UKH

Hello

I am planning to take the family on a camping holiday by bike.  I am fairly certain that panniers alone are not going to cut it, even if we pack very lightly and so I am looking at getting a trailer. 

I anticipate that the riding will involve a mix of quiet-road tarmac, cycle paths, tow paths and dirt tracks (but no 'proper' offroading).   I imagine that the cycle paths and tow paths will have various obstacles such as kissing gates, bollards etc  which might make a narrower single-wheeled system a better bet than a wider two-wheeled version, but I may be wrong on this (anyone able to comment?). 

In the single-wheeled camp I am looking at the Bob Yaks, the Bob Ibex and the Adventure CT1.  For two wheeled systems, I have seen the Carry Freedom and the Burley Nomad.

Does anyone have any first-hand experience of the above bike trailers and, if so, could you share your experiences / advice? 

Are there any other makes that I should be looking at?

Any makes that I should definitely avoid?

Finally, does anyone have a trailer in their shed that they don't want / need anymore and that they would like to sell?

In case it is an issue, I would ideally want the trailer to be compatible with a selection of bikes - specifically an old MTD (26" rim brakes), a road bike (700c rim brakes), and a CX bike (700c disk brakes) 

Many thanks for any advice.

I can put your mind at rest re two wheels or one: two will not be a major hindrance and will benefit rideability and make parking easier. I base this on a ride through Europe that I made a couple of years back with my wife and our daughter. The trailer was a Chariot rather than  cargo trailer but the dynamics are similar. All up weight was a shade over 75 kgs plus me (yes,really!). The Chariot made the whole deal very doable; from it I would suggest that 20” wheels are the way to go: easy availability of cheap n strong BMX tyres, very good ride quality (though the chariot is sprung, which helps) and lack of rolling resistance.

As for getting around posts, etc, I had no issues at all during 4000 kms in five countries on everything from main roads to easy singletrack dirt cycle routes and towpaths. The only problems we had were where the powers that be (in Switzerland) had routed cycle paths up and down flights of stairs

The point about parking, btw, only applies if you use a stand (which I would recommend without hesitation: makes life so much easier).

Hope that helps.

We had a chariot and it was awesome, some great trips and a joy to pull and push.  I also have a bob trailer that I have loaded with shopping and firewood in the past to the tune of 30-50kg.

I don’t have one but as you say everyone who has a stand swears by them as a small addition that makes a huge impact on quality of enjoyment.

cheers

toby