Has anyone tried one of the cheap kid bike trailers from Halfords? They’re £75 in store. There’s no way I can afford a Croozer for 5x the price but I don’t want to waste my money on a cheap one either:

Link

Mini Bucko is nearly 5 months now and I’d love to take home up and down the canal paths in Exeter and around the blue trail on Haldon. I may have to put some gears on my Inbred too but I will give it a go SS first just to see if I for or not

Have never used a kiddy trailer before but that looks good. Surely they wouldn’t be allowed to sell it if it wasn’t fit for purpose. will probably be heavier than the expensive ones though. I’d go for it if my kids weren’t too big for one now!

Just bought a second hand one never used, looks pretty good for the cash to me, yet to take the little one out in it but seems sturdy enough

i had one – it was ace! Loved it

There’s loads of similar looking one on eBay for under £100 that come with an extra little front wheel and a handlebar so you can convert it into a stroller but I hate buying things that I can’t see in the flesh first, especially cheap things on eBay that are probably imported from China.

I would love a sexy lightweight one that could be sold on for a good price in a couple years but my wallet just lets me down

@rob jackson, was that the Halfords special?

We went for the ST3 model from these people

http://www.adventurebikes.co.uk/trailers

for £170 it’s perfect, really robust and not too heavy. Now the kids are too big I use it for lugging logs around. Fully recommended.

Edit: Just thought, if you can get one with a reclining seat. Our kids used to instantly fall asleep in the trailer and reclining would have made them much more comfortable.

Hello Bucko.. long time no see

congrats on the new arrival.. I bet you’re loving the world

I got hold of a knackered old third hand trailer that was deffo at the budget end when new, probably a similar quality to the halfords jobbie..
It was fine for strapping a baby seat into and pootling around.. I didn’t have any worries with it..

Now that mine are both a bit bigger, and I need to be able to carry both of them and their bikes too, I invested in an expensive trailer from the top brand and was very surprised and a bit disappointed to see that there wasn’t a huge amount of difference in the construction techniques and overall quality, although perhaps the material used is a good deal more hardwearing..

I say go for it..

I bought my Croozer used for £200. It’s brilliant, and I will get back most of my money when I eventually sell it.

We had one like that but a bit wider with 2 sets of straps, with all the same fittings end tube shapes/profiles, just a different colour: it was an “Avenir” brand from Argos a few years ago also £70 iirc.

It was fine, as above the kids heads went floppy when they fell asleep but otherwise it was just fine really. The canopy bars clip together at the top to fold into the main frame, and so it will fold up really small, no larger than the square footprint of the frame and maybe 8″ high. It has a fabric bottom but it was pretty robust and didn’t let water in. If you ride on a nice day with the flyscreen on but the rain cover rolled up your kids get dusty faces. Only other thing is you need some sort of 10mm axle and nds dropout which is flat (not cowled like say ritchey ones) and with an extra few mm around the lever to fit the hitching thingy on. You can also buy spare hitches for less faff if you plan on using it on more than one bike, or you lose it!

Oh, having looked after it nicely, we also sold ours on ebay for almost as much as we paid for it.

I had the Halfords one and it was good. It got used on and off road(fire tracks etc) and survived.

Hi Neil, not out at lustleigh yet then..?

we had the same model (edit but double trailer) for ours, (£69iirc) it survived both our two, and we’ve since lent it to 2 friends with kids, still going strong!
when they were really young we propped ours up with pillows etc to make them more comfy/safe, as it can get pretty bumpy and corners must be harsh for their little necks!

mine used to fall straight to sleep pretty much all of the time so it can’t have been that bad.

I’ve got the double Halfords one (you can also buy a little wheel and handle to turn it into a double buggy) which is great for my needs. I tow it offroad most days to get the kids to the child minders, it’s relatively light and very durable. Attaching it to the bike is easier than a Burley and it folds easier as well.

Thanks for all the responses guys. I went out for a ride shortly after starting this thread this morning, then had car problems, followed by mowing the lawn and then family time type stuff. I completely forgot about it until now.

I’ve gone for a Spokey Joe trailer in the end, purely because we had loads of Tesco vouchers waiting to be used so it only cost us about £50. I’m sure it will be fine for the job of getting the family down the canal or around the family stuff at Haldon.

@Yunki, it has been a while. I saw that Toys was trying to get hold of you the other day, have you moved back to Exmouth? I have never ridden on Woodbury but I used to walk the dog there all the time and I always used to come across trails.

@carl, my sunroof stuck open when I was getting diesel en route to Lustleigh so I bailed out and did a shorter ride on Haldon so that I could get it sorted. I’m off work until 3rd of May so i’ll have other opportunities to get up there.

Cheers again for the replies everyone