Mention and You Shall Receive!

"We were dreaming this up and suddenly it's another new reality," my wife just said, as I was about to begin writing this blog post. Remarkably, we had the idea only a few days ago, really wanted to get one, and suddenly we have it and are using it. 

With many thanks to my friend Brian and his family who read my previous blog post about Tag-a-Long ride-on bike trailers. He had one he used for two years for his young son but it became a bit too wobbly so he gave it to us. His son is big enough to ride on his own now, and I happen to be handy, so it all worked out. Turns out all it needed was a large thin washer to fill in a tiny gap in the hitch to make it work well.

Don't be fooled by my daughter's apparent grim expression in the photo, she had a blast and would NOT let me stop. I had a personal trainer back there yelling, "Come on, Daddy, pedal! You can do it!" The little tramp wouldn't let me coast. And in spite of the trailer being a tad big for her 2-months-shy-of-four-year-old body, she could have gone all night and had no problem holding on.

Here are the questions I had before using a Tag-a-Long that I can now answer:

• Do you lose your balance? Not at all. Maybe it's because I'm so heavy and she so small, but it wasn't an issue. Once she wobbled back and forth on purpose and it was a bit annoying but there were no balance issues at all. 
• Is it harder to ride pulling it? A little, not much different than our sit-in bike trailer with the only difference being sometimes my daughter made up for the drag by pedalling. It was like there's a bit of a drag on your bike that varies. It varies because the child's pedalling varies. 
• Can you turn sharply? Yes, she even liked turns because it was thrilling.
• Is it hard to get started? Not really. The adult straddles their bike then the child sits on the trailer bike. Then you go. It's not that different than not having it and there were no issues.
• Does the child's pedalling help? I'd say yes. At brief moments she made up for her extra drag it seemed.

You have to do some extra breaking than normal when you're stopping but that's no big deal. It's tempting to want to go fast but if you crash, your child crashes. We went about 15 KM/hr.

I highly recommend these types of products. They're recommended for children between 4 and 9. But for practical purposes, most people only use them until their kids can ride a two-wheeler. By the time she's six or seven, I can't see her needing to use this. 

This unit costs $100 at Canadian Tire. Sport Chek has a slightly better one for $130. Other stores carry more expensive models but this one is just fine with the extra washer (so far.)

She was very proud of herself.

Tonight is the eve of my son's eighth birthday. He's an avid little cyclist now and I'm immensely proud of him. I think he's a bit jealous that his daddy-son bike trips now can include his baby sister. It's our thing, after all. But my wife and I felt bad doing family bike rides with my daughter sitting pretty in the other sit-in bike trailer. My daughter wants to ride badly with us but can't keep up, obviously. This is a great solution.

I'm very happy and so is my little girl, who has informed me we'll be hitting the streets first thing tomorrow.