Any experience of the trail gator?

[tomj]

I have just purchased a Tag-along type (half) bike for my five year old daughter.
Is it just me or is towing this type of thing a nightmare?
What can I expect when she gets used to it and starts to shuffle about on the move?

All very disconcerting after the excellent burley d'lite trailer.

Has anyone any experience of the trail gator?

Trail-Gator Child Bike Tow Bar

Regards

Tomj

[Adam]

I've used one of those Trail-Gators (in fact it's still in the garage somewhere).  My son (now 13) really enjoyed being tagged along.  I think I first starting using it when he was 5 or so until 7 or 8.

You're right that you've got to make sure your daughter doesn't lean over too much as that really unbalances the system.

Also, you've got to carefully plan sharp turns again linked in with the passenger leaning, so the trick is to get them to be looking ahead and trying (hopefully) to anticipate what's coming up.

You can tell when they're not pedalling, but even so it didn't seem too much of an extra effort otherwise, although I never did any really big hills.  The big advantage of the Trail Gator over a tag along is that when you get to your destination, you can fold away the bar onto your bike, and half pint can then pedal around on their own.

[RJ]

Towing a tag-along takes a bit of getting used to.  I've no direct experience of using a trail-gator - but they look (to me) a lot even less stable than a trailer-bike, with the child leaning back at an alarming angle.  Others may differ, of course.

[Oaky]

I've used a trailgator for Acorn #1 for several years.

I don't find there's much "slop" in the connection at all.  The only detectable movement in out system is where the pin connects the two halves of the bar, and that's very slight.

Acorn #1 does try her best to rock it around too.

You do need to make sure everything is torqued up tight though.

[hatler]

I've used an Adams trailer-bike quite a bit with both the minis.

It's not the best thought out design but it is moderately well engineered. Yes, there is a bit of slop, but it did wonders for the minis' comprehension of what it means to be on a bike and how to pedal.

I've not used a trail-gator though. Some certainly seem to be fitted pretty badly where the kid's front wheel is way off the ground. That can't help proceedings at all.

[a lower gear]

Only used a tag-along. Great intro to longer rides for my two smaller gears when about age 6 to 8 but a disconcertingly unstable addition to the bike, even when my smaller gears learnt to stop swinging about. Decided that it was too dangerous for road use and confined it to cycle paths. When my smaller gears did pedal they made an appreciable difference to the power output; it was no real hassle to just pull them along the rest of the time. I'm told that a narrow wheeled bike (mine is 700c) is much more affected by the oscillations from the tag-along than a wider wheeled bike: can anyone confirm or correct this?

[RJ]

Can't really comment on tyre-size effects.  If a factor, it won't be the only variable - weight and strength of the pilot will influence things too (speaking as a bit of a lardarse on - at the time - 26 x 1.75s). 

Road use (in town) was OK.  Our school run includes a short chunk of A7, though with a cycle lane at that point.

The main drawback was that (in the temporary absence of a bike of his own) FirstBorn forgot how to balance on two wheels by himself, having got used to leaning to one side or the other on the trailerbike - though that too was only a temporary effect, I'm glad to say.

There are considerable advantages in having trailerbike levels of control over the speed of one's offspring's journey to school 

[alexb]

I've had an Adams Trailerbike for the last 4 years or so, one kid's outgrown it and the other loves it to bits. For me it's OK when they're small, but when they get bigger and heavier then any serious movement from them threatens to have the pair of you into the ditch.
I find it makes the steering much more effort and I don't actually think my wife could control the bike at all if we added the Adams to her bike.

That said we've had some great times with it and my youngest loves it to bits and the eldest is very jealous and upset that she can no longer use it.