Thanks guys for the good words. No the girls rode their own bikes to school then the wife would tow them back home, then back to school to pick them up. Tried to make it as compact as possible but the 24" wheel was the deciding factor. Yes, the wife took only one bike many times with no problems. She liked strapping the backpacks to the center portion. We bungied the front of the bikes to the inside so it kept it nice and centered of the system. What was nice was that it was so easy to remove when we all wanted to go biking and then reinstall.
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