Child bicycle trailer?

[Quattro Pete]

Kid will be over 12 months old by this Spring, and I love biking, so I've started to look for a bicycle trailer for him. This InStep one so far caught my attention:

http://amzn.com/B002QAZ8WC

Any feedback on it or any other trailers that you can recommend?

My bike is an older Schwinn mountain bike. I'm looking for a trailer that's safe and relatively easy to attach to the bike.

Thanks!

 

[Andrew1972]

Try used first as your child may hate it or love it.

I am too chicken to take my child on the road given I have been hit before. But maybe you have some nice wide neighborhood roads.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: madRiver
Try used first as your child may hate it or love it.

Thanks. Nothing good on my local CL. But if I don't like the one from Amazon, I can always return it, so I'm not worried about it.

Quote:
But maybe you have some nice wide neighborhood roads.

We have quite a bit of paved sidewalks/bike trails all around. Not planning to actually bike on the road with him.

 

[Virtus_Probi]

We loved our Burley trailer and bought the kit to let us use it as a stroller, basically installed a front wheel that flipped up easily when we were attaching it to a bike. We bought a double unit because the single looked too cramped to us and never actually carried two kids in there at once. My wife sold that thing for a pretty good percentage of what we paid for it, too.

As for safety, we did have a minor incident with ours. We were riding on a converted railbed and I was going at a fair clip on a flat section. I noticed a large rock sticking out of the trail too late and tried to skim it with my wheels so it would go between the tires on the trailer. The Burley still caught enough of the rock on one side to turn over on its side...my wife completely flipped out and ran screaming over to the trailer. Our daughter was crying and wouldn't stop even after my wife calmed down...we finally realized that she was MAD about us stopping and taking her out because she was enjoying the ride so much!
Not much chance of her getting hurt with the 5 point harnessing in the Burley, and the trailer itself was very rugged. There was even enough room in the back for us to carry a portable potty when our daughter was in training...

 

[IndyIan]

We got a used chariot cougar stroller and got the bike attachment, along with the jogging front wheel, and drum brakes. It was like $400 used and I'd get it again for sure.
It might be near $1k now for all the goodies new, but if you keep it good shape you can always sell it for atleast half or more. The chariot is great on trails and has big enough wheels that going through tall grass isn't too hard, also the adjustable suspension was good too for more trail running.
We used to take all the wheels off and put it into a sled and take the kid icefishing too, all zipped up it was warm and wind proof.

 

[JHZR2]

We have one that looks almost exactly like that. Got it from Costco a few years ago. Our child loves it. Works great on mtb and road bikes.

 

[Astro14]

Many years ago, we had a Yakima version, called the "Caddyak" or something like that. The kids loved it. It wasn't cheap, but it was easy on/off folded up for storage and rode well.

 

[Gasbuggy]

I know what I would get

 

[Wheel]

I used to have a Cannondale trailer. It seated 2, which makes for quite a workout. A bike with decent brakes is a must.

One of my boys liked it, the other was indifferent. I liked that I could at least do some riding and give my wife a bit of a break.

I also trailered my old dog in it here and there. She LOVED it !
I've since passed the trailer on to my friend who had similar luck with his 3 kids and it. 2 in favor, one indifferent to riding.

Make sure you ALL have on a helmet.