Bike Trailer Safety and Accessories

Featuring Paul Dragan, Cycling Equipment Specialist

Duration: 2 minutes, 26 seconds

A bike trailer is a great way to get your family involved in cycling in an early age.

It needs to be hooked up correctly and the trailer needs to be safe. Here are some tips on how to do that.

The trailer must be attached correctly to your bicycle. All trailers come in a safety strap which goes through the frame of the bicycle, in the event of failure of the hitch. This can be a little complicated at the beginning, go to your local bike shop, get them to show you and practice it while you're at the store. 

It's a great way to take your family cycling. The trailer itself, this comes in slightly different models. This one carries two children and there's ample room in there for water bottles, diaper bags and toys for the beach.

The trailer itself has a roll bar built in, to the frame of the trailer, in the event of tippage, if your child is strapped in correctly, your child will be a hundred percent safe. Tippage is very, very rare. 

A safety flag makes you a little more visible to traffic, but keep in mind that most drivers, when they see a child’s trailer, they give it lots of leeway, more than you would often get on your own bike, because they assume that there's a child inside, whether there is or not. A bug screen and a rain screen complete the whole package. 

You can take your child cycling in any weather, very, very nice. Finally, you should just periodically check the air pressure on the tire. Bear in mind that these tires don’t hold the same amount of weight as you on your bicycle, so they need to be full but not overfilled.

As far as getting children in and out of trailers, it's relatively simple once you’ve done it once or twice. Paul, would you like to help us? Can you get in the trailer for us?

Your child will naturally want to climb into the trailer as children naturally want to do.  What's important for you is that you seat them correctly and you make sure the safety harness is done up correctly. Most harnesses work something like this -- they have a shoulder strap and a seatbelt. 

This way, your child is safe and secured in the event of tippage. Pull the straps tight and you and your little guy are ready to go have fun. Now we have Paul’s safety harness in and he and I are ready to go for a bike ride and enjoyed ourselves, whether it's going to the park, going to school or just going to get groceries.

Presenter: Mr. Paul Dragan, Bracing & Equipment Specialist, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Bracing & Equipment Specialist