, so the child should remain secured to the seat in the event of a collision/roll. For visibility we fitted a 180degree (i.e. visible from 3 sides) red light to each side of the trailer, to give full visibility from the sides, plus a decent rear light on the back too, so it was lit up very well.

That's why I liked them, I seen the safety tests, they looked incredibly well designed for both a rear and side impact from a motor vehicle where the trailer, as you described acts essentially like one of those zorbing balls.

Unfortunately for me, showing a safety test to a mother is already skeptical only leads to visions of crashes that are incredibly unlikely.

rp

Just one thing to bear in mind, anyone using a child trailer - be obsessive about the hitch's safety strap.
Ensure it is in good condition, fit for purpose and always correctly attached. The one fear I always had was the trailer detaching and going its own way on a corner, if the couple UJ ever failed. I ended-up making my own out of plastic-coated SS cable and an SS carabiner.

tomasrojo

rp wrote: »

Just one thing to bear in mind, anyone using a child trailer - be obsessive about the hitch's safety strap.

The Chariot has redundancy designed in: a strap goes around the chainstay in addition to the hitch arm being pinned into the cup by the rear hub. I don't usethe former when hauling cargo.