Thinking about buying this Bike trailer for the kids

I picked my Son up today on the bike, really enjoyed the ride to school, but had to walk back as I haven't got anything for him to sit in or ride on... I don't like the idea of a seat attached to the bike, so thought one of those trailers might be a good idea; after looking on eBay I came across this:



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181898049655? ... EBIDX%3AIT

I'd rather not spend above £100 and thought this looked quite good, but before I commit i'd like to know what all your opinions are on it please

Cheers

Re:

I've got both, a seat for the older one and a trailer for the younger one, they'll both sit in the trailer mind you...

Only bad thing is you need to pad the seats out a good bit or every bump will just go straight through them.....

I've always thought that the trailer puts the kids I'm a position to be hit by the stones and mud your tyres will 8nevitably fling at them. Used similar ones in centre parks and the kids loved it mind.

I'd also be careful about the mounting and the stress it might put through areas not designed to be stressed from pulling weight.

We used Burley trailers for 5 years. Some pointers:
1 The stress on the frame is minimal, especially for an MTB.
2 Cheap trailers are heavier, have weaker plastic wheels and less well-thought out. Especially this is for the bike fitting. Cheap ones may demand a bolt-through axle. The Burley QR hitch is much more convenient.
3 Fit the biggest tyres you can, run them at very low pressures - 10 psi worked for us. There is little weight in the trailer so you don't need huge pressures.
4 Folding trailers with a good hitch are simple to set up and therefore get used often.
5 Kids love them, but fit mudguards and keep the front plastic cover on most of the time. If dry, keep the mesh in place, saves a faceful of gravel.
6 A secondhand Burley is waaay better than a cheap one new.

Enjoy, cars give huge amounts of space and it's great fun.

Re:

fully agree with Hamster - our secondhand burley bee has been used and used and used.

still going strong

light but strong, packs away easily, easy to set up and connect, can't rate it highly enough to be honest.

only problem is they like it too much so won't ride their own bikes!

Ditto on the Bee. We used ours heavily: school run daily, then touring. We sold it on for around 75% of what we paid after 4 years.

Ones with aluminium frames are way lighter than steel.
I wouldn't want to use one on the road.

Rampage":1ls3hoja said:

Ones with aluminium frames are way lighter than steel.
I wouldn't want to use one on the road.

Click to expand...

Absolutely agree on an aluminium one! The cheaper ones never have a weight stated.

One of the surprising things about using a trailer is that motorists definitely did slow down and give us a very wide berth indeed. I was always really pleasantly surprised.

My view was that the trailer had some advantages of a roll cage, especially compared to a child seat. The kids were always warmer and generally asleep after 10 minutes...until they got older and started fighting, after which No1 son got put onto the stoker's seat of the tandem.

I inherited one from a cousin, the boy loved it.
My tip, save a search on ebay, because noone wants to post them you can get a used one locally (eventually), most are collection only so you can get a bargain.
No use if you are in a rush tho, but if you have time winter is the time for bargain outdoor kit!

Oh and another tip: when pulling a trailer containing your child, give posts and bollards a wide berth. Oops more than once there.

They might offer some protection from rolling over, but if a car hits them it won't do anything.

Agree with people not wanting to post them, just wait for a local one.