Re: Trailer Bike info

kingsley said:

Bought a trailer bike on the weekend...
here's my brane-dump before I forget it all:

There are a few brands available locally:

Burley - the 'Piccolo' ~ $900
Giant - 'Half-Wheeler' ~ $399
Adams - Trailer-Bike ~ $350 (also a tandem model)
Alley-Cat - Never saw one ~ (guess) $300
Pacific - $300 / $350
Some other brand $275

We borrowed a SS alley-cat, to make sure Katia (5) wasn't
going to say "I hate riding the trailer-bike". Tried it
out on a bikepath & she loved it.

Poking around on news & the web led me to believe the
usual failing point is the hitch with the bike. All trailers
except the Burley connect to the seatpost with various
different clamping mechanisms. The biggest problem reported
is the develpment of 'play' in the hitch. Supposedly the
Burley was immune to this, but I stopped considering it
as soon as I got the quote (from Greenspeed, the official Aus.
retailer).

Most of the lower-end trailer bikes are CrMo steel, and much
the same. Basically you need to spend around $300 to get anything.

When we borrowed the AlleyCat, it was given to us with
the seat+seatpost attached - this was a fairly good indication
as to how easily it detached.

Gears didn't interest me - when the kids are big enough to
get to grips with the gears, they'll probably want their
own full-size bike. This doesn't significantly affect your
choice, most trailer bikes can come with or without gears.

Our target application, apart from weekend riding, is to do
some siginificaqnt touring early next year. So we were definately
looking for something of quality. Also needed to attach a
rear rack & mud-guard.

We ended up buying the Giant one, but had to go home from the
bike shop (45mins each way) to see if, when connected, the
tow arm will clear the rack (50cm, 700C touring bike). It did!

The giant model is an Aluminium alloy rather than steel, and
feels significantly lighter than the others. The hitch is a
quick-release clamp, looks fairly robust (we'll see in 6 months).
The tow-arm is hinged in the middle, and folds back on itself...
thus it can fit inside the car (holden stationwagon), 'cause
these things are a bugger to put on a bikerack.

So, um, that's about it.

cheers,
-kt

Does anyone know of an LBS in melbourne that has a decent range of
trailer bikes. Ivanhoe is probably closest to me and they've usually
only got 2 or 3 and I don't want to spend a day going from shop to shop
trying to compare them all if I can help it (rather be out riding with
the family). Or is there just not the demand for anyone to have a large
stock of them?
Dave B.