geoffadams.net

We recently acquired a bike trailer to carry our son in. Having undertaken a good deal of research, I thought others may be interested in the factors that influenced our decision.

There is quite a bit of information already available on the pros and cons of various child carrying systems. What is not readily available is up to date local information on pricing and availability for trailers in Australia.

Existing information

The below is recommended pre-reading for the rest of this post.

• Bicycle Victoria has a couple of very good articles on carrying babies and toddlers, and tag-alongs.
• Trail Kids has some good advice from personal experience.
• Adventure cyclist magazine (pdf) has a general trailer round-up from 2004 which includes child trailers

Narrowing our options - Trailer verses seat

After doing lots of reading, talking to others and even looking at a couple of trailers and seats in the flesh, we decided to go with a trailer rather than a seat for several reasons:

• We are likely to be either touring (long distance) or go shopping/picnicking etc. Both of these activities would require extra carrying capacity for shopping or toys/books/snacks.
• Trailers are easier to get in and out of. Sturdier, with a lower centre of gravity
• Little people are more likely to grow out of a bike seat quicker, as their legs tend to get in the way of the cyclist. Trailers could potentially carry a small person up to the age of about 4 years old (size dependant)
• Easy to use as a pram at the other end of the journey

Safety was a big concern in our research. Aspects we looked at were:

• what happens when the bike falls over or in the case of an accident
• visibility to other road users (We have found that trailers are still an odd thing to see around our neck of the woods. Drivers tend to give us a wide berth on the road, I suspect because we look so strange.)
• protection from the elements

Based on the answers to the above questions, we decided on a trailer.

Which trailer?

Any quick internet search for bike trailers will produce pages of results, with trailers varying massively in price and quality. Being pretty confident that we would make good use of a trailer, we felt that it would be wiser to invest in one which was likely to last longer and provide a more comfortable ride for everyone.

As such, we pretty quickly discounted many trailer models, which although cheaper, were substantially heavier, larger when packed and with less storage capacity. For people who infrequently use a trailer, these cheaper models may be a good option.

We came up with our top three options and chose the Burley Solo in the end. We went with a single seat model, hoping that by the time a sibling came along for Cosmo, he will be big enough to ride a tag along - this would certainly make for an interesting sight, tandem with a tag along, followed by a trailer!

We made this choice from a short list of three.
The three options were:
Chariot Cougar
Croozer 737
Burley Solo

(All of these models come in either one or two child carrying capacity.)

Let's look at each one and their pros and cons:

Chariot Cougar
Pros	Cons
Sleek and light	Small space for carrying extra goodies
Converts easily into many different guises (eg. Stroller)	Slightly lower headspace
Suspension	Expensive
Folds up easily for transport or storage
Excellent ventilation

Croozer 737
Pros	Cons
Easily available in Australia	Converting into stroller not quick and easy
Sturdy design	No easy method of carrying trailer arm when using as a stroller
Excellent storage space for extra goodies	Carrying single child in a double seat model could be tricky with bucket seats
Bucket seats which would assist in child staying upright	Heavier than both the Chariot and Burley
	Limited ventilation

Burley Solo
Pros	Cons
Easily converts to stroller (in about one minute)	Lacking some support for children that have trouble keeping themselves upright early on. Bucket seating may help here, or just some makeshift padding
Padded seating
Lightweight
Excellent storage for extra goodies with ability to add a carry rack on top
Good headspace for growth
Excellent sun protection and ventilation
Good company structure/working conditions
With a fluro flag flapping about and bright colours adorning the trailer we are probably more visible than just the bike alone.

Availability and Pricing (Australian options) - Current as at Jan 2008.

All three trailers are available locally in Australia. With the strong Australian dollar at the moment, we investigated sourcing trailers direct from the USA. All three trailers were significantly cheaper in the US. While we wish to support local importers, the price difference was just to great to ignore. Burley was the only brand we could import directly from the US, the other two companies have exclusive deals with Australian importers, which means they do not allow direct US purchases from outside the country.

Here is the final breakdown for the models we looked at.

Chariot Cougar

Australian importer
New Zealand based Morris Stanley

Available
Melbourne from Bike Now, South Melbourne.
Flying Furniture in Canberra

Local price
$1225.00 (with cycling kit included - extra $80 for a stroller kit)

Croozer

Available
Croozer
Flying Furniture in Canberra

Local price
Croozer 737 single child trailer with strolling, jogging and cycling kits included is $525.
Croozer 535 TWO child trailer with strolling, jogging and cycling kits included is $575.

Burley - Solo

Australian importer
Greenspeed

Available
Melbourne from Greenspeed
Flying Furniture in Canberra

Local price
$750.00

Other models
Burley D'lite two child trailer, alloy wheels - $950.00
Additional hitches for more than one bike - $38.00

More information

The above is by no means comprehensive let me know if you would like any more details. There are also more pics in the gallery. Enjoy.