Oopsie-daisey

[Wannabe]

Had a funny/scary thing happen the other day while riding with my husband. Whenever someone is ahead of us, he tries to get me to pass them, so I'll feel better about my ability...heh,heh. So there we are on a hilly path, when up ahead we spot a mom pulling 2 small children in a bike trailer. She is trying to make the steep climb up the hill, zig zagging on her mountain bike and standing to pedal--all over the trail. So.....hubbie says,"lets pass her" . Then as we rapidly approached her on the climb, (my husband in front of me with me right on his tail), we hear this "POP" sound, and OFF COMES THE CHILD TRAILER!!, rolling backwards toward us!! We are parents, so immediately we're scared to death for the children--hubbie expertly unclips one foot while reaching forward to the trailer, and stops it's backroll!!And then of course, there's me, unable to unclip and stop in time, so I ran directly into him and fell over like the chubbie that I am!! It all happened so quickly but it still seemed like it was in slow motion! I felt extremely clumsy, but so proud of my spouse. Hope this never happens to you!!

[Trek420]

Go Hubbie, he's a hero! I hope the Mom thanked you.

[Grog]

Wow, thank God nothing worse happened.

Do you know how it could happen?

(Keep that guy of yours, he's great!!)

[singletrackmind]

I'm assuming you mean the Grafton to Pere Marquette path-that is hilly! With scary dropping off into woods or onto the highway areas. As a trailer pulling mom I am sending serious heart-felt hugs to your DH and you. Great job, guys...
....and remember, you can be any shape or size and fall over, especially in emergency situations! It doesn't mean you are clumsy or chubby at all. Also, way to get up those hills!!!

[drplasma64]

OMG, as a mom who pulls a trailer this scares me to death. Thank goodness you guys were there! Do you happen to know what kind of trailer it was??? This just reaffirms my fear about taking a trailer on the hilly road near my house.

[latelatebloomer]

I agree with Singletrackmind - don't put yourself down - ! What a great hero story about your hub.

[Wannabe]

Hey Singletrack-
You pegged our ride location exactly!! We live in the country, so we are always riding the roads near home. I like the path to Pere Marquette, but it never fails--one of us gets a flat somewhere on that ride! As a matter of fact, after the trailer incident, we decided we would just end our ride early, so we turned around to come home. Then, whattyaknow, my "hero hubbie" goes flat. Just the perfect ending to an awful ride!! But we changed it in a jiffy, then climbed Elsah hill home!!Whew! Do you ride out here very often?

[singletrackmind]

I've been out there more than a few times. When I really want to punish myself I ride the scenic road in the park. My poor husband usually pulls the trailer up that one! It's about the only time I ever get to whip up on him! I also like the hikes there but so far as I remember no mountain biking allowed . I've got Tuffy liners between tube and tires so no flats for me, knock on wood. We're in the St. Louis area so don't make it up there as much as I'd like to. If I didn't worry about cars around the trailer (parts of the Alton to Grafton section) I'd ride from the Arch up to PM and back.
Boy, I sure don't envy you that hill home, either. Whew! Do you ever do the Fun Club rides? We do the Tuesday night rides (Arch to the Chain of Rocks bridge), the Wednesday night rides at Creve Coeur Lake and some of the bigger sunday rides. Pulling the baby sure puts a dent in both my road and off-road riding but he's worth it.

[Wannabe]

We always talk about doing the Fun Rides, but our jobs never seem to want to cooperate. We have 2 daughters, ages 11 and 12, who we would love to see riding with us, but people out here aren't exactly always friendly toward cyclists--so that scares me for them. We have ridden the Flat as a Pancake Century, and the Tour de Stooges metric century sponsored by the Hostelling Assoc.--those are always fun, if you can find a babysitter. There is also one coming up in our neck of the woods, called the Tour de Freedom(supporting the historical Hamilton school in Otterville, IL). We will be hosts to a rest stop on that ride. If you get up this way, let me know--maybe you could join us on one of our road rides. BTW, to the tire liners work well??

[singletrackmind]

My Tuffies make my hubby nuts but I love them. I had no flats for 6 years-until the Tuffy actually wore through the tube itself. My hubby recently bought a new set of tires because my old set had worn out and didn't put the Tuffy's back in. Multiple flats later he's given in and one of the liners has made it back into its' tire and the other will when I next flat. Hah!
They are heavy but I don't care. They are also cheap and do a great job. They don't protect the sidewall but that hasn't been a problem either on the mtn or road bike for me. Despite multiple pieces of glass in my tires only one had made it partially through the liner. Cool!
I've done one century on my own thus far this year and several 50+ rides but most of those have been on the Riverfront or Katy trail because of the trailer. We do the organized rides that state themselves kid-friendly-again because of the trailer. My DH has 2 girls, 10 and 12, who've done some of those rides too. I'll keep an eye out for some of those hostelling rides, looking for the very low traffic ones and definately let you know if we're doing any of them-or if we head up to Grafton-it'd be fun though we may be too slow for you with that pulling of the trailer thing-about 15mph average, depending on wind.
Tailwinds are WHEEEEEEEE!!! FAST!!!

[CorsairMac]

Whewwwwww Wannabe - close call. Goodonyur Hubby! and I don't believe you fell - I believe you needed to take a break, lie down for a bit and rest from that near heart-attack!

[RoadRaven]

I've read quite a few times since being here about these child trailers

Its not something I have seen much at all in this country - a couple of times when I have been sending my lads off in organised fun/charity centuries, but not at all locally as a matter of day to day...
But they sound quite common in the US...

In light of this incident (yay for hubby! and if you hadn't have crashed into the back of him and helped slow everything down, maybe he would have lost balance and lost control of the trailer - maybe your crash was part of 'the plan' to save the kids?)

But (as I was saying)... in light of this incident, do trailers have a little security chain as well as whatever hooks them onto to the bike? Is it possible to secure it further with a bungee cord or something like that?

With kids of my own (though admittedly all waaaay to big to tow in a trailer), this was a pretty scarey thing to read about.

[singletrackmind]

Mine has a piece that bolts onto the bike, and a pin in case that slips, and a strap in case both of those fail. The other end that attaches to the trailer is much like a hitch pin but with a keeper to hold it in place.
The woman's trailer must not have been attached correctly and the safety devices not used or maybe it was just a super cheapo with no attention to safety? I couldn't imagine a trailer manufacturer not having a back-up safety device.