Trail Gator Tow bar and Accessories

Product Information

The Trail Gator does not affect the child bike’s rear brakes in any way, so the child rider can brake unexpectedly while riding. As the adult rider, you’ll feel the “drag” when this occurs, but it’s not a drastic jolt that would cause you to lose your balance. No Training Wheels Allowed! I have created an excellent and cheap design. I bought a retractable dog leash for 40-50lbs and then cut the rope down to a little smaller length and then tied a bungee cord on the end to create a loop (taped it on to secure a little more). This loop fits around the kids top stem. The retractable unit gets zip tied underneath the adults seat and seat post. The pros: it retracts when the kid pops it off with one hand from his stem, so neither parent or child needs to stop biking to unhook. I made a few of these to have on each parents bike so who ever is close can hook up very fast. We leave the leash on the parents bike all summer and doesn’t interfere with our riding. But zip ties are cheap if anyone wants it off for adult rides. Since the front wheel of the child bike is lifted off the ground and the handlebars of the child bike are secured by the handlebar stabilizer rod, the adult bike controls all steering. suitable for 12" to 20” kids bikes (for use on kids bikes with cantilever brake art. 360904 is needed) We’ve used a lot of tag along bikes and bike towing options. Like most things in life, their quality and ease-of-use are directly related to their price point. The Trail Gator is a bit wobbly, similar to the “wobble factor” we also found with the popular WeeRide Co-Pilot. But it’s also the most affordable towing option on the market.

The tow bar has a vertical and a horizontal pivot located at the adult bike seat post area, which allow for side to side and up and down movement only, and keeps the child bike in an up right position when being towed. The tow bar attachment to the child bike receiver is a rigid mount therefore restricting movement at that end. The Trail-Gator is provided with an adjustable receiver, which mounts to the front of the child's bike, that allows you to lift the child's front wheel a recommended 3"-5" off the ground. This keeps the child at a safe and comfortable angle while riding. The Trail-Gator was designed and tested for the purposes of on-road use. Rough terrain may present riding situations for which the Trail-Gator was not designed or tested. The Trail Gator is a unique bike towing solution to several common problem parents often have when biking with their kids. If you want to go on a family bike ride but don’t want your child to get too tired, then you should take a look at the Trail-Gator Tandem Tow Bar.Training wheels are the norm and your child can’t ride long distances that way. Tow them without training wheels instead! We reached out to Trail Gator for help, and they provided several different potential solves. Based on their response, it seems that many others before me have probably had this issue. After about another two hours of finagling and trying every possible solve they provided, we finally resolved the issue. Ride attached or separately: almost every commercially available children´s bike can be attached to every commercially available adult´s bike!

While the Trail Gator is certainly a fun and useful bike accessory for families, it’s not perfect. It’s important to understand some potential issues you may encounter before you decide to buy it. The “Wobble Factor” We suggest that you work with your child on when and when not to use the brakes and practice in a vacant area before you go out on a ride. With good instruction this will not be a problem. The wobble is exaggerated when just gaining momentum, but becomes much less noticeable as you gain speed. If you can get your child to stay relatively still while pedaling, that’s also a huge help! Weight also plays a factor – the wobble was more noticeable when towing our 48-pound 6-year-old tester. I didn’t notice a wobble at all when I was towing our 2.5-year-old. Child Bike Can Lean to the Side CAN THE TRAIL-GATOR BE USED ON A CHILD BIKE LARGER THAN 20" OR WITH PERSONS WEIGHING MORE THAN 70 POUNDS? Another option is to repurpose old bike tubes. We found this idea on an MTBR forum thread. Writes @ benjaminj:One issue we experienced on our first set of rides was that the child bike leaned to the side almost the entire time we were riding. It was a drastic enough lean that our kid bike testers started complaining after the initial 30 seconds of “wow” factor wore out. If we couldn’t fix the issue, we knew we would never really use the Trail Gator. No, the Trail-Gator only have up and down and side to side move, which requires the trailed bike to lean with the adult bike when towed. Tow bar receiver fits child bikes with head tubes up to 45mm (1.77") wide in diameter and expans for bolting distance of 105mm (4.1") for top and bottom U-bolt spacing.