My eldest lad is four and a half and has just started riding his proper bike (as opposed to his balance bike) without help and loves it but cannot go far yet. This weekend we took hired a tag along and took him for a ride towed by his mum with his little brother in the bike seat on my bike. He really enjoyed hit so we are going to buy one.

However wanted to get people's experiences – should we get a proper tag along or should we get one of those tow bar thingies that we can attach his bike to. Can see pros and cons to both but would love to hear what you guy's have found.

Cheers, Kearos

proper tagalong the best one is the old Islabike type that fits onto a carrier with a quick release lever rather than the poor quality ones that go round the seatpin

if can ride on own then i'd go for a croc type thing – bit of a pain to fit but gives them independence you won't get much use out of a tagalong now unless you strap them in just to do some miles – both my small ones rode tag a long until could ride without stabilisers and then as small for age had to be big enough to ride over dirt and potholes without getting stuck went to croc as get tired pretty quick

Have to agree with antigee, once they can ride on their own I'd go for a croc thing. Tag alongs are great, we've one of those Adams ones which attaches to the seat pin and it's absolutely fine, my daughter loves it. But when she learns – (I wish she'd hurry up – she's over 5) I'm sure she'd much rather have the option of bimbling by herelf for a bit during a ride. Cheaper too.

clicky

My little beastie is still getting to grips with hers but so far i'm really impressed with the trail gator. Not quite as easy to ride when I've got the 2 1/2 year old on the front in her ibert seat!

Thanks guys, looks like a gator then unless anyone comes along with a horror story.

Kearos

gators are cool – just make sure you take the tools you used to fix the brackets to your and their bikes with you on you first pootle.

I'd personally recommend a tag along, trouble with trailgators is the angle the kids bike rather far back. My lad slid off the saddle on his lots until I readjusted it, also alot of side to side slop which made my riding difficult.
I got an Echo Six trailer bike, £200 with gears and an alloy frame. Just blinged it out with 9 speed and a lighter wheel, have ridden upto 22 miles with the little one in tow, really good for training!

I have a trail-gator, and chose it over a tag-along. It's a lot more flexible as, obviously, when you get there, little-un can then go and zoom off themselves.

Downsides – only one – you have to make sure that the connectors on your bike and kids bike are absolutely aligned perfectly, and this takes a bit of fiddling, to ensure the wee bike stays uproight and straight. A tiny bit off and your wee one will be swinging off to one side.

Trailgator FTW!

Kev

I had both – I'd only use the Trail-gator if he intended to ride alone for most of the time.
It's not as stable offroad as the normal tag-along.

We have a fairly broad range of ages and abilities with our kids so we have both.

The trailgator gets used for the older two for family trips, messing about on trails and rides where the kids can be let go on their own for part of the ride.

The tagalong gets used for the younger one, and for the older two getting them from a to b or on roads where we want to know exactly where they are all the time.

hopefully soon they can all haul themselves about.

I've had both, a trail gator and a SS tag along. The gaitor was a pain, the wee man was riding at an angle all the time as there was too much play in the joints and i didn't rate the clips to store it on the towing bike when it wasn't in use. I now use a trailer bike with a folding arm which my daughter loves. I've an islabike for her also and we just choose which to tale with us when we go out depending on what we are doing. Have taken her on some of the blue at Glentress 😀 and it wa fine.

http://www.hembrow.eu/personal/trailerbikes.html

These trailer bikes are brilliant the coupling is really stable and they are great off road

proper tagalong the best one is the old Islabike type that fits onto a carrier with a quick release lever rather than the poor quality ones that go round the seatpin

IME the seat post is a much more stable anchor point than a rack. The rack connected ones are introducing an extra connection into the process.

FWIW Trek Mountain trains are great. I use a 20" wheeled on with our kids.

Oh and I don't like th trail gators for stability / seat angle issues mentioned above.

Having used both I can say the rack mount one is much stronger and stable the seat post mounts are weak and wobbly.The rack mount is a axle and a headset rather than a weak coupling putting more stress on a seat pin especially off road

Use a TrailGator, never used a tagalong.

Slopping from side to side sounds like the connections / brackets on frame aren't done up tight enough or are out of line. I needed to straighten / nip everything up after the first couple of rides but that sorted it.

I have no problems with sprog slipping off saddle / height of front wheel others have mentioned. Fitted to a Tinbred / old EA30 post and to the lads CNOC16 (lad is a tall 5 year old).

To me, as the Gator works and I've had no problems with it (and have done some relatively rough trail riding) it seems the best value and is much more versatile.

Took the boy up the Planets Trail / Sustrans Route 65 at Easter. Rode from Pluto (?) to the Sun using the Gator then back under his own steam. Couldn't have done this with a proper tagalong.

Each to their own but I'd get a Gator.

Buy mine!

At the tag-along race at the Big Bike Bash It was noticeable that 'proper' tag-alongs handled far better than the tail-gator thingys.

You can even tow scared Doctors on them…

the seat post mounts are weak and wobbly.

Not on mine.

We bought a tag-along for our eldest 10 years ago and it has been used since by both of his sisters…you cant go wrong if you ask me, we've had loads of happy miles out of it!

+1 for tag alongs – just remember to never ride in the wet or your little one will never ever come out again!