I’ve got two bikes; an Anthem 29’er with a DT Swiss RWS rear skewer and a Boardman CX Team.

IF you were to be towing a kiddie trailer – with child on board – along a relatively flat trail, which one would be preferable?

Cheers

traction was the major issue if offroad so whcihever has the grippiest tyres if on road whichever you prefer

Either or – it would make no difference.

Boardman, towing with a FS bike is uncomfortable for all concerned. Sort of depends on how the tow bracket works too, but no suspension is best as the forces are all out of kilter with how the bike is designed to work.

What tyres do they have fitted?

I’ve got a Trek 1200 aluminium road bike and a pretty basic hardtail.

It is night and day better to tow on the road bike as long as it is something that the road tyres are okay for (anything up to canal path or old railway trail for the road tyres fitted on my bike). Funny really, because you’d think that the massive weight of the trailer would make so much difference that you’d not notice the difference between bikes.

On the road, with the road bike you notice the trailer a bit on the flat, but mostly only on hills, whereas the mountain bike feels like it is a constant drag.

Combination of mountain bike vs road tyres and the better position I think. The road bike just feels better to pedal against the extra drag. If I wanted to tow much with the mountain bike, I think I’d stick bar ends on it and maybe put slicker tyres on to try and make it more similar.

Oh, I didn’t notice you said a full sus; friend towed on his full carbon full on road bike, and on that the frame was flexing in a bad way, enough that the wheel came loose at one point, no way I’d tow on a suspension rear end.

I know for towing ours I use my 456, the MTBs gearing goes lower, it’s not so easy / comfortable to get out of the saddle graunch IME, so its better to be able to spin in a nice low gear, seated and balanced…

Acceleration is relatively ponderous and you’ll no doubt find that some relatively simple bits of trail / path can become quite complicated / slow / techy when you have a silly wide trailer to ease through…

Take some cushions / pillow for when they nod off as well…

Good fun though…

Whatever you’d otherwise ride on that trail. I’ve towed ours behind my carbon road bike and FS mountain bike with no trouble.

Given that the trailer attaches to the rear axle, I really wouldn’t worry about the forces invovled. After all, it’s the axle that transfers all the forces to the frame when peddling and braking normally. It’s true that there will be some twisting forces as the hitch is on one side, but then so is a disc brake, and that’ll generate far greater forces than the trailer.

IME a lot depends on how you want to be riding and which bike is more comfortable for you. When I’ve known the pace will be slow (riding with other kids) then I’ve often gone for a slower more comfy (to ride slowly) MTB. When I’ve wanted to shuffle along fairly quickly then the CX bike is often ideal.

The only issue with gears I’ve had is tweaking my patella tendon when pulling up hills with a singlespeed. As long as you’re sensible and remember the load you can be putting on yourself it’s fine with whatever though

Probably the boardman, what kind of coupling does the trailer have?

Cross bike, I tow my son with a full susser and often ride through potholes without thinking and things are a little less cushioned for him in the trailer 😳

Also, I’m not convinced the yo-yo tug of the trailer does much for my shock bushing life.

Whatever you’d otherwise ride on that trail. I’ve towed ours behind my carbon road bike and FS mountain bike with no trouble.

+1, and also +1 for the rest of what you said.

Though I still want to know what tyres.

Haven’t got a clue on the attachment as I’ll he hiring it in Padstow.

Tyre wise; CX has Ritchey Excavaders and the Anthem has a Fast Trak on the rear.

The one without rear suspension for the yo yo effect mentioned above…

Oh, if it’s a hire trailer the coupling’s likely to one of the useless clamp thingies that goes on the chainstay. This might not work at all with the position of your rear caliper on the boardman (they don’t on my Crosstrail which has a similar set-up). Might be worthwhile giving the hire shop a call.

Haven’t got a clue on the attachment as I’ll he hiring it in Padstow.

I’d find out IIWY. Some of the older trailers had attachments that clamped directly onto the frame which left attractive gouges. I personally prefer riding the CX bike with our trailer. It’s much easier on the road and when you do go off road you can’t go riding anything too radical as the trailers are easy to tip over unless you have one of these:

Those suggesting full sus doesn’t work well, have you actually tried it, or are you just assuming based on a flawed understanding of how a trailer interacts with a bike?

Haven’t got a clue on the attachment as I’ll he hiring it in Padstow.

Camel trail?

Word of warning, we got stung to hire a bike as well as a trailer, didn’t see one hire place that didn’t do it this way to be honest.

FWIW I use my CX bike towing the sprog. I don’t have a full suss but I choose the CX bike over my Soul because being rigid and stiff it helps keep me focussed on not getting too carried away and bouncing her all over the shop.

Those suggesting full sus doesn’t work well, have you actually tried it, or are you just assuming based on a flawed understanding of how a trailer interacts with a bike?

Yes – twin trailer with qr mount – horrible with full sus (yeti asr), great with ss hardtail (especially with fun bolts on hope hub), fine with ss cx (used most of the time to pick up children from nursery)
flawed understanding 🙄

aracer – Member
Those suggesting full sus doesn’t work well, have you actually tried it, or are you just assuming based on a flawed understanding of how a trailer interacts with a bike?

I’ve tried a FS (merida LRS), a Hardtail (456) and a CX bike (pompino) and I’ve settled on the pompino.

The FS was a pig going up hills with a bit of welly, loads of the yoyo effect between the back of the bike and the trailer – feels like a push just as you are inbetween stomps on the pedal (there is a spring arrangment in the hitch to ease out the power I think, has the opposite effect I find). Plus as mentioned before you forget to an extent how bumpy the stuff you are going over is.

The hardtail was on a par with the cx, harder due to the bigger tyres but it has lower gearing so I just ended up a bit slower off road but noticed it massively when on the road. You still get the yoyo when you stomp, but without the uppy-downy bit.

The CX excels on the road and with CX tyres is fine on red type stuff, I’ve gotten lazy and I’ve armadillos on for commuting all the time and I struggle starting off in the wet on muddy trails when both kids are in the trailer so you have to think about stopping places a little more.

Oh and the hitching attachment has never caught on anything, but it is there all the time on my set up, and the chances of it catching on the mtb’s is way higher than on the cx. The only pain with the pompino is that is has trackends, so the torque requires a proper 15mm spanner to keep everything in place unlike the normal mtbs.

Clearly experiences vary then – though the sprung bit on the hitch sounds like a bad idea for the reasons you mention, whatever bike it’s on. I’ve towed a trailer behind my full-sus (carbon short travel race) and didn’t find it a problem at all. Also found it worked just fine behind a carbon race bike on the road. I have even towed it behind my monocoque time trial bike (carbon – are you getting the theme?)

Yeah, you’ve got too much money 😉