Tangled Metal wrote:I've only towed a child trailer (for about 19 months now on and more often off). Having not ridden much for about 2 or 3 months and only a week into a new bike I really struggled up a very steep hill near me towing the child trailer (Burley D-lite 2 child trailer). I had one 13kg child in and a whole plethora of coats for child and both parents, lunch in lots of plastic boxes, bike locks, toys, etc. etc. etc. Riding up that hill on a bike without a granny gear was not much fun. I was even thinking of changing the cassette to have a lower gearing option.
We're down in the 16-17" granny gear on our main tourers. I think that is similar to 22 front 36 rear cogs on a derailleur. I prefer to cycling up hills to pushing bikes up hills.
Tangled Metal wrote:The idea we had was either each of us with panniers and we towed the child trailer with some stuff in as well as the child on a tour or we got a cargo trailer (would have to be burley for the same hitch) and we loaded that. So one person takes the child, the other takes more of a load. The idea is to even out the load according to fitness and strength. Up until last weekend I would have said I was a stronger rider. I am but not when towing the load uphill without the low range gears. My partner is very unsympathetic in that she says I will just have to get fitter or it will make me fitter doing this. Now growing up on top of a steep hill with 1 in 4 or 5 slopes to get anywhere I got used to grinding it out up steep hills. I just wondered if we ditched the trailer and carried kid and kit on the bikes whether that would feel easier? I guess handling would not be fun at all. Especially for me with the lad being so high up, largest size of bike they do means a very high centre of gravity.
We have an absolute minimum stuff for daily use, nappies, change of clothes water and snacks for in the trailer with Junior. Everthing else goes in our eight panniers. Two small at the front, two large at the back one each bike. We also have a bar bag each. We try to avoid taking "extra" stuff just because we have extra space in the trailer. If you are not careful then "extra stuff" will wipe out the advantage of your new granny gear.
Tangled Metal wrote:Common sense tells me extra pair of wheels and the extra weight of the trailer means more drag and effort to ride but something makes me think that the feel of a heavily loaded bike would have an equivalency in the feel to that extra weight. Is that right?
Perhaps a single wheel trailer with child on the bike seat might work, two of these trailers to carry the load and if needed panniers on the bike not with the child.
I don't seem to have a problem with the extra weight of the trailer when cycling, which surprised me when I started towing one. Uphill makes a difference but as I said we have very low granny gears. Personally I don't want kids on a child seat on the bike. It raises the centre of gravity a lot and a child wriggling around in one makes for some interesting handling characteristics at times. Plus bike seat and trailer adds more weight than one or the other. Having one trailer and hitches on both bikes makes it easy to take turns to have the trailer.