Books, biscuits and bicycles…

Tagalongs, kids and cold weather

The Chillikebab family recently went on holiday to the UK, which was nice. And also very cold. I didn’t get to do much riding at all, but there was one small highlight when we stayed at CenterParcs for a few days (as a kind of respite from relentless family reunions…!).

Whilst we were there, I hired a bike and tagalong, to carry the kids along. Leaving aside the fact we could ride legally in our warm hats (the CenterParcs guide recommended wearing helmets, but thankfully I saw almost no-one with one on the whole time we were there), it was a lot of fun. The kids absolutely loved it, and it was much easier than carrying them in a kiddie seat. The bike was much easier to control without the weight on the back, and it was also quicker just to get them on and off it – no straps etc to worry about, they could just jump on and off we went.

CenterParcs is really set up for bike hire. Once everyone is checked in, cars are not allowed on site, which makes it very nice for cycling. Lots of people hire bikes, even in winter – and the size of the bike hire facility indicates that it’s even more bicycle intense in the summer.

The taalong fitted to the bike was a Burley Kazoo. This is rather unusual, in that it couples to a special rack, rather than the seatpost. Apparently this makes it more stable, but I’ve not tried the other kind to compare. That said, from my subsequent reading around it seems that the Burley is the kind of Rolls Royce option of these types of things – with a price tag to match.

I did wonder how much I would notice the effort put in by the little Chillikebabs turning the pedals. The answer is that actually you do notice it – it’s definitely easier when they are pedalling. Up the hills I exhorted them to pedal harder. Little Chillikebab Jr took this to heart, standing up on the pedals and going for broke. She also delighted in me stopping pedalling on very slight downhills, leaving her pedalling both of us as we gradually gathered pace.

The upshot of all this is that I now intend to buy a tagalong for use at home. I now have to work out if I can mount one on the Radish somehow, or if I’m going to need to buy another bike specifically for the purpose…