The New Trailer - And My First Fair-Weather Fall

WEATHER THERE: light rain, 10C, calm wind

WEATHER BACK:cloudy, 14C, 9 km/hr crosswind

On one of my days off last week, I turned weeks of indecision into action: after researching the relative pros and cons of various ways to transport my child with my bike (rear-mount child seat, front-mount child seat, trail-a-bike, and single-child trailer), I bought a single-child trailer from Mountain Equipment Co-op. Though I've used it very little so far - just a short test ride last Thursday (short because of the unfortunate Brazilian that prevented me from biking much at all last week!), another short ride to the park on Sunday, and to-and-from daycare today - it's been great! It's easy to attach and detach from my bike, it's much slimmer than my double trailer and that makes it lighter and less likely to get caught on a curb or on the door frame going in and out of storage, it's more comfortable for my daughter because she's more cocooned in it, and it's sturdy as anything.

Case in point: when taking it for a test ride on Thursday, it had been raining that day and I approached a part of the road where I had to get up onto the sidewalk. There was a big, deep puddle covering the edge of the road where it met with the curb. When I tried to ride up over the curb onto the sidewalk, my wheel caught on a deep pothole that was covered by the puddle, and I was thrown from the bike. I tumbled off, landing on the sidewalk (thankfully not in the puddle!), my bike fell over, and as soon as I landed I looked back in horror to see if my daughter was okay. Sitting calmly in the trailer, she looked at me with some semblance of surprise and said, "You okay, mommy? Mommy, you okay?" The trailer hadn't budged an inch.

I was okay - just a small scrape on my leg, nothing serious, and surprisingly not even a scratch on my hands or a bruise anywhere else. So I mounted back up and we continued on our merry way, none the worse for wear. If she were on a trail-a-bike or in a child seat, she would likely have sustained some kind of injury - or at the very least, been scared by the fall and perhaps developed an aversion to biking with me. Thankfully I went with the trailer instead! No injury, no scariness - just a fun ride.

I suspect that the Velcro used to secure the screen and rain cover will wear out sooner than I want it to, making it impossible to close after some use, and that might prove to be an annoying issue. I might have to sew snaps into the material when that time comes. However, that point hasn't come yet and hopefully won't come for a while. This trailer will hopefully get us through some winter commuting without issue - and, given its performance so far, I'm looking forward to it!