Inspired by @CXHelen and @DiggingJCB - a little thread on trailers, and taking children with you when you’re a sporty cyclist - i.e. you don’t want to join the ‘Bakfiets Brigade’ but rather, take your children out whilst you do what you already do/did and introduce them to that!

Let’s go in chronological order, from birth, and explore a few options we use, used or discounted. In our case, we have children moving through all the stages just now, and an abundance of kit reflecting that. We have now bought a television, thank you for asking.

She may chime in anyway, but @mummybycycle commuted on her @BromptonBicycle until very late in her last pregnancy and was on her road bike with Ruth. Baby Robert turned up, and ready for his arrival we traded our nearly ten year old Croozer for a new single one.

Key advantage of a single, if you’ll only ever have 1 child to tow, is it’s narrower than a ‘standard’ wheelchair; will :. fit through doorways (and lifts on public transport!) better. I actually used our trailer as a daily use pushchair when I became a SAHD with ‘two under two’!

I did get badly stuck in the doorway of a model railway shop once. For about half an hour. Singles aren’t anywhere near half the width of a double, but slim enough to make a practical difference. Doubles are fun for friends, though. @thomas_ivor is in two of those pictures!

We love Croozers but we’re particular about spec. - as in don’t overspend on gimmicks like suspension. Tyre pressure is your susp! What matters is a trailer having great rollover protection and, for a baby, a good baby sling system which in this case gives Bob a 5-point harness.

Towing a trailer, we originally thought, was a job for a touring bike. Touring bikes tow very well, of course, but I now do much of my towing mileage with an Emonda! I’ve recently got a power meter, in part so I can compare my training efforts better, with and without the weight.

As to use, @CXHelen asked about terrain - largely it depends on pace. Babies get carried about in all sorts of ways. Slings, their car seats get clicked onto bases, pushed down kerbs in pushcairs... with big tyres at a sensible pressures, and a baby sling, you can damp a lot out.

We have done decent mileage and pace with babies on gravel paths in the trailer, and apart from all of them becoming distance cyclists, they've all turned out quite normal

Other options at this age include seats, but we really aren’t keen. You can’t fall from height in a trailer. Seats don’t work on sport bikes so well. Baby is cocooned & cushioned. You can switch towing bikes in an instant. We use them early, we use them a lot. We don’t use lids.

One thing we love the look of is the Tout Terrain trailer, as expertly demonstrated by @danny_macaskill but it’s not equipped for small babies, and we don’t MTB so sadly, we can’t justify a purchase.

Next stage. First, a bit on ages. Some people use trailers with strapping great children in them. We are not fans of this approach! By the ripe old age of about 3.5, they’re out, as a rule! Rhoda was touring on a trailerbike when she was just turned 3, not quite pedalling.

We thought the WeeHoo’d be a masterstroke, incidentally, and bought one, but deteriorating build quality, too short, crap drivetrain, too short, instability, too short, heavy, too short, and did we mention that it’s too short for two children big enough to sit in the harnesses?

Again, we’re not seat people. Neither, in our current living and work patterns, are we box bike people. We are road cyclists of indifferent ability, who like touring, going for adventures and watching the odd bike race. We get the children walking and pedalling as soon as we can.

Trailerbikes then, for us, but not all created equal. We swear by old Islabikes ones because they are rack, not seatpost mounted; so much more stable. See #PimpMyTrailerbike for what we did to ours! Rhoda learned to pedal whilst touring on hers. Burley’s Piccolo an option, too.

We previously owned an old Trek Mountain train, which weighed a ton and got weighed in, in the end! It was like trying to fly a freight train compared to the Islabikes, which we intend to grease up and keep for grandchildren if ever so blessed!

Aged 4 and 5 respectively, Ruth and Rhoda took LE JoG records on theirs. Rhoda also competed in our local Boxing Day TT and I did many training miles with one or other of them on the back.

Having them on trailerbikes and getting used to traffic is a godsend when it comes to training them to ride solo, but this isn’t something we hurry. @thomas_ivor’s ASD made him rules obsessed and disproportionately obedient on the road. Ruth took longer to stop being distracted!

The intermediate step, and a quite brilliant invention, is the FollowMe Tandem, which allows you to swap between towing and letting them ride solo, mid-ride. We didn’t use it much but when we did it was a total godsend, and it is well worth having. Again, beware cheap imitations.

We’ve gone down the triplet route as well, even though the girls are riding solo too, and lots of people use tandems for children. Another super option and a useful leveller of pace - @mummybycycle reports a decent training load for her, on this!

At each stage we have found ways of getting our ‘hit’ as adults, if not always as we thought we might, whilst progressing the children in terms of their own experiences and skills. In the early stages, a trailer is also a reliable way not only to get out but to get baby to sleep!

On my road bike, now, I get a decent workout taking @thomas_ivor out and towing Robert in his trailer. I get a decent training effort out of it but the trailer evens out our pace and we often ride together much better, like that. Eventually he will need the weight, not me

Hope this thread has been helpful - we’re always happy to help other families to find their own way. It has cost us a lot in time and money to even be able to try ideas out and we’re happy share the experience we’ve built up. Ride on!