Plan on picking up a bike trailer over the weekend for my 4 yr old and 9 month old to go in. What sort of places can they go? I was thinking Delamere and maybe Llandegla to do the blue run, nice uphill and fast wide sweeping down. What sort of places could I take them?
Anywhere they can fit through really, mine go all over the place, tesco,trails, cycle paths,...... you'd be surprised by the amount of weight a kid and a trailer can add though, especially when they insist on taking a pile of crap with them to jam between the wheels and the frame so you slew off into a ditch suddenly. Mine insisted on replacing the flourescent yellow flag with a homemade pirate one as well.
So maybe don't plan to ride as far or as fast as you usually would till you've got the measure of it 🙂
We tend to go on the local Sustrans no traffic routes, like trans pennine that we are familar with and know there are no gates etc. Been to Sherwood Pines and Clumber and there alright as long as it's fairly smooth. I put the fattest tyre i could find on the trailer as well which helped (holyroller).
Really depends how old/strong the kids are and happy to get bounced around a bit. We only use the trailer in the winter now, he goes in a bike seat on the back of my hardtail in the summer as he's higher up and can see more. He didn't really enjoy it much to be honest until he was about 18mth old but that may just have been the weather, he tended to fall asleep in the trailer if the going was smooth enough
With the trailer we found that even with the net cover down he still got covered in dirt so we had to pull down the full window bit.
I am guessing they would think bumpy would be great at first and then there would be much whining....
4 year old should be getting onto a trailer bike now, too big for a sit in. Trailer bike round Llandegla (blue) is great fun.
Problem I have is there is just me so if I want to take them both they both have to go in the trailer. It'll be fine for this summer and autumn I'm sure.
I had trailer rage on the weekend.
Riding up the cycle path, it narrows to just wide enough for two bikes to pass, next to a road, not too busy, but people drive fast.
A couple towing a trailer were coming down towards us at the widest part, where there is a junction. They could have stopped to wait less than 20s for us to get there, but they carried on two abreast with the trailer behind forcing the missus and I onto the road.
It wasn't busy, but that wasn't the point. They could have waited, but they chose to bully their way ahead because their rugrat was more important.
For that I label all kiddie trailer users ****s 👿
Before I had kids I would still have given right of way to it. They are far more fragile than you or your wife I am afraid.
canal towpath flat and smoothish + ducks and regular pub stops
I tow our children most weekends over Cannock Chase, mainly the fireroads though.