I've been running my Dialled Bikes Love/Hate singlespeed for the past couple of years, more recently with rigid forks. It's been my 'family bike' and great fun; I've used it for towing our little one in the trailer, managing the North Face Trail in Grizedale on a fairly regular basis. (Don't worry, I only towed the trailer on the forestry road sections, then hitch him on to my wife's bike when I did the technical bits!)

Now we have a new little one, so we need to tow our youngest in the trailer, and I'm going to get a Wee Ride for our 2 year old. We won't be doing anything more tricky than cycle paths, but it will be good to get out on the bikes as a family.

We're up in the Lakes in a couple of weeks and I've realised I might struggle with the Wee Ride on a single speed bike. With the trailer being towed by the SS I could get up some pretty steep inclined by standing up and honking the pedals. With the wee ride I'm guessing I wound be able to power out of the saddle as my little passenger will be swinging around.

My idea is to stick a cassette on my rear wheel (it's currently a SS conversion kit), and get a rear mech, right hand shifter and full length outer cable (so I can quickly convert back to SS when needed), sticking with my 34T single front chainring.

I'm thinking of Shimano STX rear mech (£34.99 at CRC), STX right hand shifter (£23.99 at CRC) and a SLX 11-34 cassette (£29.99 at CRC) I've no previous experience with STX, but looking at the reviews it seems to be a good combination of value and build quality. Will this be a reasonable setup? Is it worth paying £5 extra for a GS rear mech for snappier shifting (and will it cope with the 11-34 tooth cassette)? Any other suggestions for good value but well-built set-ups? Will Deore be as good or is it worth paying for XT? Any other bargains to be had?

Any advice or previous experince would be really helpful.

*edit*
the suggested mech and shifter combo should read 'SLX' not 'STX'!
I'm guessing from the 1x 9 post that a shorter cage rear mech will be an advantage to reduce the chance of the chain jumping off the front ring.

SLX will be fine, very slightly heavier than XT but certainly should be at least as rugged.

As long as you have your chain shortened to the correct length you should be OK with either a GS or an SGS, but the GS will look neater. GS will be fine with an 11-34.

Deore will work fine too, just be slightly heavier. I don't know what the new Deore is like though.

The only potential problem is that you might find the chain falls off if you don't have some kind of chain device. Some people claim to never have this problem, but in general more people seem to need a chain device than don't. Unfortunately they are silly expensive for what they are – generally about £35-40.

Alfine? Then its a simple conversion back to SS and with the EBB frame you get a neat and effective alfine set up.

Thanks for the reply Poppa. I had wondered about needing a chain device. I was hoping I would get away with it as the chainset is single speed specific and so should have a taller tooth profile. I might take an old front mech away with me so I can use it as an emergency measure. I've just ordered a GS SLX mech so should get chance for a bit of fettling at the weekend.

A single-speed specific chainring and lots of chain tension should definitely help. Someone on here mentioned changing spacers to move their chainline further in too, might be worth trying if you find you do have problems.

As the lovely Teej says, I'd look at Alfine for even easier swapsies. Just more cost as it's a full wheel, etc. instead of just gearing. Neatest chain guide I've seen is the Pauls Components one – http://www.paulcomp.com/chainkeeper.html

Was looking at the Alfine option, but I think it'll cost a fair bit more and was a little concerned with the hassle of removing the wheel to change a flat. The one thing I've learnt cycling with young children is don't like waiting around!
I've ordered the SLX mech, cassette and right hand shifter. Just need to sick it all on the bike when It arrives.