[Closed] What's the 'gnarliest' place you've ridden with a child trailer..?

Never has a thread been more likely to go off on a tangent than now.....
(book marked for reading in a couple of days time)

I came off the bike as a kid and put myself in hospital with concussion for a week. 1982 it was watched the world cup final in hospital.

Never did me any harm (twitch)

Bit of a hijack. really want one of those trailers, but really can't afford one currently. whats the earliest a baby can go in a bike seat. 1 year old OK?

EDIT: Just seen you can get them from Halfords for 100 quid, so forget that last comment!

Great pics Postie

Postie, that's what I needed, top man. How did you get on at CyB? I don't think I could be that adventurous though. Llandegla seems perfect.

TJ - a month old child goes in a car, at 70mph thats full of air bags, is in a rear facing child seat that has undergo various stringent safety tests as well as the car itself having to pass all those tests. A car is potentially the safest place for a child to be.

Compare that to a few steel tubes with a fabric covering that doesn't have to comply with any kind of testing that gets towed behind a bike on uneven surfaces.

Each to their own but at 1 month old my child was going nowhere near a trailer what with their wobbly head, soft skull and generally just being what a 1 month old baby is.... unbelievably fragile.

Nobody gives a shit about what gnarly stuff your mum did with you strapped to her shoulders whilst she was giving birth to your sister at the top of Ben Nevis. Like has already been posted, I'd seriously question the parenting of anyone who put such a small child in a position of such danger.

loddrik, FWIW, we hired a trailer and took our 18 month old around the green at Grizedale last week. He hated it. He just wants to get on a proper bike...

DaveyBoyWonder - Member

A car is potentially the safest place for a child to be.

Bullshine.

Really just have a think about it. The forces involved in an accident are far greater in a car than a bike trailer because of the speed differential.

🙄

Generally - I am supportive of the idea that we wrap kids up in cotton wool too much these days - but I do wonder where the balance of risk lies in some of these pics and stories?

No doubt it is far more dangerous in terms of numbers of accidents to use a CoPilot in traffic in London - like I did often - but presumably you all get off for drops etc?

Personally I think those trailers are unsuitable for a sprog that cannot support its own head, regardless of where you ride them - even on a pancake flat road with no traffic.

(I can also see some element of bragging rights coming into this, so if I see someone taking a trailer down double-headed dog I know who to blame...)

Why are they unsuitable for a child who cant support their head? Especially if they're not needing to support their head.

I would not take a 1 month old in my baby-sling equipped Chariot Cougar 2 complete with suspension on anything other than fire road or very smooth trail centre (slowing down for the rough bits). Too much of a risk for me I fear. Plus, I'm not sure I'd like to be jolted around for 2 hours whilst lying prone and feeble and having no idea what was going on, so I doubt my baby would.

Plus there's the issue of rolling the trailer. Those baby slings don't support the head and neck if they are upside-down or sideways. Plus there's no helmet if anything intrudes into the trailer, like a log or stick.

Don't get me wrong, now Lil Grips is 2 it's all fine, but not at 1mo.

Really just have a think about it. The forces involved in an accident are far greater in a car than a bike trailer because of the speed differential

This is you being arrogant again. You assume that we have not thought about it simply because we disagree with you. Maybe we have thought about it a lot and have arrived at a different conclusion. Is this possible do you think?

Car seats dont support the head if a child is upside down or sideways either.

It is also obvious to anyone with more than half a brain that you wouldnt go full tilt down a rough bit of trail.

Well sideways they do having big wings but not upside down. What's your point?

What kind of damage would hitting one of those wings do at say 70mph? Quite a lot i'd think....

Molgrips - I typed out an answer to you then realised it was useless as you have such a skewed idea of safety and risk assessment.

Momentum at 70 mph is so much higher than a cycle at 10 mph.

"adds Molgrips to ignore list"

Molgrips - I typed out an answer to you then realised it was useless as you have such a [s]skewed[/s] different idea of safety and risk assessment

So how much G force is experienced by a head hitting a rock at 15mph compared to being in a car hitting another car at 70mph? Any idea? No, thought not.

I dunno why you think I'm such a wimp. I mtb a damn sight faster than you, and I've got no worries about taking my kids in a trailer once I feel they are robust enough to handle the roughness. Lil Grips' first ride was at 6 weeks.

Yet again you're pouring scorn and derision on me for having the temerity to hold a different opinion. It's distressing and ****ing sickening to be honest.

Maybe I'll agree with you instead.

Yes you're right TJ. It's all fine.

What kind of damage would hitting one of those wings do at say 70mph? Quite a lot i'd think....

Well if you get t-boned at 70mph your whole family is in a world of trouble.

Where is this going btw?

Trailer with a singlespeed, quality 🙂
I used to take my son out a lot on a tagalong not a trailer. As I live in Peebles it was pretty much always Glentress Blue and some Red. I would howvever as others have suggested err on the tame side. A crash could be nasty and you would feel terrible about it. We only had one minor spill at Whinlatter but I did think about it a lot after about what could have gone wrong.
Also the thing to be aware of is the abuse you might get on here. This made me properly spit the singletrackworld dummy for a good few months..... http://bit.ly/fjHJZi

what an awesome argu-fest 😀

a couple of thoughts for the more scientific end of the debate:

It is also obvious to anyone with more than half a brain that you wouldnt go full tilt down a rough bit of trail.

sbz, how fast did you have to go in mph to get air with a kiddie trailer at GT with your baby and toddler?

I gather the trail in question is well groomed, but how easy or not is it to get your trailer wheels to touch down as smoothly/gently as your front one did?

And who here has rolled a car but not a kiddie trailer. Or vice versa? Which is more likely? (I have never rolled either, touch wood.)

I am not being all high and mighty btw. I have never got air with mine but for my 'bad cycling parent' confession, I did race my then 4 year old daughter at the BBB. I didn't crash but Juan did have some 10mph 'clearance' issues with her trailer and an eight inch high tree stump when he had a go. She described Juan as 'strange' and the ride as 'bumpy'. 😆

To be fair I'm not worried about crashing or rolling a trailer, because I take it easy with a kid on board. However I am concerned about shaking a small (under say 4mo) baby a lot. They're just not fully formed, who knows how their internal organs are jiggling around and being bruised and all. They might be fine, but in the absence of an MRI machine I'd probably err on the side of caution.

Lil Grips took a fair amount of jiggling on her first ride, more than you'd ever subject her to at any other time, and that was being ultra cautious.

done drumlanrig 2 weeks ago with son on trailgator had to give up on the red as it was too awkward to steer through the trees done the green eventually. also have cycled the access roads round the windmills at whitelees (8 miles). but does it matter where you go as long as your child is happy and has had some fun and you have shared one of your interests with them.

sbz, how fast did you have to go in mph to get air with a kiddie trailer at GT with your baby and toddler?

GW, there is a little bit of me that hopes he really did get air, what with his extensive list of legendary feats of stw yore. (is that really a word? you know what i mean...)

...and there is a slightly less little part of me that hopes he just put his wee ones in securely and gave them a nice ride round the woods, with bumps and forces akin to doing those big wide speed humps a bit too quick in a car. If I did that (ie get airborne) by accident i would properly bob myself.

does anyone know what happens if you get air in a car and trailer? Again, not something I have any ambitions on trying any time soon but i expect someone on here has managed it or seen it.

TandemJeremy - Member
The ruddy moo dropped me on my head when I was 18 month as well NO ruddy helmet either

never did me no harm

Are you 'Sloth' out of 'The Goonies'?

Anyone who takes a 1 month old on a trailer, be it human or troll child is an idiot end off. Their neck muscles arnt strong enough and their little bodies would get shaken around too much. For me that behaviour is on a par with shaking a baby when it won't stop screaming. It's just something you don't do
Besides why would you want to? You have the rest of the kids life to share your hobbies with them, have some patience and make the most of your remaining time alone, soon enough you won't get a chance to get out and ride gnarr because the little one will always want to be in tow
Having a kid myself there is nothing I want more than to go out on the bike with her, we actually bought the trailer off here before she was born, I've resisted for a year though partly due to not wanting to so her any harm that I may not realise has been done at the time and partly because I don't want to do it too soon and scare her off for the future. My daughter incidentally was unusually strong since birth and was able to support her own head from about 2 weeks old, and sit unaided shortly after, still not suitable for a trailer at I would say 6-12 months though
TJ there is a reason class 0 car seats face backwards, even
modding a trailer by using a car seat will not offer similar support and besides all the forces you talk of may be less but they are imposed differently and in different directions

Penge.

Kids in trailers and on tag-a-longs SO TOTALLY ROCK!
8)
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(A few red routes, lots of natural trails, it seems determination of the pedaller and some carrying of the trailer wil get you up,nround and down most things. Our tag-along will be heading round Wolftrax Red in a couple of weeks time.)

molgrips - Member

Molgrips - I typed out an answer to you then realised it was useless as you have such a skewed different idea of safety and risk assessment

So how much G force is experienced by a head hitting a rock at 15mph compared to being in a car hitting another car at 70mph? Any idea? No, thought not.

I dunno why you think I'm such a wimp. [b]I mtb a damn sight faster than you,[/b] and I've got no worries about taking my kids in a trailer once I feel they are robust enough to handle the roughness. Lil Grips' first ride was at 6 weeks.

Yet again you're pouring scorn and derision on me for having the temerity to hold a different opinion. It's distressing and ****ing sickening to be honest.

Maybe I'll agree with you instead.

Yes you're right TJ. It's all fine.

to be fair this guy is faster on abike than tj!!!!

[img] [/img]

WTF, I cant believe some of these comparisons - how the f can anyone compare a car that has undergone hundreds of safety tests and has all sorts of impact protection, with a protective child seat, facing backwards, to a trailer that has very little protective material cover, I'm sure has far less stringent safety standards and the child sits in an unprotected seat (no helmet) - its laughable! I worry taking my 2.5 yo out on his weeride seat on our local singletrack.

However, these trailers do look like fun! whats a good make? I need to look them up

Oh, BTW, the person that asked earlier, 1 year old is the recommended early age for a kid no a child seat. You'll struggle to find a lid that will fit prior to that age anyway. Look at the weeride seats rather than rear seats IMO.

You should not ever put a helmet on a child under a year - their neck is not strong enough. One of the things that LHS and I agree on on helmets.

If you will put a small child in a car seat strap it in a car and do 80 mph why will you not have them in the same seat at 15 mph in a cycle trailer? Crash in the car is far more dangerous to the child.

Other parts of the world it is quite normal to have infants on bikes. there is no epidemic of babies getting killed doing so.

You need to have a realistic approach to risk assessment and management. I am suprised some of you can ever get out of your houses.

[img] [/img]

You would not catch me putting a kid on one of those weeride things or a rear child seat. Absolute death traps as far as i am concerned. Way too much potential for hitting the kids head off the ground, crushing them as you fall on them etc etc etc.

Never again. There I was, putting my kid in the trailer (road side...of course) when a singlespeeder rode past me so fast that the cloud of dust enveloped the trailer, knocking it sideways. The guy stopped to help, and to see if my child was OK. Naturally, I knocked him out, then went home and wrote an essay (clearing gap jumps with the trailer on the way)

If their head can't support a helmet how the **** can the neck of a baby that cannot support it's head sitting down support its head going round a berm on even a blue trail?

Like I said, kids today are fussed over too much, but some of what is being posted here is ridiculous.

Unless everyone is trolling rather than just the obvious ones...

winterfold - because its in a supportive seat that supports the head. Teh same set you put it in a car in where the forces on the child are greater

Struggling to see how a seat could possibly support a head/neck. But then again, I have children.

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

So how do they not support the head?

It's the neck I'd be more worried about. But hey ho.

scxc - so what do you put them in in your car?

TJ - you must be thinking of something quite different to the trailer I had. It had no neck support whatsoever.

Happy to be proven wrong if someone is making a trailer with sufficient neck support - anyone got a link? (or has put a decent baby seat in a trailer and fixed it in v strong )

Just to reiterate I do think the natural risk taking of kidd should be encouraged. Once they can ride take them on trails, see if they want to do drops etc as soon as you think they can - but IMO they should assess risk and make their own choices - once they can ride without stabilisers they can make the call.

But... Each to their own 🙂

Going round in circles here. Each to their own, but I wouldn't have put my kids in a trailer at <6 months for the reasons that have been articulated already by cleverer people than me. I'm sure you could all argue me down, and I guess I am just saying what I wouldn't do.

Anyway. Got a bank holiday to look forward to...have a great weekend everybody!

winterfold - you put the same seat you would use in a car in teh trailer.

SCXC - but you would put them in a car? Where if something goes wrong the forces on them would be much higher due to the much higher speeds?

A REAR facing child seat TJ that is surrounded by metal, airbags and a structure designed and tested to crumple and dissipate as much of the crash forces before they reach the occupants inside
Totally the opposite to a trailer on a bike most of which are not designed to fit a car seat in without potentially more dangerous modification
There are other considerations such as ground clearance and shocks but probably lost on you
Your comparison is similar to an egg in an eggbox, compared to one kept in a bucket
As for posting a pic of what maybe goes on abroad, I'm not aware of any red graded bermed trails with table tops on their daily trek to the shops
Regardless of rights or wrongs still struggling tonunderstand why people would risk it all for the sale of waiting a few months

because intelligently assessed the risk is tiny. a car needs all those things because of the far greater forces involved.

what sc-xc and iain say

SBZ - Ah, the chariot Air 540 trailer, I see you've taken the pegs off 😉

You should not ever put a helmet on a child under a year - their neck is not strong enough. One of the things that LHS and I agree on on helmets.

Fair enough GW. Its about neck strength.