Buying Trail-Gator Child Bike Tow Bar

I was cautiously optimistic about purchasing this product based on some of the other reviews that I read on Amazon. Having used it several times now, I like it very much. It is not without its drawbacks, but is a reasonable variant of the numerous "trailer bike" type solutions in the market. It fulfills my main requirement of getting my young son and his bike from my house to an area that is more friendly to him riding on his own.

I did not encounter the problem some people noted about the connecting pin in the bar being loose. The one on mine has a very tight fit and has no slop. There is a small, but acceptable amount of slop where the bar connects to the bracket on the child's bike. To be clear, I was able to mount the bracket to the child's bike very securely. This is slop between the bar and the bracket and is mitigated by the quick-release bolt that goes through this connection.

The weakest point that I see with this design is the bracket that attaches to the child's bike. I had to tighten this several times over the course of a few test rides. The problem is that if the bracket is not tightened sufficiently, then the child's bike will start to pivot in the bracket. This might not have been an issue if I'd had a torque wrench. I see this as a necessary evil in the design. A purpose-built trailer bike will not have this problem since the towing arm and the childs bike are a single unit. Having this bracket allows me to tow a real bicycle.

As a competitive cyclist who does their own bicycle maintenance, I found this product to be relatively easy to install. The bracket will damage the paint on the child's bike. This was not an issue for me. I also used a spare "heavy duty" seat post to attach the bar on my bike because I was nervous about scratching the paint on my "good/light" seat post. The bracket that stays on the adult's seat post has some mass, so this solution has the added advantage of allowing me to trade seats/seatposts depending on whether I plan to ride by myself or with my child.


Pros:
* Allows me to tow a child's bike with or without child on it.
* Can connect/disconnect bikes without a lot of effort.
* The price was reasonable.

Cons:
* It's heavy, but I suppose that means it's sturdy.
* Quick release bolts go through holes, so connect/disconnect is more work than changing a bicycle wheel that has a quick release. Again, this makes for a more solid connection, so I can live with this.
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