Trail gators for kids

Any experience of these[/url]?

Can they be used on easy off road stuff?
Fit with disc brakes?
Easy/quick to install/remove?

Anyone got one to sell?

Ta

Most seem to allow the kids bike to twist off to one side – child ends up pedalling a bike leaning 20* to the left….Not so good.

We used a proper tag along – old Schwinn one – and after a couple of additions (I wedged a couple of ‘washers’ made from old margarine tubs in the joint at the front) it worked brilliantly. No leaning, or rattling. Took our kids round all sorts of local rides, right up to red routes at Nanty-Arian, Mabie, Dalbeattie, Kirroghtree, Carron Valley and even bits at Wolftrax.

I would thoughroughly recomend a proper tagalong – and a cheap, strong seatpost (OnOne did one that was ace). I broke 3x seatposts through the years.

Ta. Got an old tag along, but off to the Alps in the van in the summer and this would allow us to take her bike.

Any experience of these?
Yes.

Can they be used on easy off road stuff?
Never got that far. As matt says, Thump’s bike kept twisting off to one side and then undertaking me on the inside. Corners were tricky as the turning circle is huge – assuming the kid’s bike doesn’t twist during the turn and throw him off!

Fit with disc brakes? Yep.

Easy/quick to install/remove?
Took me 4hrs in total – mainly trying to get the angle sorted on Thump’s bike but never got everything working so he wouldn’t undertake me.

Anyone got one to sell?
I’m not selling mine as it makes a very useful monkey-lever for undoing bottom brackets.

trail-gator leaning issue can be cured with washers too, as i’ve done

I’ve used one round Glentress blue and Llandegla Red on several occasions. They can be used with disc brakes, and are easy to fit/remove once you attached the brackets to both bikes (which can be ridden while fitted)

I do have one to sell

Top dog – how much little are you after.
Guessing the email in your profile isn’t real………

£15 + carriage
russell at carson.tk

What sort of condition is it in?
All bits present and correct?
Not going to be Keswick any time soon are you?

It has been well used, but works better than new with the mod.

I can send pictures if you like.

Not going to be near Keswick

The beauty of the tailgator is you can use it to haul junior up the climbs and take it off to let them go down on their own.

Have to say, we never had any problems with the leaning thing.

i have to say never had leaning issues.

Had no probs hauling my lad about off road you just have to think a little

I had leaning issues at first but ten minutes with a spanner sorted that out – it needs to be properly tight. Far more useful than a taglong for me, as it mean I could tow him to the park, then let him loose to play around, then tow him home again safely under control

got one, set up took a while and now works great, BIG turning circle. great for getting somewhere for little one to mess around on own. never used off road much.

used one hear when youngest was learning. No leaning issues when set up right. Rode loads of Mugdock, Cairngorm and Glentress red/blue with no real problems. The only downside was that he got lazy and wanted pulled all the time 😆

[/url]
29er with trailgator[/url] by pten2106[/url], on Flickr

Never had an issue with leaning. The mounts have to be very tight, but all the fittings etc are fairly robust. Get an old seatpost & seat. It will make a mess of the head tube / frame on the childs bike, so we got an old clunker for him to use. Great because it can be folded up letting them ride alone if they want to. He’s happier on his own now, but I would highly recomend one.

To those with bad leaning issues…did you use the fork brace…?

We use the follow-me-tandem (think of a frame which turns the child’s bike into a BOB trailer), which handles brilliantly, doesn’t lean the child’s bike over and also undoes very easily.

Unfortunately this last point is it’s undoing offroad – though to be fair the only time it actually let go was doing some bomb holes on the Dalby red – and our little boy was fine as he was in the LOCT on my bike at the time.

Not cheap though.

Igm, let me know if you’re thinking of of loading your follow me anytime soon.
I want one for my daughter this summer but can’t stomach the £200…

Bad news – our elder one will be off it in the not too distant future, but the younger of our two was one last week, so it won’t be soon.

Sorry.

If you ring Cyclesense in Tadcaster (they are one of the importers – I think Velorution is the other) then they might know if anyone they sold one to will be growing out of it – they are a small shop and the owner has a good memory. Or perhaps I just think he does as we bought the first Follow-Me they ever sold.

It has been well used, but works better than new with the mod.

I can send pictures if you like.

Not going to be near Keswick

Yes please
andytrousers@hotmail.com