Tag alongs advice and experiences

Our 3 year old is getting towards the attention and comfort limits of his rack mounted seat and given his good balance bike skills combined with pedaling skills on the plastic trike I am thinking that getting him.on a tag along over the next few months would be a good plan.

Looking for views from those who are or have been down this route already on any of….
– whether i am trying too young / what the right start age or ability is
– best kit / value for money
– pitfalls and problems and mistakes to avoid.

Thanks

2 main differences:
He can’t go to sleep – even a little bit.
He MUST hold on.

Make sure he understands. There is nothing worse then finishing a 25 mile ride, only to have to turn around a retrace your steps looking for a missing tag-alonger…

I think mine was a bit older, 4 at least. Mistake I made was to buy new…. Used a fair amount but not enough really. Got a folding one which was good to put back of car, no gears, sorry cant remember make. Took her off road on a few local trails for training purposes, that was interesting, don’t think my little one approved!

http://islabikes.co.uk/why/press_pdfs/CTC11.GearUp.v2.PEND.pdf

I bought one of these as the hitch is much better than a seat post mounted one and used it from when my son was just 3

You just need one of these – http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/120897389006?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&adtype=pla

Cheap bike & a trailgator. They can wobble around solo & get hooked up when tired then.

Saw a dad and daughter with a tag along on GT blue yesterday – shrieks of delight from her and one of the biggest grins I have ever seen

We had two, made by Adams I think. I wouldn’t recommend them for the simple reason that the hitch allowed the trailer to flop from side to side, which was extremely disconcerting for me as the engine. It has a strange arrangement with a tapered block for joining to the hitch, which is never tight enough to prevent movement and there’s movement in the other parts of the system as well.

On one occasion I was pulling away at a roundabout and I set off less than smoothly, jerking the bike to one side a little. The exaggerated movement of the trailer caught our child by surprise and threw him off in front of a car, which luckily stopped in time.

So in my opinion the first criterion for buying a tag along should be the design of the hitch. The rest doesn’t matter as much!

My three year old loves the trailgator and the five year old can get an uplift then unhitch for the flat /downhill

Mine was also older. I bought a second hand tagalong from parsley hay. Only used it on trails as we live near high peak and tissington trails, so road safety not an issue. Did make a difference when he pedalled.

However, now sitting unused – he soon graduated to a bike – and I’ve lost a critical bit!

I’d look at a trail gator.

Thank you all. Good stuff to.think on and look at.

What about a FOLLOW ME?