# Best bike for hauling a child trailer?



## Just Sam (Feb 24, 2004)

We had our first last December and she has been cleared by the Dr. to ride in a bike trailer. I'm going this weekend to pick up a Burley Solo, but I'm not too sure about hooking it up to the road bike. I believe there was another discussion (I searched but couldn't find it) about stability hauling a kid trailer around. So, I am considering picking up either a mountain bike, cross bike, or a hybrid to pull it with. What is everyone else using?


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## swimbikerun75 (Mar 25, 2002)

I never tried hooking it up to my roadie because I ride shoulders/sidewalks/MUT's with the trailer and would be more afraid of flats than stability. I have an old MTB that I put slicks on for commuting. I don't think you have to go buy a new bike just to pull the trailer though. I imagine MB1 would recommend a nice custom Waterford would pull a Burley just fine though.


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## Chris H (Jul 7, 2005)

While I've never used my road bike to pull the trailer, I guess it could as long as the chainstays aren't carbon (pure speculation on my part- someone else can feel free to correct this if I'm wrong). Depends on the attachment. I haven't seen the exact set-up that Burley uses. I have pulled the trailer on my mountain bike and my Cross Check. Between the two I prefer the Cross Check which is pretty much a road bike if you want to get technical. That mountain bike is slow enough without adding a trailer to the back of it!


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## Scot_Gore (Jan 25, 2002)

Just Sam said:


> We had our first last December and she has been cleared by the Dr. to ride in a bike trailer. I'm going this weekend to pick up a Burley Solo, but I'm not too sure about hooking it up to the road bike. I believe there was another discussion (I searched but couldn't find it) about stability hauling a kid trailer around. So, I am considering picking up either a mountain bike, cross bike, or a hybrid to pull it with. What is everyone else using?


If you've only got one bike and don't have desire or need for another I wouldn't go buy a bike just pull a trailer. If you think having a mountain, cross, or hybrid would be good for two or three other reasons, by all means, go get one. However, if it's only for the the trailer stick it behind the Roadie. 

Things to bear in mind:

Your kid might hate that trailer.
Trailers have short lifespans. Not because they wear out, your kid will out grow it sooner than you think. If you have siblings in mind you may get more use out of it later. 
IMHO it's not a certain kind of bike that gets unstable pulling a trailer, it's a certain kind of operator that gets unstable pulling trailer. 
If your using a very nice bike that it's important you keep pristine then you might look at trying to put some skins or other protection at the places the bracket slides in. I never noticed any damage or marring on mine, but I was using the bike where more wouldn't have been noticed or concerned......you know, something like a custom Waterford with chrome lugs


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## Just Sam (Feb 24, 2004)

Well I have two bikes, a Look 585 (definately not using this) and a Cannondale CAAD 7 that I'm considering selling because it is destined to a life of becoming a trainer bike. I'm considering either buying a couple of lower end mountain bikes (one for me and one for the wife) that we would use on some of the local trails around the lakes in the area. Or a pair of Trek FX bikes that we would use for tooling around the neighborhood/lakes with the rugrat in tow. I'm leaning towards the Trek 7.5 FX (http://www2.trekbikes.com/bikes/bike.php?bikeid=1341000&f=26), I think my wife would enjoy riding it more than her roadie.


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## The Walrus (Apr 2, 2000)

Last summer, I wound up being the one who pulled the trailer for some friends' rugrats, and I was using an old Univega hybrid, dubbed "the ice cream bike", since the usual evening destination was an ice cream parlor down at the beach. Like the others have said, it wouldn't make much sense to buy a new bike along with the trailer, but if you have a hybrid, it'll do a good job. I felt better in traffic having more visibility (seeing/being seen), and the bike itself felt really stable.


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## Tahoe Gator (May 28, 2002)

I pull a double trailer (Chariot, they are great; uses rear skewer mount) with my Klein Quantum Pro. It's my only road bike. When I first started pulling the trailer, I used my mountain bike, figuring its disc brakes would be better for stopping (true) and lower gearing would be easier for climbing (true). But I have abandoned that and now exclusively use my road bike. Sure, you can't brake as quickly, but you'll ride more carefully anyhow. And sure, climbs are tougher, but the road bike more than makes up for those fat tires of an mtb and aren't you looking for a workout on your road bike anyway? Bottom line, I would ride whatever road bike you normally ride. I would definitely not buy a dedicated bike and would have no fear of riding whatever bike I owned. I am building up an all carbon bike and will surely use that one too. The load is just not that great. Sure, you really feel it, but it's not that much in physics terms. After all, you can ride reasonably fast. Any frame not able to pull it is one I wouldn't want to ride anyway. And, if you want the workout to translate to your fav road bike, then use your fav road bike. Oh, and in your local group rides, you'll get extra kudos (and the occassional question "what is that?") for having the rear skewer mount on your bike.


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## mness (Feb 9, 2005)

*I use my regular bike(s)*



Just Sam said:


> We had our first last December and she has been cleared by the Dr. to ride in a bike trailer. I'm going this weekend to pick up a Burley Solo, but I'm not too sure about hooking it up to the road bike. I believe there was another discussion (I searched but couldn't find it) about stability hauling a kid trailer around. So, I am considering picking up either a mountain bike, cross bike, or a hybrid to pull it with. What is everyone else using?


Congratulations to you. Our 2nd was also born last December (the 27th) and I'm ready to start riding with her. I've been riding with our 2-1/2 year old since he was 9 months. I have a Chariot Cougar trailer (awesome, awesome, awesome, check them out before you buy a trailer), which attaches via a skewer with a ball-and-socket, so nothing touches the frame that can damage it.

I wouldn't be worried about a road bike, I use a LeMond Zurich (steel). Thankfully it's a triple, as I live in San Francisco and have to hoist the 50 extra pounds over our hills. I also use a full-suspension mountain bike sometimes (Santa Cruz Blur). I was more worried about the extra load on the rear suspension, and went so far as to email Santa Cruz before I did it, and they said the frame is plenty strong and shouldn't be a problem.

I like trailering with the road bike more than the mountain bike. It's noticably faster of course, and with the triple I can make it up some decent hills albeit standing. The mountain bike, with it's 22-34 low gear, makes the hills a (relative) cakewalk and I can sit more. But unless I plan on riding trails, I like the roadbike better as it's overall faster and easier.

Just wait till you hear the wonderful words "downhill faster daddy, wheeee!" coming from back there!


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## bignose (Sep 15, 2005)

My neighbor pulls his daughter in a trailer with his Kuota Kreedo full Campy Record


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## weltyed (Feb 6, 2004)

i pull my kid with a mountain bike. slick on the rear, semi slick up front. i use the mtb because when i take him out the wife comes, too. she is a bit slower and freaks when we are not on a trail. the mtb and trailer slows me enough for her to almost keep up without me keeping my effort down too much. he is getting used to it, but usually just falls asleep. guess that is better than crying.

for those that own the chariot, have you used the other attachments, such as the jogger or the snowskis?


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## innergel (Jun 14, 2002)

I use my early 70's Takara single speed. Hills are a biotch, but it makes a spin with the wife and kid a good workout.

Use whatever bike you've got that you are comfortable riding. If you don't want to put the stress on your daily roadie, take this as an opportunity to build yourself a commuter/beater to use. That can be done pretty inexpensively. That CAAD7 would be a good bike to use too, since you use it on the trainer already.


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## tygut1 (Jul 7, 2006)

I use my mountain bike, I would put slicks on it but I still ride the moutains quite a bit. I don't go long distances and my wife usually rides with me. It works fine for me, my daughter loves it.


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## HOOKEM (Apr 4, 2004)

I pull mine with my road bike, which is 99 GT Force--and for what it's worth I saw a guy in a group ride at the Tour de Georgia with the kiddies in tow, and he was no where near getting dropped.


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## EricNM (Oct 7, 2005)

I use my mountain bike exclusively for two reasons. Gears, and Disc Brakes.

My two kids( 3 and 5) weight close to 80 lbs, without the trailer and bike(add about 40 more lbs). I need the gears for the hills and to some extent just to get up to speed and the disc brakes for stopping power. My other mtn bike does ok on the stopping, but not nearly as well as the disc brakes. I have taken them out with the old road bike when they weighed half what the weigh now and it did not stop adaquately. 

Before someone asks, the 5 yo can ride a bike by herself, but we nominally go riding with my wife on a 15-20 mile route and that is way to far for the 5 yo to ride. I'm not sure I trust the 5 yo yet on the MUT either.


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## Puzman (Aug 14, 2002)

Totally agree with previous poster. All that extra weight behind you makes getting up hills a real challenge, and stopping power of discs on MTBs is much better for pulling kid trailer, IMHO. I used a Titus LocoMoto w/ Avid discs for pulling my kids trailer, and now use my Yeti 575 for pulling her tag-along bike.


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## NeedhamDave (May 17, 2004)

*I use my regular road bike*

Motobecane Le Champion. Some of the paint has worn off from the Burley D'Lite trailer hitch rubbing the chainstay, but "performance-wise" it has been fine. Last weekend, I put the 7-month old and 2-year old in for a very short 5-10 minute test ride to see if they knocked heads together or anything and it went ok.

I used to have a hybrid bike with more gearing, thinking that might make it easier to pull, but power is not going to be your issue. Handling-wise, you should be on a bike you are comfortable with, so you can involuntarily turn around for a quick check to see what's going on back there without crashing. To some extent, if you are on a road bike, in the drops, you can kind of just look under your arm more easily than if you were sitting upright.

On thing I ran into was that you need to stop in places where there is something to lean the bike against so you can attend to the little ones without letting your bike flop over. One trick--use your pedal + the curb as a kickstand.

My question...has anyone used a fixed gear + trailer? I think that would be a bad idea.


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## CFBlue (Jun 28, 1999)

7-speed cruiser bike would be ideal. Sitting upright, easy to look back at the kid and not too expensive, plus they are great when the kid starts riding their own bike/trike. Slower and easier to plop down the kickstand to help the kid across the street.

We've had our Burley for 4 years and it's been great. Most of the time it's been hooked up to the wife's mountain bike for commuting and dropping the tax-deduction off at baby-jail. It's worked great. On the weekends it was hooked up to the single speed cruisers for jaunts around town and to the store. 7 speed would have been nice, but we never went that far and didn't have many hills.

If you hook it up to a road bike be sure to take the corners at a very-very-very-very slow speed. Most folks I've known have rolled the trailer. We've had ours up on one wheel quite a few times, but so far have avoided dumping our little darling.


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