Trailer behind Burley Piccolo?

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

I just scored a Burley Piccolo from Craigslist ($75! I would actually rather have had a Kazoo but they seem much harder to find).

Anyway, I had been planning on sometimes making a train--me, Piccolo with 4-year-old, then trailer with 3-year-old and groceries.

But the manual for the Piccolo says not to do that as it can overload the hitch. Does anyone have experience using a Piccolo that way? Is it really dangerous?

It also says to have the rack professionally installed, which I was not planning on... but oh well. I think the kids still have enough in their Christmas savings to cover it :-).

[Thegoblinchief]

I tow a trailer behind my trail-a-bike, but it's a different model and attaches to the bike using a very sturdy bracket that attaches to the seat post. The design of the Burley is just...odd, IMO. Knowing the size screws used for rear racks, yeah, I could see not recommending adding a trailer. By contrast, the fasteners for my trail a bike are easily 3x thicker. I don't exactly know what the shear strength on them is (not an engineer) but I could see overloading being a problem.

Keep in mind even a super durable rear rack is usually only rated for 75-100 pounds. The trail a bike plus a child is easily that already - hence no extra weight.

The "install by professional" just sounds like standard CYA boilerplate.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

I would have gone with the seat post kind, but my seat post is way too short 'cause I'm a midget.

I'll see if anyone else weighs in. Gonna be a looooong couple of years (until Big Brother can ride on his own) if I can't use them together--they are right now having tantrums because they are "too close together" in the bike trailer and want me to drive to Walmart. Sigh.

[abhe8]

I put the burley trailer behind the we ehoo, but the weehoo attaches to the seat post. That piccolo had a very weird attachment, and I agree that too much stress and weight would be on the screws that hold the rownack to the bike. I would keep looking on cl for a tag along that attaches to the seaport. I'm very sorry, but I can stand the extra inch or two. It's really not that much. For me, the risk of a catastrophic failure would be too much.

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[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

I put the burley trailer behind the we ehoo, but the weehoo attaches to the seat post. That piccolo had a very weird attachment, and I agree that too much stress and weight would be on the screws that hold the rownack to the bike. I would keep looking on cl for a tag along that attaches to the seaport. I'm very sorry, but I can stand the extra inch or two. It's really not that much. For me, the risk of a catastrophic failure would be too much.

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No use to keep looking for a seat post attachment--as I said, my seat post is simply too short. It's just barely possible that I could squeeze it on if I raised the seat to an uncomfortable and potentially unsafe level (I've already raised it an inch or two for better mechanics) AND removed the rear cargo rack, but I'm not willing to take the rack off.

Although many people on the interwebs report towing trailers behind the Piccolo, I will probably just tell Big Brother to suck it up and squish into the trailer. He is a very strong rider for his age and may be able to ride next to me as early as next year (age 5+), at least to the closer stores. I can still use the Piccolo for family rides when Mr. FP is towing the trailer, and maybe we can do like the Goblin Chief and have them take turns on it when they're older--one riding independently, one on the Piccolo, then switch when the first one gets tired. So I think it's still an OK purchase--I'll go ahead and have the rack installed and keep the thing.

Frustrating short-person problems. (I'm not regular short. I'm 4 foot 11.)

[TrMama]

That does sound frustrating. Instead of using the Piccolo, could you try getting yourself a different bike that would allow you to use a regular seatpost trail-a-bike? Something like a small mountain bike with a really sloped top tube? Or a cruiser? I bet you could pick up a kid's 24" bike for a song.

I once had a tandem Adam's trail-a-bike so I could tow both kids. The problem with it was that I just wasn't a strong/heavy enough rider tow both kids and the bike up any kind of hill. Plus the Adam's hitch design allows a lot of lateral movement (aka the whole trailer tips sideways unexpectedly). I was always petrified of wiping out since the tipping caused my steering to be all over the place.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

That does sound frustrating. Instead of using the Piccolo, could you try getting yourself a different bike that would allow you to use a regular seatpost trail-a-bike? Something like a small mountain bike with a really sloped top tube? Or a cruiser? I bet you could pick up a kid's 24" bike for a song.

I once had a tandem Adam's trail-a-bike so I could tow both kids. The problem with it was that I just wasn't a strong/heavy enough rider tow both kids and the bike up any kind of hill. Plus the Adam's hitch design allows a lot of lateral movement (aka the whole trailer tips sideways unexpectedly). I was always petrified of wiping out since the tipping caused my steering to be all over the place.

I'm not that strong a rider, either--that lateral movement would probably be an issue! Thanks for weighing in!

I actually used to have a 24" mountain bike. It was so much more work to ride! No way could I haul with something like that again :-).