Tag a Long Bike Safety
 

I'm interested in hearing some tips about riding safely with a tag a long.

We have an Avanti Hang-on. My son and I used to ride it a bit (over a year ago) without problem. We rode it the other day and nearly had an accident due to his movement and pedaling etc. He is nearly 30kg, aged 6 and is tall for his age. I use the tag a long to pick him up from school.

So, I guess I'm trying to work out ways in which he can ride the tag a long and we aren't wobbling all over the road. Should we be pedaling in sync? I did talk to him afterwards about moving very gently if he needs to stick his head out to look at something. What are some other tips we need to know about?

One thing I found when my son was riding with a tag-along was that the pivot where it attaches to the seat post needs to pivot freely. When I first installed it I had tightened it to the point where it was almost a rigid connection. Riding this way made the whole vehicle really, really wobbly and unstable. Once I figured out that it needed to be freely pivoting it solved the problem. I'd bought it used so there were no instructions, and probably some missing components to the attachment.

My son wasn't quite as heavy as yours, but you might still want to check the pivot attachment.

Good luck.

Make sure the hitch is as low as possible on your bike. All the pivots should move freely, but shouldn't have any slop in them. We have an Instep Pathfinder that required some 'massaging' of the pivots to eliminate a side-to-side 'flop'

For your bike, make sure your rear tire is at sufficient pressure. It's carrying a lot more weight, so you'll need to increase the pressure over where you usually ride.
I'd also put a wider handlebar on if you can. My bike was fitted with a generic alloy 630mm 'MTB riser' bar, and it really increased the leverage on the front wheel, so you can more easily counter any unwanted changes in direction.

Riding tips: For the 'captain,' pick a gear that's a step or two lower than you usually use, and be prepared to turn the pedals a little bit faster for a little bit longer than you usually do. Try to shift gears before you need to, the extra weight will just make a late shift worse.
Actually, try to keep pedaling, even if it's just loafing along. These kinds of rigs tend to handle better 'under power' than coasting.

For the 'stoker' pedaling in sync isn't required, but they'll often fall in to cadence with you just out of reflex. You do want to tell them that if you stop pedaling, they need to stop pedaling. Nothing like having your 'trailer' trying to overtake you under power, as you try to brake for a corner or stop.
I usually will call out 'slowing,' 'stopping,' or if there's a big bump ahead so she doesn't get surprised.


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