In about 6 weeks my youngest starts childcare and I am going to have to drop both kids off in the morning. The eldest who is now 3 will be starting at a new nursery which is probably about 10 mins walk accounting for her slow speed, and then it is a further 10 mins at adult pace to the next place.

One option is for me to put the youngest on my existing rear bike seat and walk them both to the nearer destination, me wheeling the bike along, drop off my eldest and then ride the rest of the way with wee ‘un on the bike, then leaving me free to ride the rest of the way to work. Only safety issue is simultaneously keeping the bike upright and keeping the eldest kid away from the busy road I’d be walking by.

Option 2 is to get a double bike trailer, drop them off in the same order and then leave the trailer at the further away destination which is where Mrs Teapot will pick them up of an evening. She ride a bike so we’d need one where you can stick a front wheel on the trailer and use it as a buggy to get the kids home. Also saves me hauling 20+kg of trailer up the hills of Bristol as I go onward to work.

So my question – how long does it take to whip a trailer off a bike with QRs and stick a front wheel on it? Any other opinions/considerations for them? Would be using with my CX bike.

So my question – how long does it take to whip a trailer off a bike with QRs and stick a front wheel on it? Any other opinions/considerations for them? Would be using with my CX bike.

I’ve got a Burley trailer for 2 kids. You can get a wheel that goes on to turn it into a stroller. It just drops down when needed and gets folded up when attached to the bike. It takes seconds to attach / disconnect the trailer from a bike. Like this:

D’Lite™

I’ve got the Adventure AT3 double trailer with stroller kit. Not too bad to hook up the front wheel and convert – but leaving the handle fitted was the biggest problem for us, ’cause it stopped it folding flat (and we needed the space). Not a problem now as the kids are all too big for it and I’ve got a garage for it to hang up collecting dust in!

Worth noting that certainly the Adventure one is quite wide – no problem when using it in the great outdoors, but I wouldn’t want to have used it going in and out of shops say.

The Thule/Cougar ones have two wheels on the front for buggy use – they stow upright in the same holes for bike use. Easy job to take off the bike bar (although it’s an awkward shape to store anywhere) and switch to buggy mode.

Hope you’ve got a big buggy store at nursery though, they’re huge.

We have a chariot (old version), the double is pretty much the same.

The stroller wheels and draw bar (for use as a trailer) both remove and stow on board when not being used. It doesn’t take long to remove them but altogether (including fully collapsing the chariot to leave it at nursery in the buggy store) I stopped using the chariot for nursery drop offs and use a Hamax seat over the back wheel instead.

when we have two at nursery for a short while I will probably use both the Chariot and Hamax or maybe the Hamax and a MacRide. That’ll be interesting. Or we may buy a double chariot for a while.

I’m currently at Center Parcs and using a friend’s double trailer with handle and third wheel.
We’re using it as a bike trailer, rather than a buggy type thing, but hitching it to the bike takes <1min and the front wheel just slides in and out.
The hardest bit is un/hitching it if there’s no one to hold the bike upright.
You can do it by leaning it against a wall. A side stand might help.
Unhitching it actually easier than hitching it, because you just need to pull the lockpin out and pull the joining pieces apart. Hitching takes a bit more jiggling and alignment of the components to make sure they are aligned.
This is one of the Aldi trailers that look the same as the Halfords ones.
Perhaps the more expensive options would be easier to hitch.

As per tomD.

We’ve got the same trailer. Unclip lanyard, flip retaining clip, pull pin, pull pull trailer eye from hitch, quick tug on the folded up wheel to take it out of the “up” position and it falls down and springs into the down position. Clip the lanyard back to stop it dragging on the floor.

Quicker than pulling a D lock out of your bag and locking up your bike.

It is a big thing thing, though. Not really for inside use, if that matters. You’d be OK round a big supermarket, probably, but anything smaller and you’re going to struggle.

leave the trailer at the further away destination which is where Mrs Teapot will pick them up of an evening.

Is there plenty of room? I’d use the trailer for taking ours into nursery, but the buggy store is pretty small. I don’t think the trailer would fit in unfolded, and would still take up quite a bit of space folded with the wheels and hitch arm off. And would be a faff twice a day

The furthest drop would be at our childminder’s house so I need to negotiate leaving it there with her. Can almost certainly just leave it in her front yard so may have to lock it to something. Waterproofing would be paramount in that case.

Folding the whole thing down might be the killer time-wise as I don’t have anywhere under cover at home that I can keep it without folding it.

Not sure the budget can stretch to a Burley/Thule jobbie. The Adventure AT6 is £230 plus £50 for the stroller conversion and a tenner for a full on rain cover so that or second hand might have to be the solution.

Would you hae to collapse it down every day when you store it at nursery? If so, the Aldi ones have several pins etc so would take a bit of time and whilst the likes of the Thule ones are quicker, i’m not sure how much all the bits would wear if you did it every day.

If you end up going down the Thule root, i got mine (Chariot Cougr 2) rediculously cheap from Addnature in Germany for £422 delivered. Given they sell for pretty much that secondhand i was pretty happy wiht it.

Its lovely to tow and a lot more comfortable for the little man with its adjustable suspension

Also saves me hauling 20+kg of trailer up the hills of Bristol as I go onward to work.

I have the Burley D’lite linked to upthread, with the stroller accessory. I found it fairly easy to use; drop the stroller wheel down then unattach from the bike. You need to put the arm one notch further back. The trailer itself is a brilliant bit of kit; you can adjust the suspension each side (ideal for kids of differing weights) plus there’s loads of room in the boot for all their crap.

I live in Bristol so you’re welcome to have a look. Guess this is a bit of a stealth ad ;).

Jump on that stealth ad, tomd! I spent months looking around for a decent one second hand, they seemed to either be 70% of what you could find them for new, or really tatty. A trip away came up that we definitely wanted it for, so ended up buying new – best price I found was from Parker’s of Bolton.

The Burleys are good. Definitely recommended.

I have to say our burly d lite is great for our 2 boys and the stroller wheel just folds out of the way while towing so takes seconds to convert. As has been said above it’s a big bit of kit but really comfy and easy to manoeuvre. It collapses down flat with in about a minute.

You’re welcome to try my chariotcougar 2 in Manchester. Pop the wheels off, pop them in again upside down. Unhitch the both from bike and trailer.

45 seconds perhaps if you weren’t in a hurry

PS. it’s also for sale

Thanks for replies all. Ransos you should have a PM.

My mate has one. It is vast compared with normal double buggies, and tbh I don’t know how much they use it as a bike trailer.