So we’re planning a mini camping tour of a few nights. Won’t be travelling all that far – probably no more than 20 or 30 leisurely miles a day over quiet lanes and fairly mild off road trails (rail to trail / fireroads and the like).

Our little’un is not riding a bike of his own yet and generally rides in a Hamax seat on the back of my bike.

Problem is that whilst we’ll be travelling as light as possible we’ll inevitably need more kit for the 3 of us and I can’t run panniers with his seat fitted. So we need to somehow manage our son, camping kit and other bits between my and my wife’s bikes. My wife isn’t all that confident carrying a heavy load on her bike and we’re also on a tight budget.

So I’m thinking of options:

Cargo trailer + child seat on my bike + one set of panniers on wife’s bike (anyone got any experience of the cheapo Bob-a-likes on ebay?)

Cheap 2nd hand kids trailer towed by my bike + panniers on one or both bikes depending on whether the trailer is big enough to carry kit too.

Some sort of ghetto bike packing setup (eg drybag strapped to bars, cheap framebag) plus childseat on my bike + one set of panniers on my wife’s bike.

Last option appeals as it’s going to be a cheaper option – also both my bikes have horizontal dropouts so not sure how well those will play with a trailer. My only concern is balancing the extra weight.

Most likely the bike I’ll be using is my Karate Monkey so more than capable of carrying a load – just not sure about the pilot!

Anyone done something similar and able to offer advice?

Not sure about price comparison, but a mate had the Edinburgh Bike co version of the BOB and it worked fine. It also packed down for when you needed to transport it in the car which was a distinct advantage over the BOB. Just remember to pack a spare 14″ tube if you go far from home 😳

Have no experience of using it with a child seat, or of towing a bob vs child though. Sorry.

HTH

I don’t think EBC do them anymore unfortunately. There are a couple of similar ones on ebay, but they’re a good bit heavier etc:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BRAND-NEW-SKIIDDII-SINGLE-WHEEL-CARGO-BICYCLE-BIKE-TRAILER-FREE-BAG-/160746899907?pt=UK_SportGoods_CyclAcces_RL&hash=item256d4309c3

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SINGLE-WHEELED-MONO-CARGO-TRAILER-WITH-WATER-PROOF-STORAGE-BAG-/271168202269?pt=UK_SportGoods_CyclAcces_RL&hash=item3f22e2661d

mugsys-m8 posting here on Mrs Mugsys account and french keyboard i.e. non qwerty grrrr….

we have toured in various guises with one and then two children. Our first tour with 2 was along the N Brittany coast, camping and with me riding back every 2 or 3 days and leapfrogging the car along the coast so we could do a a to b.

For this tour Mrs Mugsy carried Pia (14 months) in the child seat and I towed Etienne who was 3 1/2 in the chariot trailer. Due to child seat I carried all our kit on rear rack and on the chariot. It worked it wasn’t ideal but we didn’t want to throw too much cash at the time.

Last summer we did 3 weeks without car touring Danmarks southern isalnds with etienne on his isla bike attached to Mrs Mugsy by a follow me tandem. She had fornt and rear panniers and I towed Pia in the trailer and rear panniers. This year we will have the same set up but with front panniers for me and a stiffer than the roadrat frame for Mrs Mugsy……

Touring with childre quite simply rocks. We have found our summer holiday format for quite a few years.

Where are you based? I have a bob that I would loan out, but am central Scotland…

EDIT – Opps just looked at your profile – couldn’t be much further away if I tried! 🙄

I’d have thought kid + quite a bit of kit in a kiddie trailer would be feasible, especially if you get a two seater trailer and only put one child in it, although two seater trailers can be a bit of PITA if you have to deal with those gatey things they use to stop motorbikes and the like.

flowerpower – Thanks, if we were coming up your way to tour then I’d take you up on that!

The Skidii trailer seems to get pretty good reviews on Amazon at least:

I may take a punt…

@edlong – yeah, that was one of my concerns with a wider trailer.