Are trail gators any good?

I have a 5 year old and was thinking of getting a trail gator to get out and about together. Just wondering what your experiences are, are they any good? Would just be for towpaths, and getting to the park etc. Thanks!

You want a Follow Me, you do – much beefier. I’ve just got one to try with Mini Cooper on holiday.

i had a trailgator, it did the job ok and was fairly cheap. was handy enough to leave on my bike all the time, and just hook the kid up when necessary.

I had one. They’re okay if a little hefty and over engineered. Two things, the head tube bracket for the child’s bike needs to be bolted very tightly to prevent rotation, which ruins the paint. Also, to keep the front wheel of the child’s bike clear of uneven ground, the whole front end does need to be hoisted up quite far, which lifts the child further from the ground.

Fine for Center Parcs, towpaths or Sustrans stuff. I fitted bar end mirror to keep an eye on the wee one.

I always thought the raised front wheel would be at risk of grounding on any kind of bump, also the headtube of the small bike can get badly gouged.

We went for an Adams Trail-a-bike which is ok – the clamp onto your seatpost is a bit of a lump, and it’s not much better than BSO quality but this is entirely acceptable, plus it means you can get them for under £100. If your kid is particularly small though it can be a struggle to fit. However you can remove the bars and fit them backwards if you need to make it smaller. There’s also a seat back you can get to strap them in, possibly meaning they don’t need the bars (not tried that).

Just got a free trail gator off some friends, but I had to go find a seat clamp bit as that was apparently attached to someone else’s bike somewhere, need to set it up today on my 4 Year olds bike. Not totally sold as all the pictures seem to suggest they towed bike ends up in permanent wheely position, could make her awesome at manuals perhaps?

Years ago both our girls were towed around most of the trail centres we had at the time. Once they are set up tight they work fine. Did away with the rod that holds the bars. The elevated front wheels helps it over obstacles. You need to keep an eye on the rider to ensure they are still on the bike. I remember coming down the Red Bull with Abigale doing a superman behind me and the her bike hanging over the side on the Marin Trail. Didnt do her any physical damage. Did wonders for my legs.

They are good if you manage your expectations a bit – it’s just a big scaffolding bar hung off the back of your bike, so it’s not going to offer a sophisticated mechanism for towing a kid’s bike. Need to ride with care, but we had some great rides with it overall.

Beware of kids falling asleep and falling off the back! Easily done, particularly if they’ve done some cycling and are having a rest on the trail-gator.
Second downshep’s comment on clamping it to the bike’s headtube – it needs to go on very tight and will score the paint. If they’ve got a smart bike then you’ll prob want to avoid this.

We’ve finished with ours – free to pick up S Manchester if anyone wants it.

Bagsey that please!

Just sending an E-mail now.

IH

Right, now I’ve hopefully dibbs that…

We have 1 and it’s great, was planning to buy another as #2 kid is too big for a trailer.

It massively extends the range you can do with kids (literally) in tow.

I used an old road tyre to help preserve the headtube on the kids bike and you need quite a bit of force to attach properly because if you don’t the bike behind twists badly.

I have a old cheapo seatpost & saddle to go on my bike with the attachment for towing duties as it can be a bit in the way on a longer spin.

If you’re going to be towing little un permanently then you’re best bet is to get hold of a decent tag along I reckon (and it just so happens I’ve got a Trek mountain train going spare :roll:)

My youngest is too old/big for the tag along, we use the trail gator now for when she gets tired on longer rides, usually around the 10 mile mark. As others have said it needs to be reet tight on the headtube so you may want to take some sort of precaution if junior has a decent bike. Works really well for what we use it for though.

It really depends what you’re looking for. I for instance want my son to ride as much as possible and will only tow him when it’s too dangerous, or he’s to tired to cycle alone. Hence I use a trailgator.

Yes, they are fine. They do encourage bad habits a bit though. My youngest had one and used to like to listen to his slightly older bro’s and go no-handed waving all over the place (I only found out through a rear facing go-pro).

We did have a lot of fun with it though. Happy days.

Thanks all, some useful info and a couple of alternatives to look at. Overall seems most have found them good. Cheers stw!

I for instance want my son to ride as much as possible

When my youngest is confident enough to ride her 16″ the tag along is history. We’ll keep the rides short enough for her.

Best to get hold of a cheap donor bike, as the clamp would make a right mess in something nice. Check out any local cycling charities, they may have one. If your local to Lichfield I have a couple that are heading to the tip tomorrow.

12″ ridgeback for sale here BTW.

I found that you have to have them really, really tight and well set up or they lean to one side, badly.

As do some tag alongs.

Neither sets them up for balancing this way well.

We bought a cheap tag along due to this, and it proved a great investment, and had seen many, many miles of blue (and red!) routes, natural rides, road and pottering before we sold it for £10 less than we paid…

the clamp would make a right mess in something nice.

I put several layers of gaffer tape on the frame before fitting the clamp and there was minimal damage to the paintwork.

If you have a torque wrench make sure that you do the bolts up to the required torque, the whole thing works a lot better if you do 😀

The follow me recommended above is brilliant. Ours is just coming to the end of its useful life for us as our four year old can do ten flat ish miles.

It allowed us to cycle all sorts of places with both our boys that would have been out of reach without. At first even just the couple of miles to the local marina where there’s boats to watch and a nice play park,good coffee and cake.

It’s not cheap mind and ours was a gift from my folks so it will probably go to my sister whose kids are a bit younger. If it does four kids it’ll easily have paid for itself and build quality wise it will easily do another few.