The Outspokin’ Cyclist: Driving the kids with a bicycle

Four days a week, Teddy Salazar takes his son Theo to school just like most parents. Instead of a car seat, however, Theo rides in a trailer towed behind Salazar’s bicycle. Weaving around potholes and climbing hills along four miles of west Durham’s streets, Salazar tows his son to and from pre-school. Hard work though it may be for Salazar, “it’s actually lots of fun,” he says.

“We wave to people on their porches on Carroll Street. We get all sorts of comment like, ‘Look at that!’ or ‘How cute!’ when we ride by Duke. It’s really easy to stop for coffee, a snack or a potty break. It’s a long commute after all.”

Theo rides in a Burley Solo, a single seat trailer crafted by one of three major bike trailer designers. Burley joins bicycle manufacturers Giant and Trek to offer trailers that are designed specifically for hauling children.

Salazar and his wife Sarah chose the Solo because its seat doesn’t push the helmet forward over Theo’s face when he sits back, buckled-in. The Solo attaches to the quick-release skewer of Salazar’s rear wheel. And aside from keeping their speed under 15mph, the trailer seems stable enough not to require the cyclist to do anything special, says Salazar.

On my ride home from work one October evening, I ran into Reuben Stob along the American Tobacco Trail. Behind him, his son Arie was singing and bobbing along in a Burley D’Lite. Stob said he had just moved to Durham from Lithuania and used the trailer to carry his son home from daycare.

Later that same evening, I stopped Anga Pohlers on Erwin Rd to ask her about her trailer. Even before Erwin Rd was repaved and striped with bike lanes between the Duke Hospital and Ninth St, Erwin was wide enough to ride with a trailer behind, Pohlers said.

Aside from variations in color, the trailers all looked the same to me. So, I stopped by The Bicycle Chain for some help understanding the differences. Chris Phillips walked me through two of models they had in the store.

First up is the Trek Doodlebug, a lightweight aluminum alloy trailer ($280). It holds up to 100lbs, and comes equipped with two seats. Each seat has a “three-point harness with one point between the legs and shoulder straps over each shoulder,” says Phillips.

“If you’re going on a picnic, going to the store or to the neighborhood pool,” adds Phillips, “there are small internal side pockets and storage space behind the seat.”

Salazar’s goal is to make Theo comfortable. “Parents who want to try towing their kids should be aware that” the kids will closer to the road — something to think about in summer heat — and closer to automobile wheels — something to think about in wet or dusty conditions.

On warm sunny days, the mesh covering that comes stock with the Solo or Doodlebug will suffice, but Salazar says he rolls down the Solo’s plastic shell for rainy or windy days. The rain fly costs extra on the Doodlebug.

The Doodlebug, like most trailers mounts to the rear axle of the bike. It comes with a longer replacement skewer for the rear wheel; the new skewer holds the rear wheel of the bike in place and connects to the ball-and-socket joint that tows the trailer.

The ball-and-socket hitch design allows the trailer to pivot at most any angle so that the bike can move laterally independent of the trailer. Many parents choose to use trailers over bike-mounted child seats, says Phillips, since the trailer won’t be affected if the cyclist loses balance.

The Burley D’Lite ($450) has a few safety features the Doodlebug lacks. It comes standard with bars on the trailer’s sides that deflect trees or bollards around the trailer’s wheels. If you’ve misjudged the the width of a trail’s entrance, you might appreciate those bars. There’s an integrated rain fly, a parking brake, and a unique hitch-mount design that doesn’t require you to replace your skewer. The hitch clamps to bike’s chainstay instead. For storage, the D’Lite also folds down smaller than Doodlebug.

Tim Griffin, a research fellow in Duke’s Bioengineering lab and a member of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission, tows his two daughters in a Burley D’Lite.

“I’ve found that drivers are pretty considerate when you have a bike carrier,” says Griffin. “In fact, the first morning I took the carrier to work with me cars were giving me wide clearance.”

Other considerations for first time trailer haulers are the extended turning radius and the additional width that trailers add. For being seen on the road, each trailer comes with an orange flag, “but we also recommend blinkie lights if you’ll be riding after dark,” says Phillips.

Salazar recommends taking it to the store for hauling groceries or running some other errand first. Before strapping more precious cargo in those seats, “find out how long it takes to clear an intersection, what stopping is like or going up hill. There’s a strange rubber band effect when trying to accelerate fast.”

All of the people interviewed for this article also noted that they found their trailers through either Craigslist or the Herald Sun classified ads.