Last year we bought a couple of Weehoo's for our kids (who are 3 and 5 and aren't quite riding on their own yet). Admittedly, we mainly got the Weehoos for ourselves-so we could still do some long rides and bring the kids along!
For anyone not familiar with Weehoos...
https://rideweehoo.com/
They're like trail-a-bikes (third wheels), except they have a bucket seat and 4-point harness so toddlers can ride safely.
We started out using them with our road bikes, and they work great-we've done a lot of 20-mile road rides pulling the kids.
We recently started using them with our mountain bikes and are having a blast. We started out on easy, flat, smooth fire roads and trails, and this weekend graduated to a serious 17-mile singletrack loop with some serious rocky tech sections.
The biggest challenge we found (aside from the "resistance training" of pulling the extra weight) was the overall length: sections of the trail that were very twisty and strewn with embedded rocks were tough, because you can't "snake around" those parts with a "big rig" like the Weehoo---you end up having to just power straight over all the rocks (or get off and walk the rig through).
Our kids (3 and 5) did great and had fun...though I was worried we were borderline abusing them in some of the rocky sections (from all the bouncing and jarring). Weehoo's don't have any suspension...and I'm about ready to look for something that does (or figure out a way to add it to our Weehoo's!).
I think I've seen Bob trailers with a shock set up to carry a kid this way, but don't know if that's a product (or a DIY mod?). Regardless, we definitely pushed the limits yesterday with what you can pull a Weehoo through.
It was fun too being heroes on the trail-everyone who passed us as we powered up rocky climbs was in awe that we were hauling the kids, LOL. And one person (who pulled off the trail as he came the other way) said "Hey, mountain bikes with kids in trailers get the right of way EVERY time!"
Scott
For anyone not familiar with Weehoos...
https://rideweehoo.com/
They're like trail-a-bikes (third wheels), except they have a bucket seat and 4-point harness so toddlers can ride safely.
We started out using them with our road bikes, and they work great-we've done a lot of 20-mile road rides pulling the kids.
We recently started using them with our mountain bikes and are having a blast. We started out on easy, flat, smooth fire roads and trails, and this weekend graduated to a serious 17-mile singletrack loop with some serious rocky tech sections.
The biggest challenge we found (aside from the "resistance training" of pulling the extra weight) was the overall length: sections of the trail that were very twisty and strewn with embedded rocks were tough, because you can't "snake around" those parts with a "big rig" like the Weehoo---you end up having to just power straight over all the rocks (or get off and walk the rig through).
Our kids (3 and 5) did great and had fun...though I was worried we were borderline abusing them in some of the rocky sections (from all the bouncing and jarring). Weehoo's don't have any suspension...and I'm about ready to look for something that does (or figure out a way to add it to our Weehoo's!).
I think I've seen Bob trailers with a shock set up to carry a kid this way, but don't know if that's a product (or a DIY mod?). Regardless, we definitely pushed the limits yesterday with what you can pull a Weehoo through.
It was fun too being heroes on the trail-everyone who passed us as we powered up rocky climbs was in awe that we were hauling the kids, LOL. And one person (who pulled off the trail as he came the other way) said "Hey, mountain bikes with kids in trailers get the right of way EVERY time!"
Scott
