First, Happy New Year all 🙂

My son’s 3.5 years old but sized more like a 5 year old and not far off in physical capabilities. All good from a proud Dad perspective 🙂 but he’s now at the size limit of his balance bike. He’s pretty good on it so I’m thinking of progressing him to a bike with pedals, maybe with stabilizers set high.

Thing is I’d also like to take him out riding without having to drive which means roads. A tag-along seems ideal but I’m wondering if a bar like this might be better

http://www.bikecare.co.uk/trail_gator.html

eg it’ll mean being able to use his new bike

So, experiences, advice, etc all welcome especially on how your kids got on agewise and suggestions on bikes/bars to get.

Thanks in advance

There is a third option which looks like the hitch off a bob trailer. I forget what it’s called though.

happy new year , have a trail gator and find it excellent. have used it on trails with no problems. my son lacks confidence cycling alone and we have used it since he was 3 and a half yrs on a 12″ wheel bike and a 16″ wheel bike. we just keep the fittings on the bikes and remove the bar until we need to connect it.son loves it can highly reccomend.he rides a ghost powerkid 12″ and a gary fisher gamma ray 16″
but the ghost is of much higher quality. hope this helps.

Tagalong if you plan to do any distance or much ‘proper’ off road. Trail gator great for a mile or two.

Happy New Year, all.

Clubber, where are you? You’d be welcome to borrow our tagalong to try out if you’re anywhere near Monmouth?

Hi Clubber,
We used a trail gator for years with no problem, my youngest son loved it! It’s still in the garage if you want to try one. I’m in Wiltshire

Steve

Thanks all for the replies so far.

I’m in Bristol and yes, I’ll definitely be taking him offroad – nothing silly but he already loves ‘the wiggly bumpy’ bits of trails.

Trailgator is great for short distances but it needs to be bolted very tightly to the head tube of the kid’s bike and the little stabilising stay attached to the fork at all times if it isn’t to twist round. Knocks hell out of the paint.

That said, it is far cheaper and more versatile than a tag along.

Still using a trailgator here with our 4.5 year old son. It’s fine over longer distances, I don’t do a lot of off road on it due to the sheer length of the setup and the fact that I might lose him off the back of his bike every now and then! It only seems to move a little when repeatedly doing berms, which tends to make the bike bracket on the kids HT twist around.

For the money I’d go trailgator every time, given that a good tag along costs at least 5 times more.

Rich

Found a second hand tagalong at a bike hire centre on the Tissington trail – so could be an option for you, they tend to clear stuff out fairly regularly.

Younger son used it for a few long(ish) rides on the trail and really enjoyed it(probably aged 5 or 6 I can’t remember). He’d not have covered the distance without it. Also surprised at how much difference his pedalling made.

Now cluttering up the shed but I’ve lost a vital part in the detritus so I can’t sell it until I excavate down to the relevant level.

do the new ones fit 1 1/8 headset tubes? I have an older one it wont ho near it