advice needed for tag-along bike please

[Escallonia]

Has anyone had experience of adding on a tag-along onto their bike? ds is nearly 4 and quite sensible / road aware, but obv is still only a small child. Also he can't pedal his own bike yet!

is a tag along a good idea? I worry about him being low down in traffic, whether he might fall / get off and how it works if he can't pedal! also worried about how easy it is to adjust to the extra length of bike I'll be on, eg judging distances and time to cross junctions etc.

have been on a bike break during winter but need to get going again and think he will just be too heavy now for the child seat on the back of the bike.

Do you have cycle paths where you'll be cycling with ds?

We have a tag along but have never used it on roads.

Like you say, ds would be very low down and vulnerable, the turning area needed is also pretty big so they're not well suited for road use.

no, mainly residential road cycling.

argh not sure what to do now, he's not ready for his own bike (I see parents on the road, while kid cycles on pavement) but I think his weight on the back of my bike is just going to be too much.

have you seen trailgators? We've got one and really like it (saying that, he always goes on the back of dh's bike)
They're similar to tag alongs but use thier own bike so you can cycle to the park, unclip his bike and let him have a cycle.

Used our tag for miles! Husband at one point had rear baby seat and tag on his bike for outings with both children without mum. We had attachment for tag on both parent bikes for easing swapping. Used from 3 years - taught road safety, holding position on road, reading road ahead, signalling etc. Very funny from behind seeing husband and child stick opposite arms out approaching a junction. Now older, safe confident cyclists. Used on rural roads, tracks etc and also many seaside holidays. Can be hard work up hill with older/heavier child - "put your engine on" - pedal - usually helped. Only scary moment was when husband looked down through his legs to check on quiet daughter behind. Her feet were not on the pedals, but he hadn't heard her shout as she fell off. He stopped and found her with her feet on the handlebars eating her ice cream.
The tag meant we could cycle as a family for many years. One of the best things we ever bought.

I love our tag along!

DS2 is now 4yrs 5m and fine on his own bike but we still use the tag along for longer rides so he doesn't get too tired and I take him to nursery on it so that I can bring it home afterwards. (I collect both boys together and can't face both of them on bikes with a million other children and parents on the pavements!). Both boys used the tag along from about 3 years old.

we had a fab tag-a-long type thing .. it was great and meant dd could happily go with us for miles without getting tired - and when she decided to pedal hard it was amazing how much extra zoom my bike got!

It takes a little while to get used to the extra dimensions but not much

dd never fell off but we had a strict rule that I had to check she was ready to go when we stopped at junctions and she had to tell me if she took her feet off etc

our one was attached to my bike via a special bike rack which meant it just dropped into place and then couldn't get uncoupled - it affected the bike handling much less than the ones which attach to the seat post

I can't remember the make of mine (I got it second-hand) but you can get a similar version from islabikes www.islabikes.co.uk - pricey but well worth it and you can sell it on again for almost as much as you paid for it