fooferdoggie 

she has learned to ride but going to be awhile before she can do it herself on the road. grandpa is pretty impressed she learned to ride before she was 4. so her balance bike was worth the money and the smallest trek bike they make was well worth it too. but as you say who knows what kids will want to do? but I think she will like the Weehoo better then the trailer. we ride about 200 miles a week but its hard to get my daughter to ride much.

CliffordK

I have everything it takes to make the original Burley Moose racks. But, I don't have a Piccolo adapter.

The old style racks appear to be very sturdy. They've made a few design changes for he newer racks, but they appear to be good racks.

mschwett 

why not just put her in a frame mounted kid seat on the back seat tube of the tandem? if she’s less than 30lb, lots of good lightweight choices.

she might also enjoy an up front seat, if she’s big enough to ride a bike herself she’s definitely big enough to sit in a mac-ride. really cool having the little ones right up front with you!

fooferdoggie 

well we got it and it was fine till we plopped her into it and took off we found the bar hitting the fender. so two choices get rid of the suspension seat post or mount on the rack with a bracket. I will get a seat post and see if grandma can handle riding without the expensive seat post. if not I will ahve to maybe ro a rack mount thing.

Darth Lefty 

I've tried a lot of things for riding with my kids.

Kid seats only get you about two years, ages 1-3. I like them better than trailers because the trailer is like towing a parachute but the trailer does not upset the bike so much and worked a lot better with twins. We had to give up early on the twin trailer though because the boy twin is just huge for his age - about a year bigger in fact.

We did a tandem kidback / child stoker setup. There were three main problems. First was that the manufacturer of my tandem was defunct and their specific kit was not available, leading to some assembly issues. The one that I found had a 36t chain ring so I could not use the original stoker crank which was 130 bcd and only fits 39t rings, so I had to find a 110 bcd stoker crank and then rings for it. Couldn't just do the left side arm either because hey did you know the widely available Sugino cranks have the square taper holes at 45 degrees to the crank but discontinued Truvativ Stylo was 90 degrees? Now you know. Chain line on the left side was then kind of a mess. The second issue was fit - the crank arms were 127 mm long which is about right for a 6yo who would normally be starting to ride a 20" wheel bike. Could find some 4 inch square taper cranks and then reverse them, right? The pedals might not unscrew themselves. And the third was anxiousness. My oldest kid did not like being up so high, and as he gets bigger you adjust the seat higher and higher. He also had a tendency to spitefully backpedal and derail one or the other of the timing chains. The twins have had zero interest in it. So ultimately I gave up on fixing all the problems. The tandem has been sitting deep in the garage waiting for a return to stock to be sold.

Right now we have an Adams trail-a-bike. This is a rugged if not fancy piece of kit but again it has the issue of the 5 inch cranks. The 4yo boy twin is fine on it. The 4yogirl twin, who is the right size for a 16er bike, just won't fit yet. And funny thing, she can ride her single and he can't. So that would work, except that she wants to ride along on the back too...

One thing you can do is slow yourself down. When my twins were on balance bikes it worked pretty well for me to ride a longboard to the park with them.

Darth Lefty 

cyccommute what are you doing there for the kid stoker handlebar? Is that a tri bar on backward?

Darth Lefty 

fooferdoggie maybe you go for a less-premium suspension seat post that runs straight and doesn't need all that stack for the linkage. Leave the clamp and a fatter seat on that one and swap it in when the kid is visiting. Remember you are not getting married to this stuff, you are using it occasionally for a few years tops unless you are expecting more grandkids

CliffordK

Oh!!!

So, which is going away? Suspension seat, or fender?

The Moose racks seem like very good racks. But, I've had troubles finding the bike trailer adapters. Perhaps a bike shop would be better at finding them.

fooferdoggie 

right now the seat post. but I can buy another seat if my wife cant live without the suspension post on our regular rides then I can jsut swap the whole thing using a stop coller to position them easily. I found a seat post to test. got to have the fender it's portland and it rains a lot .now to test if the rack will fit with the new post. the newest model has a more curved arm

NRissy

Well, what you need depending on your riding ability, your granddaughters needs, and how much you are going to realistically use it.
I started with a trailer. I personally don't like the little carriers mounted to the bike. So I have always had my boys in a trailer.
Two years ago I bought a wee-ride copilot and used it a lot for 18 months with the last year having his 2 year old brother tagging along.
This spring I purchased a tandem and got a child stoker kit. Now I ride a tandem with a trailer with my 3 year old son inside.
In 18 months I plan on having my oldest son on the tandem with me, my middle son on the wee-ride copilot in the middle and my 4 month old son will be two so he will be in the rear in the trailer (don't worry; I will only use that set up on dedicated bike trail and low used residential neighborhoods)
Attached are photos of the wee-ride & trailer set up from last fall and the tandem & trailer set up from this summer


Tandem

Wee-ride

fooferdoggie 

I hope to use it a fair amount a few times a week. but you never know. I would not trust having a child on the tandem with me like in those front seats trying hold all that weight and my wife could get tricky sometimes its hard to keep her upright when she leans wrong when I have my foot down and I am not getting younger.
So with a regular seat post and a little rack adjustment I got it. there only thing I cant have my garmin radar mounted I ahve to turn the mount down. but I can get an adaptor to mount it on the weehoo. if my wife cant handle a non suspension seat post on our regular rides I will buy her another seat so its a fast switch. I think she will enjoy riding more if she can peddle and is not so enclosed.

fooferdoggie 

my daughter and hubby could not cycle 20 miles but are in the middle of the city and its not practical for her ride with us till she is more skilled. my daughter has a car but we are bike only.

CliffordK

I haven't used a suspension seat, but I'm curious what one of these Brooks Clones would be like.



https://www.amazon.com/Bicycle-Saddl.../dp/B081Q5CVZF

You'd have to go with a swaged top straight post.

fooferdoggie 

they are not bad. on my commuter e bike it helps especially in winter as the road can beat me up. 20+mph makes for a harsh road. but I tried it on the captain and I was bouncing around with the same post and seat on my commuter. my wife really had tailbone issues when we started so she really needed it. I cant imagine sitting on such a large seat unless your full upright.

CliffordK

I see you got the rack back on, with rather tight clearance.

Here is this Gorix, that essentially replaces the saddle rails with a spring. Cute concept. Longer rails for more spring, shorter for less spring.



https://www.amazon.com/GORIX-Saddle-.../dp/B088R7BLB3

Unfortunately that would likely give you your fender clearance, but not the rack clearance.

Here is someone who fabbed up a rack mount for the Weehoo.

https://bikepackingwithafamily.wordp...adding-a-rack/



https://bikepackingwithafamily.wordp...adding-a-rack/

UniChris

Would a habit of calling out even slight bumps as captain help reduce the need for a suspension seatpost? I find in low visibility conditions minor pavement blips can be annoying, vs if I spot them I just get more weight on my legs and they're a non issue.

Probably wouldn't work since the trailer isn't there all the time, but in theory some sort of fender could go on the trailer arm instead. Alternate with a post mount temporary fender?


​​​​​​

CliffordK

In theory one could re-arch the connector tube to give you more clearance. If one found the right parts and tools, it would be an easy job.

There is a cheap Weehoo here in Eugene, but it appears as if they changed the tubing design between this one that has square base tubes, and yours that is round, so it wouldn't make a good pattern.
https://eugene.craigslist.org/bik/d/...349726169.html



It looks like the Piccolo likes the rack connection. There is a cheap one up in Portland. I don't see the rack in the ad. I have the rack (plus everything to make more racks), but not the Piccolo.

https://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/...366640298.html

If you bought a Piccolo, it would be good to have in a couple of years.

fooferdoggie 

that would be cheap but it got it worked out now. it would be so many years before she was ready this kid is a slow grower.

fooferdoggie 

after our 45 miles ride we took her on a short ride we were tired she had a blast. (she wore a helmet)

Doug64

This a system that is common in Europe. Mom can put her daughter's bike's front wheel in the carrier to get them to the trail or help out when the girl gets tired. When it is OK for the kid to ride, it is easy to unhitch the bike.

MAK

This may be child endangerment, but it's interesting.

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...bike-gif-86817

fooferdoggie 

Ya I found one that would work but the cost was 350.00 plus she is so young I don't trust her balance yet.

mstateglfr 

So much going on- tandem, ebike, weehoo trailer- thats complex. Cool that you are dedicated to making it all work.

Wildwood 

barely 5yo, and not yet 8. Captain is ageless with his kids.

fooferdoggie 

ya go it all working and the wife is ok without the suspension seat post. but the e tandem lets us go father because we can go faster and we can climb hills that are almost impossible on a tandem. when we cruise at 18.5mph we are only using 7 to 9 watts per mile. we have climbed 20% grades. did one over the yesterday and just made it. se even pulled the trailer up the 20% grade.