Tag-along options for 4 yr old

Monkey jnr recently turned 4 and is happy burning around on his Islabike 16. Would like to take him off-road but with me being the engine. Tag-along / Trailgator options being considered as he’s not yet ready to be let loose just by himself.

A mate recommended a Trailgator yesterday but he only uses on pavements and doesn’t go more than a mile or two. Seem to be quite a few negative comments re angle etc, so this isn’t topping my list so far.

Would consider a cheap bike (for an arm) as don’t fancy trashing the Islabike’s head tube.

What do you find works and doesn’t work?

Ta

EDIT: We also have a Croozer but he’s bloomin’ heavy in that nowadays, especially on granny climbs. No longer going to use this.

When sweajnr is a bit older I’ve got my eye on one of these….Followme tandem

I’ve got a giant half wheeler. It’s light alloy an I haven’t snapped it. It only gets used off road.

The key is getting them to stand before they bet bucked off!

Keep an eye for second hand Islabike trailerbikes, we have one and it’s very good. You’ll need rack mounts though as it fixes to a custom rack.

I’ve been very impressed with the trail gator – got it recently with relatively low expectations as I’d read about the kid leaning all over the shop.
It’s worked great for me – tarmac, forest roads, nae bother (going slow though). Daughter is 3 and a bit (although a hefty specimen) on a small 14 inch bike, so maybe that’s a good age for it, don’t know.

I’ve got an Adams trail-a-bike. It’s pretty big, he’ll need to be a decently sized kid to ride it. Also, he needs to be able to sit still and keep his weight central, because if they move around it ends up being a white knuckle ride for daddy…

We bought a second hand 12″ bike for my eldest and the headtube paint was quite trashed from Trailgator use, so take appropriate precautions.

Tandem. Nothing else come close. It’s the difference between driving an estate car and pulling a caravan.

And then when Tired2 got too large for the babyseat, it was tandem plus burley Piccolo. Now that was heavy, but rode pretty well.

Tandem if you can find one. The best £500 you will spend on a bike.

We’ve got an Adventure Ditto One which we used with our eldest a bit, but haven’t really used with our youngest at all (also 4). The problem we found was that most of the tagalongs we looked at were too big, so by the time they could fit on them they were pretty much riding everything themselves. The youngest is very independent and rides most stuff off-road fine, so all I use now is a long climbing sling which I clip between his bars and my rucksack for towing him up boring fireroads. I’m not even sure we’ll use the tagalong.

Follow me.
Job done
Wallet emptied 😆

We’ve been given an old Trek Mountain Train, which has been great for my 4 year old, on and off road. Don’t know if they are still available, but probably plenty around second hand.

Weehoo. More than robust enough for offroad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwNQmWJ2Rys

I have a follow me tandem.

Pretty good on tame off road. It did come adrift going through the bomb holes at Dalby once*

I’d recommend it.

*no children were harmed in the making of this crash.

Trailgator for cost and simplification and they just work when done up tight.

Follow Me is an option. Actually scrap that you want a follow me and I have my sisters in the garage to sell. Never used it myself as we already had two trailgators.

Follow Me tagalong for sale by tomlevell[/url], on Flickr

How much for the follow me, Tom?

I used a Universal tag-a-long for my youngest and it was brilliant. Probably the best bit of biking kit i’ve bought in a smiles per miles way. From long gentle rides to red graded trails at a fair old lick with no problems. Little guy loved it and it was a good workout for me too. Only slight downside was the affect it had on his solo riding. He was slow to take up riding on his own (probably too much effort) and without me to keep him upright he’d lean his bike over too much and fall off easily.

Mines for sale but the postage would be more than i’m looking for it.

Tom I’d be very interested in that FollowMe

£150 posted?
Obviously order of posting above.

Has it got the mudguard and frame bracket?

It’s the previous version without the plastic guard.
Complete with bracket.
I removed all the bits from sister bikes.
Bits are taped in a bag to the frame.
Also have a printed out version of the instructions.

This one

The newer version

We have a FollowMe. It is WAY BETTER than any other towing system that we have used. It is not cheap, but it is robust, torsionally stiff, and the wee bike can easily be disconnected.

It obviously isn’t designed for serious off-road use (what is?), but it has been fine for trail centre stuff and singletrack stuff like the Glenvale descent in the Lomonds

Go on, I’ll take it. Email in profile. Cheers.