Alternatives to trailgator?

kenmc

Anyone know of an alternative to the trailgator (http://www.trail-gator.com/)
I'd like to be able to cycle to creche and then school with my daughter, but am not keen on leaving her bike outside when she's there (it's an islabike, so pricy enough) so would like to be able to tow it back home or to work or whatever after dropping her off.

I've toe-strapped it to the carrier of my cargo bike on occasions, but don't want to wreck the paint on the forks, so would like a better solution. Else I'll have to make some sort of mounting thing for it, but the advantage of the trailgator type thing is that i can also tow her if she's very tired or i want to get somewhere fast, whereas that wouldn't really be such an option with a home-made job and she'd have to go into the canopy of the bullitt, which is getting a bit squishy now for a 4.5 year old and a big 2yo.....

_Brian

Why an alternative to the trail gator? Why not get one.

We have one years and it is bulletproof.
It's actually in storage now to pass on to my brother wuenhis girl is old enough.

kenmc

Thanks for the fast reply!

I was just wondering if there was an alternative that i could consider also, rather than just going with the only one I found so far. A couple of reviews i've read on the TG is that it scratches the paint around the headtube a bit which i'd like to avoid - have you found that also?

_Brian

I've not had scratching other than through my own negligence over the years.

kenmc

Fair enough - where did you get it from? is there a supplier in ireland or was it online?

_Brian

Bought it online maybe 11 years ago, think it was through amazon from the uk.

midonogh

Bit pricier but Follow Me Tandem is great. Very stable and effective transfer of power from the second bike. I first saw Swiss family using it on a family camping cycling holiday a few years ago. Used it with my kids for spins in traffic, breaks in long spins and uplift spins while mountain biking

kenmc

ah yeah thanks i remember seeing that before too, now, but totally forgot to search for it.....
i think that looks like a better option than the trailgator in terms of not scratching the bike. is it fast to connect/disconnect?

youch the price though! it's over 4x the price!

mp2012

not wishing to jump the thread for a possible sale, but kenmc if you are thinking of getting one I have one that I have been meaning to sell for a long while now, just never got round to it. Let me know if you're interested and i'll dig it out and take some photos etc.

kenmc

I presume you're talking about a trailgator, not a follow me tandem?
let me stew on it for a day or 2, i'm liking the follow-me more than the TG, it seems more sturdy and being able to go MTB with it is impressive, but the price of the TG is hard to overlook. If I go for a TG though I'd definitely be interested in second hand - where are you based?
Did you experience any scratching of the headtube where the clamp mounts to the kids bike? Does it work with 14" bikes as well as 16"? Somewhere I read it's for 16....

check_six

It's possible to tow a riderless bike with a trailgator. You won't be able to go too fast though as the towed bike will get a bit bouncy over potholes and speedbumps.

Zen0

Unless they have changed it since we had one, the Trailgator fitting for the headtube is a bit industrial. Didn't bother me because it went on a cheap bike, but I would wrap that headtube in tape at least. I also remember I had to tighten the head tube fitting quite a lot, or the towed bike tended to slip to one side. As I was tightening the thing, I did find myself thinking 'I hope this doesn't crush the head tube'. It didn't, and we got a lot of good use out of it.

smacl

Very much the same as Zen0, I used an old inner tube as a spacer and found the clip to stop the towed rider from steering a bit flimsy. That said, it all worked very well apart from that and was a great benefit cycling the Mayo Greenway some years back.

mp2012

kenmc it is the TG that I have. I don't recall any scratching of the head tube but I would have taped it anyway before clamping. I have attached a photo of it on a 12 or 14" bike, forget the actual size now. https://www.dropbox.com/s/1jpief8t3v5dqsc/trailgator.jpg?dl=0

I am based in Carlow but work in Dublin so no issue meeting up.

JMcL

kenmc wrote: »

Thanks for the fast reply!

I was just wondering if there was an alternative that i could consider also, rather than just going with the only one I found so far. A couple of reviews i've read on the TG is that it scratches the paint around the headtube a bit which i'd like to avoid - have you found that also?

The Trailgator is an excellent piece of kit, ours is currently waiting to serve child #3 sometime in the near future.

Regarding the scratching, the mounting clamps on the headtube/handlebar aren't the best thought out in fairness. What I did was cut up an old inner tube and put it underneath theboth clamps. It results in a few choice words during the mounting process which it's probably best the little one doesn't hear, but it's not like it's going to be on and off a lot. Never had any problems with scratching the paint with this.

Halfords sell the Trailgator. The Waterford store usually has them in stock. We got our in Decathlon (just checked - they have a decent price of €66.62 at the moment online)

That Follow Me Tandem does look good though I must say