Our experiences of bike trailers.

By Julii This info may be useful to someone else, really it's just the notes I used when trying to decide for ourselves. We had 3 children, age 5 yrs, 3 yrs & 8 months, when I was writing these notes up. This information may not be correct!!! It's just a summary of what I think to be the case.


CTC Review of the Chariot Cougar 2
[05 Apr 2010]
CTC members Ali and Darrell High sent in a review of the Chariot Cougar 2 to the CTC's Cycle magazine, and were very positive about it: Our ...
An Alternative to the Cougar
[27 Sep 2005]
We were in Norwich recently and came across a familiar-looking child trailer. Sure enough it was a Chariot, but was actually the Captain model ...
Watch your skewer!
[02 Sep 2006]
We had a real problem with the chariot hitch on this mountain bike. The bike has forward-facing dropouts, and the wheel would frequently pop ...
How Fed-Ex tried to overcharge us
[25 Sep 2005]
Here's an exerpt of our correspondence with Federal Express after they tried to hit us with a £180 bill for Excise and VAT (and Fed-Ex ...
Our Evaluations, Decision and Experiences
[04 Jul 2004]
Having done no research at the time, we bought a Koolstop (Caboose) trailer 2nd hand in March 2001 to transport our 16 month old, and expected ...
Age of child when you can use a trailer
[04 Jul 2004]
Not least because of the helmet stipulation (see below) manufacturers say that their trailers therefore generally aren't suitable until the child ...
Child Bike Trailer Conversion Kits
[04 Jul 2004]
Some trailers, especially the more expensive ones, have accessories to go with the trailer to make it into a jogging stroller/pushchair, a stroller ...
Flooring for the Child Trailer
[04 Jul 2004]
Solid or fabric. Solid is said to be more durable (the canvas floor on our Koolstop, see below, started going after about 4 years) but solid ...
Whether to wear a helmet
[04 Jul 2004]
Trailer manufacturers will tell you that your child must wear a helmet in the trailer. Helmet wearing is considered so important that some of ...
Hitches: 3 ways to attach the trailer to the bike
[04 Jul 2004]
Chainstay (on the frame near the back wheel axle). A chainstay hitch (Koolstop do one) can have the advantage that any bike can tow the trailer ...
Luggage capacity of a Child Trailer
[04 Jul 2004]
Burley & Wike both brag about this, Chariot is often slated for it being on the low side.
Child Trailer Safety
[04 Jul 2004]
Burley has a tremendous reputation as very safe; many stories abound of Burley trailers being hit by cars, flying up through the air, landing ...
Where To Buy a Child Trailer
[04 Jul 2004]
As for the trailers on offer, these are the ones we are aware of, roughly in order from cheapest to most expensive:

Lidl - only available ...