A bike trailer worth the money if you love to mountain bike and want to maintain what’s left of your sanity.
As a new parent and a long time lover of mountain biking and recreation in general, I was struggling to figure out how to get my little one out on the single-track with me. I’d jogged with a B.O.B. trailer in the foothills, but A) I don’t really like running that much and B) the width of the two-wheel-axel was still dubious in places throughout my proffered loops.
Boise has some amazing biking opportunity right out the back door and I was yearning to hit the trail with my little guy. I can bike the 3 miles easily to the trailhead, then do a full ride before heading home for an 1hr 30 minute total ride that I’m stoked on. Or I can run on pavement to the TH and back and my knees can hate most if it. After a lot of searching around, I found the tout terrain 2.0 (MSRP $1700). With that type of price tag, I felt momentarily ill. That price felt laughable. But, after looking at comparable trail-style trailers, nothing seemed to fit the bill as well for my style of adventures, primarily single-track based. Also, the others trailers ain’t exactly cheap. So I decided to save up a little and cry once and buy once.
The trailer came almost fully assembled. Putting it together was easy, which is good since the instructions were in German.
The trailer is marketed for kids 6months-5years or up to 55lbs. Unless your Tadej Pogacar (3x Tour De France winner) I think pulling a 5 year old for any long missions might be a bit of a tall order. My kiddo is currently 13 months and 23lbs though, and I’m already kicking myself that I didn’t get this sooner. There are accessory head pads that you can purchase is you’re worried about head stabilization or you can make your own. It is the only kid-specific single wheeled trailer that I could find on the market w/ travel and a 5 point harness. The company touts (see what I did there?) 8″ of travel with a 24″ wheel w/ a Schrader valve rim(good to know if you get a flat, you’ll need a Schrader adapter on your presta pump).
The Tout’s roll cage wraps all the way around the cockpit including stabilizing bars protruding towards the hitch arm. I can’t say we have tested out the full capabilities of the roll cage…yet. But I hope not to.
The 5-point harness has a nice magnetic clip, which is a thoughtful touch when trying to wrangle your little one in without accidentally clipping their chonk or clothing. It also has a somewhat tricky release to prevent the kiddo from un-clicking themselves mid-ride. Easy on, tough off.
The seat is breathable mesh construction and has some space under it to put extra layers, stuffed toys, snacks, etc. Extra elastic pockets are located on either side of the footwell for snacks or bottles. The cover system is so simple but so sweet, using elastic banding and toggles w/ small sewn-in rings to hold either a clear screened cover in place for crummy days or a mesh cover for those warmer days. There is an additional shade panel to attach to the sway bars for those really sunny days or for when you are biking directly into the sun.
Two side panels also zip/roll up to allow more airflow when needed. The amount of zippers and difficult button snaps are kept to a minimum on this cockpit, which I really appreciate. Keeping it simple when traveling with the chaos machine that my child is, is very refreshing.
In my opinion, the hitch is what sets this system apart. The reason this trailer can be a one wheeled trailer it seems, is because tout uses a bomber hitch system that integrates into the seat post of your bike and includes an extra safety cable that goes around your frame. They use a machined metal hitch that can attach to the seat post and live there so you are ready to ride at a moments notice w/ or w/o the trailer. Tout has two different sized hitches that you will order to specifically fit your seat post size, with different shims to make differing diameters work. I ordered two, one for my mountain bike dropper post, and one for my gravel bike seat post. The hitch requires about 1.5″ of space to attach to, so if your dropper post doesn’t have any room between the frame and the insert, you’ll have to get a dropper with slightly less travel. PinkBike, here we come.
Since the hitch mounts solidly to the main bar that connects back to the trailer, the trailer tilts with you as you ride. This makes the trailer feel so nimble and trail capable and also integrated into what your doing. It also lets your little one get the feeling of leaning into the turns. Other trailer feel a bit more loosey goosey.
The ride feels so smooth due to the one-wheel design. There is very little rolling resistance. The shock eats up little chunky rocks w/o issue and can handle small drops w/o jarring the heck out of my little one. I started super soft on the shock air and have been adding little by little as we go. I would rather err on the side of too soft than too stiff, especially as he gets more head and body control.
My thoughts so far: I love mountain biking and proffer it for my fitness if I can find the time to ride. Being a parent means being a little shorter on time as a rule. If I can bring my little one along for that fitness, not only can I do the thing I like to do for fun, but I can also get my fitness in for the day and I don’t have to juggle my partners schedule and mine or cash in on some social capital. It’s a win, win, win. Also, pulling the extra weight of my child up my normal hills, feels like I’m balancing out the influx of chicken nuggets in my life. The cost still feels a little nuts when I think about it, but the aforementioned benefits make it feel so worth it. Hearing my kid giggle while we rip down the trail also makes it easy to justify saving up for this trailer.
I think the seat could be a little more tilted back, which would make it nicer for when the little buddies decide to take a nap. When compared to other trailers, something that makes this thing so awesome is also a con, storage. It’s nimble because of the lack of space. I’m personally used to having bike bags for bike packing and big days out mountain biking so strapping things to my frame is nothing new. However, if you want to store a bunch of stuff for long rides in/on the trailer, it’s gonna get weird.
I plan on making a short review video complete w/ cockpit views as we ride down some of my favorite local trails. Stay tuned.
Links to come.
GeaREddy 