Trailers! Trailers! Trailers!

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Originally Posted by SadieKate

Xeney - the Chariot is a cool design with all the (expensive) attachments. I have friends who have been riding with their baby (just turned 1 yr a month ago) in one for sometime now and they even took him on some dirt roads in August. Jason was careful not to highside the trailer on a rut, but Ryder would get fussy if we stopped. Since he can see Jason in front of him he doesn't get worried, and he'll zonk out cold the minute the trailer starts moving. They also use it as their stroller so it's plenty big for baby (and Ryder is huge) and a few groceries. Aren't there bags even on the back that could be used for a few groceries?

The helmet even in a bike trailer seems odd. A well-built (maybe that's the problem) with a strapped-in child rolls onto a frame like a roll bar and the kid is hanging upside down, not dumped on it's head. Maybe the law should govern safety design of a bicycle trailer instead. They're definitely more stable that a child seat on a bike.

I think an Extracycle and Chariot combo would haul all the groceries and baby you'd care to power along.

I'm hoping they'll get the sled conversion so we can all go snowshoeing this winter. If not, I need to find a used Kifaru/Mountainsmith kiddie adaptor (anyone have one? :rolleyes: )

PS - Jason was hauling Ryder uphill on dirt roads using a singlespeed mtb. Oh, to be so fit.

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We have a Chariot and love it. When we first got here we only had one car and I would walk my youngest everywhere in it in all sorts of weather.LOL my friends up here now tell me that they though I was hardcore because they would see us walking home from school in some major weather. Well the rest of us got pretty wet but the youngest was warm and snug in the Chariot. We also have the bike attachment and my youngest loves to go for rides in it even though he is getting pretty big now and its quite the work out for the one pulling it. We thought about selling it but decided it would be good for hauling stuff from the market or maybe taking our future puppy for a ride. The ski option looks cool but alas no snow where we will be going.:(

I'm still hot on the xtracycle idea. I'd have to run new hydraulic hoses and rear derailleru lines, but.. mmmmmm... hawt. Someday. Someday.:rolleyes: :cool:

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Originally Posted by sgtiger

My $0.02 for what it's worth:

I'm not sure if the same problem would exist with the trailer as we have with our tag-along bike that is seat post mounted but having the attachment there seems to affect Dh's center of gravity enough that he has to compensate for it and he really feels it when DS is wiggling around. Friends who have tried both the seat post mounted and rear-rack mounted tag-along bikes prefer the rear-rack mounted ones because the additional weight is then distributed over the rear wheel which they have reported feels more stable. I know with our Chariot, which is mounted on a rear wheel skewer attachment, I do not have any issues with DD's movement affecting my balance. Then again, the problem might not be as bad with the trailer because the weight of the load is lower and distributed between two wheels and the seat-post mount, as opposed to the load being only on top of one wheel and it's attachment point.

Perhaps someone who understands the mechanics of it better can chime in and explain it better.

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I'll second that. I've ridden both with a child in a trailer attached to the rear dropout and with a child on a trail-a-bike attached to the seatpost. The trailer is perfectly stable. The trail-a-bike is not. Probably due to the high attachment point at the seatpost combined with the high center of gravity of the child. There also seems to be some play (or dual stability?) in the way the trail-a-bike attaches, because you can see and feel the trail-a-bike lurch from one side of the adult bike to the other when the child moves. I've also found that the drops feel more unstable than the hoods when towing a trail-a-bike (because they are below the seat post attachment point?).

Can someone name a brand of trail-a-bike that doesn't attach to the seapost?

I emailed the Xtracycle dudes about putting an Xtracycle on my Dew. They were pretty enthusastic about it and said it makes a great Xtracycle. (buy the 700c kit, and don't run tires wider than 35 is what they told me. I think. or maybe it was 38. Anyway, there was a clearance issue if I used tires wider than what the Dew was spec'd with. I sent them the Dew specs and they were all smiles about it.)

hey, and WHERE are the pictures of your new bike!?!?

Thanks for the feedback on the Chariot, SadieKate and TrekHawk. We have the bike attachment, the regular stroller attachment (so we can go places on the bike and then detach it and use it as a stroller), and the jogger attachment, although I might return that one to REI because we just bought a smaller 3-wheel stroller that has a locking front wheel, and that might be enough for my sad attempts at running.

What I want is the attachment that allows me to harness up a dog to the Chariot and let him pull her up hills. That'd be awesome.

The only drawback to the Chariot that I can see so far is that it is really big -- even the single doesn't fold down very well, so we have to remove one of the seats in our car and then there is no room for anything else. Also it has limitations as a stroller because of its size, and because it puts Penny right at the level of strange dogs and mean geese. She rides a bit higher in our other stroller.

There is a bag on the back that could hold some groceries. Probably not the full $130 shopping trips I've been doing with our other stroller, alas, but I don't think any other stroller is going to handle that sort of madness.

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Originally Posted by DebW

Can someone name a brand of trail-a-bike that doesn't attach to the seapost?

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The Burley Piccolo is the one our friends have. As far as I know it can only be mounted on their special rack that was designed for it. It is more expensive than the Adams and others but I've been told that it's well worth the difference. Dh and I have considered upgrading to it but we don't use our trail-a-bike enough to justify spending the money right now.

Here's a link with some pictures:

http://www.bikesandtrailers.com/trai..._add_bike.html