I’m thinking about getting a kiddy trailer for my daughter who is currently 7 weeks old. The thing is, I’m not sure whether there’s any point. I see that they must be good for very little ones but then they are not recommended for babies who can’t support their heads and yet as soon as they can do that wouldn’t she be able to go on a weeride?

Experiences please.

If its been 18 mins and no answers it’s possible because this gets asked so often. The answer is that they rock but it is worth having a search through previous discussions. Use google and site:singletrackworld.com trailers

I got one but haven’t used it yet. Realistically your kid should be closer to 12 months. Benefit compared to weeride is you can go out in rain and cold no problem. AND it carries luggage too so no backpack for a couple hr ride.

My boy is 5 months and he’d not be comfy or happy in it just yet for sure.

Been using a croozer for the past 3 months with minigf who is now 6months old. Mainly used on a long trip to France where it was great. Minigf was happy in it for 2+ hours from 4months. Not used it so much in the UK, nervous to use it on anything other than traffic free routes or very quiet lanes. Did manage 40mins ride in the rain today, she slept for most of it, I felt better for being out of the house and on a bike. If you are near Cardiff/Caerphilly you are welcome to borrow it for a ride.

gearfreak do you use the baby sling? I think it’s recommended and suitable up to 10months but my boy’s getting bloody big so barely worth buying one. Also, any issues attaching via the qr?

Love mine!

Yup we have the baby sling. Minigf seems very happy, but all baby’s are different. No issues with the qr, use it on my cotic x, and on a old giant OCR which has been turned into a hybrid.

Might just pad him out a wee bit then but sit him on the seat. I just felt the croozer hitch puts strain on the qr in the wrong direction.

Cheers, glad you’ve got on well with it.

Do a wee search on here, but we used our Chariot Cougar with slings from about 20 weeks. They loved it so much, they fell asleep within about 2 mins every time we took them out.

With the Chariot slings, they’re almost in a hammock, and don’t need to support their heads. Great for getting out with the very little uns.

So main benefits over a on bike child seat are weather protection and I guess overall comfort on longer rides.

I guess that goes for sun protection too as that would my main concern over rain living in Spain, it seems that my daughter has inherited my pastiness instead of her mothers hue poor thing.

Thanks for the info and sorry for being lazy and not reading through previous posts.

got a croozer its ace, you can use a sling in them from about 6 months onward

the new croozers have suspension and id get that over our current one fr more gnarly stuff, someone recommended a german? brand too recently that looked very good and cheap with some suspension

posted this before, but my kids nearly 2 & 4 years love it

[video]http://vimeo.com/104859583[/video]

if you get a half decent trailer you can get a baby carrying accessory thing, like a cross between a car seat and a solid hammock type thing..

I swear by my trailer.. use it daily.. even got rid of the car

us on the way to the town carnival last week

Chariot Cabriolet 2 attaches via quick release, the coupling is ace and the whole set up is absolutely faultless in use.. It will last as long as I need it easily, but I must admit to being a bit let down by the build quality and the technology used considering the price I paid (about £400 new with a heavy discount) some of the materials and solutions just seemed a bit cheap.. works great in practice though

For the Croozer there is the aforementioned baby sling and also the supporter.

Yes. Please buy mine 🙂

We have a Chariot Cougar 2 for sale, with all the baby slings and bigger baby attachments you’ll need.. and space for a second kid. Also got a big baby/small toddler suitable helmet going spare. The trailer has suspension which helps a lot. We went on smooth stuff with our kid from 6 weeks or so – the sling really makes it very secure and comfortable. Just don’t stack it.

I see that they must be good for very little ones but then they are not recommended for babies who can’t support their heads and yet as soon as they can do that wouldn’t she be able to go on a weeride?

There is a lot of talk about not using trailers under 12 months, because there are bans in some US states. However, whilst this makes perfect sense for trailers in which you sit upright, the baby sling is fine. Chariot say not to use it when cycling, but that’s just to cover their arses. It’s really no worse than being in a pushchair – we spent a lot of time watching and assessing the amount of jiggling.

I guess that goes for sun protection too as that would my main concern over rain living in Spain,

It has a sun shade roof that you flip up and it completely shades the kid. If you use it it makes the back into mesh which allows through airflow to keep it cool.

If you have a baby don’t get a back seat. S/he wont’ be ready for it til 18m or so, possibly more.

Email in profile 🙂

S/he wont’ be ready for it til 18m or so, possibly more.

Really?? What do you base that on??

Trailers are much better for more serious riding than child seats as they don’t affect the handling nearly so much and the kids are much better protected in the event of an accident. That’s my opinion anyway, for slower, shorter rides child seats are great.

We’ve got a Chariot CX and used it with the sling as an offroad buggy when HatterJr was about 2 months old, started careful bike rides at about 7 months and by 13 months he was happily flying round off road behind the 29er.

Decent suspension makes a huge difference to how shaken around they get and I don’t think we’d have started so early without it.

Really?? What do you base that on??

Nothing more than watching little kids being chucked around all over the place on the back of bikes, and sleeping lolling all over the place..

<Googles Chariot CX>

HOW MUCH ????

I have a Croozer 2 which I got off ebay for a bargain £150. Great piece of kit and got room in the back to chuck minimatt’s balance bike in for when he gets bored of being dragged about.

<Googles Chariot CX>

HOW MUCH ????

About the same as a posh pram these days.

They hold their value really well so long as they’re looked after, we have a small queue of friends looking to buy it after we’re done so we’ll make most of our money back then anyway.

Got a CX1 for sale if anyone’s interested – just haven’t got around to advertising it yet. All the extras: baby support harness, bunting bag, 3rd running wheel, stroller wheels, rain cover, fat rubber. 9 years old and well loved/used but good nick and still has 1000s miles in it.

The latest version of just the basic trailer, is now an eye-watering grand a pop, with no extras. This lot cost us about 800 at the time. Looking for 400ish?

Best bit of cycling kit I ever bought. Allowed me to keep riding when otherwsie I wouldn’t have done. Happy kid in all weathers 🙂

[url=https://flic.kr/p/bx1C9u]Really didn't think I'd clean _that_ hill pulling _this_ lot! #goodlegs[/url] by Jonathan Bateman, on Flickr

(SS trailer pulling requires careful knee use!)

They hold their value really well so long as they’re looked after, we have a small queue of friends looking to buy it after we’re done so we’ll make most of our money back then anyway.

+1. We bought a single seat Croozer for £250 off ebay, and sold it two years later for £200. The Weber baby supporter worked fine with mini Ransos from 3 months old or so, but keep your speed down and give off-roading a miss.

We now have a Burley D’lite to take our two kids, and I highly recommend it. We use the baby supporter for micro Ransos (1 yr old), and mini Ransos (3 yrs old) uses the normal seat. They absolutely love it, and it really comes into its own this time of year – they are snug and dry when I’m getting cold and wet.

molgrips – Ive emailed you RE your trailer for sale…

Hoppy Jr was in his from about 3 months and had done degla blue and the minotaur trail at coedy by 6 months in the croozer using a sling support.

We sold the croozer and got a chariot which has been pretty much everywhere since. I normally tow on my x but I’ve adapted a spare hitch to allow me to hook it to the codeine as well. Hoppy Jr loves it, great bits of kit.

Where do you lot generally ride with the trailers? Just bought a croozer and taken my 16 month old daughter out a couple of times in it but she seems to get bounced around an awful lot on the fire roads round surrey hills. She seems to enjoy it and hasn’t complained yet but I guess I just thought it wouldn’t be quite so jiggly in there for her…..albeit i’m not sure what planet I was on when I thought that!

I think the ‘jiggling’ is part of he fun TBH, so long as it’s not too jarring (that’s where the Chariot’s excellent suspension comes in), as a rule the more I’m launching it over roots, rocks etc the more giggles and ‘faster daddy’s I get from behind.

Mind you my child is the type who thinks being swung round by his ankles is the most fun thing ever so this may not be normal.

Croozer:

D’lite:

Does anyone have any experience with one of these?

Looks ace!

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKSI4ndxg7o#t=28[/video]

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYzJCwcYvyk[/video]

1000€ though, ouch!

I seriously looked at that before we got a Chariot, but it was a good chunk more even then. The attachment position means that it will affect handling more than an axle mounted trailer will just like a tag-along does, but there’s big advantages to the single wheel design.

In the end the cost and difficulty of actually getting my hands on it put me off. That was nearly 10 years ago though, and it’s closer in price to a chariot now… go on… just get one 🙂

Oh and in reply to Gotama: sus and fat tyres (2.25 BMX rubber) means the Chariot rides well on some pretty rough surfaces. Ours were both happy sleeping whilst I’ve battered over some fairly rough forest tracks. I’ve towed them all over – forest tracks, bridleways, ‘blue’ grade routes, roads (better on the continent!)

I’d say look for some big tyres for the Croozer and run them low – that should take enough of the edge off 🙂

Jonathan

Anymore pics of your cx1?

Was looking at the cougar chariot, what’s the difference? Is the cx1 the more lightweight version?

Also lots of reviews of the chariot trailers with prices at around £400, but now Thule owns them they are £700++??

As mentioned above, spent a while looking for a reasonable one on eBay with no luck so bought one from Germany.

Used it lots since this review and both boys just love it. Seems to be pretty sturdy and copes with fire road type trails no bother. Not taken it on much singletrack yet though

Qeridoo trailer review

@vonplatz: that is the worst, and least coherent, music to a youtube video I think I have ever encountered. 😯

Bookmarked

Anyone’s significant others not to keen on the idea of a trailer and taking the little one on the road, and how you got past this?

I told her that it was a 4ft wide bright green trailer with a 6ft high bright green flag attached to it. That calmed her down a bit. I only go on quiet back streets if in town though and try not to venture on to main roads.

yeah avoid busy roads

stick to the ones with speedbumps( coz the little monkeys like getting air!)

ride on the pavement where possible, people are mostly quite understanding, 2 PCSOs even moved a bin for me as i was cycling along the pavement on the local high street as the trailer couldnt fit thru!

I bought a second hand Croozer for two trailer about a month back, we had twin girls 5 months back and I’ve been waiting to hitch it up and try it. The Croozer baby sling is allegedly for when it is in buggy mode, not bike mode so watch that. I ended up buying two Weber baby seats that easily mount into the Croozer and with neck supports from car seats worked ok.

organic355 – my first trip was a test local park ride and this might help with your misses. I suggested I wanted my misses to keep an eye on them as they went around, so she agreed and saw how comfy they were. We put on those baby Michelin man suits babys have for the winter which gave even more padding. Our girls can hold their heads up but get tired quick so support was essential. They seemed to like it, one nodded off, the other watched the world go by quietly and not bothered. Success.

I’d take it easy at first, slowly slowly. Give the baby more support than you think they need, for their sake but also to reassure mum. Have a small test run on a nice day and nice local route, a test run and build from there.

Anyone’s significant others not to keen on the idea of a trailer and taking the little one on the road

I wasn’t ever particularly keen on it! Only did it on really wide quiet roads.