Aosom Elite II Trailer. The best child bike trailer/stroller for the money…

Aosom Elite II 2 Child Trailer/Stroller.
One of the biggest problems that people have when it comes to bikes is what to do with the kids that are too young to ride their own bikes. The obvious option is to get one of those ultra cheap seats that attaches behind the rider in which the child can sit in and be strapped down. I will say this about those… If you really can’t afford anything more than those seats, then by all means, get one. But I would not ever recommend one of those seats to anyone otherwise. I would highly recommend a bike trailer to pull behind your bike. They are a little pricier than a seat, but they offer so many advantages that it really becomes obvious that they are by far worth the extra expense.

The first reason why I do not suggest getting one of those seats is that they are cumbersome and awkward. First off, you have to put your child in the seat before you get on your bike. Unless you have a women’s step through frame, and you’re like me, you have to lean the bike over to get your leg over the top tube. This has caused me a few problems. When you lean the bike over, your kid doesn’t like it. If you don’t want to lean your bike over so far, your second option is to swing your leg over the seat, which of course can end up with you kicking your child. The second issue with those seats is that they really change the way that the bike handles on the road, and not at all in a good way. For one, it makes your bike very top heavy, because you are adding 30 pounds+ of weight very high on your bike. This makes turning more awkward and less stable. The other problem is that many kids like to move, and when they start swinging their weight from side to side, it tends to make your bike swing from side to side. Not much fun in my opinion. The other issues is that it negates the possibility of a rack, so therefore, you won’t be able to run errands with your bike, because you wouldn’t even be able to wear a backpack, because it would be shoved up in your child’s face. The last issue that I have with them is that in the hopefully unlikely event that you crash, or get flung over your bars, or fall or have any kind of accident, your child will be falling from quite high up down into the pavement. Not exactly the most safe place for a child to fall from.

So from there, the other option is the bike trailer. This is the option that I recommend. A lot of bike trailers are able to be converted into strollers when you reach your destination so that you can continue to have your child seated while on foot. This is great for the parents who like to bike to a store, or the zoo, or any other place where you would be doing quite a bit of walking after getting there.

So you may now be wondering what trailer out there would I recommend and why. In comes the Aosom Elite II 2 Child Trailer/Stroller.

This baby has made my life so much easier. First off, as the name implies, it doubles as a trailer and a stroller, so that is obviously a great feature. You would actually be surprised by how many trailers don’t come with a stroller, and you have to buy the stroller option extra. This is especially true of high end trailers, where all of the extra features are add ons instead of included. I also love how the stroller wheel attaches at the front of the frame instead of at the end of the trailer arm, this makes it so much more compact when navigating in the mall or in stores. You can see in this picture where the wheel is mounted.

This thing rolls very smoothly. My wife and I daily ride 20-30 miles while I am pulling this trailer. It is awesome for bringing the family together. You will feel it behind you, especially uphill, but unless you are not an educated person, you will realize that if you are carrying 70 extra pounds, you’ll feel it no matter what the design is. The most expensive trailers will still be felt. The transformation from trailer to stroller is easy. You can even do it with your child in the trailer. When you disconnect it from the bike, just lean it back. Your child won’t fall out, they will just be on their back for a few seconds as you pivot the trailing arm under the trailer. Note, make sure when tipping it back that you don’t have the stroller wheel on the back mounts, because it won’t tip very far. This picture shows where you stow the stroller wheel when not in use.

Now, some people have also mentioned that trailers have issues with getting through doorways. This is true. But what do you expect it is a double wide stroller after all? To make this easier, I never even use the wheel guards that come with it( that are these bars that go on either side that protect from things hitting the wheels). They have never even been on the trailer. I know where the trailer is, so I don’t feel like I am going to clip a street sign and get it caught. It is up to you, but I am just telling you what I do. With the fender guards off, it fits through my front door at least. I can tell some narrower doors may be an issue. The bars that serve as the parking brakes are a little wider than the tire, so I took a hacksaw and cut off the excess to make it less likely to hit something. I don’t fault Aosom for this, it is a double wide trailer. I don’t have a picture of the bars that I am talking about, but it is a bar that presses against the tire to act as a parking brake so that it doesn’t roll downhill. They stick out a little farther than the tire, by maybe 3/4″ on both sides.

It mounts to the big really easily. It comes with a little hitch that you slip onto the axle on the outside of the rear dropout, then the trailer slides onto the hitch and is latched in place by a locking pin. Then there is a safety strap that goes around the frame of the bike in the almost impossible event that the hitch breaks.

You can also see in the picture that it works just find with my Greenfield Kickstand

As far as putting together and taking apart. It is pretty easy. The directions are funny, and unhelpful, but it doesn’t take much to figure it out. This won’t collapse in 5 seconds like a regular stroller, but it isn’t a regular stroller. If you want more ease of dissassembly, spend more for a more expensive trailer. You are getting a great deal on this trailer, I really couldn’t say this enough.

Words to the wise. If you like to go out of town with this trailer, expect wind to cause delays. All trailers are going to be huge wind catchers. It isn’t this model, its the product type in general. I only say this so that you will give yourself more time to get somewhere. Running around in town, wind will be minimal, so it shouldn’t be an issue. I pull this with a road bike, so I am constantly pushing the envelope as far as speed is concerned. I will also say this, if you have a geared bike and a single speed, opt for the geared bike, it will make life easier when going up hills. Some people complain about helmet clearance and bla bla bla, but honestly I don’t make my son wear a helmet in this thing, the steel bars are stout, and the frame is stiff, its a roll cage that will protect your child, its bombproof. And if you think that a helmet will save your child if you got rear ended by a car, I suggest you really start to look into the research that has been done showing how ineffective bike helmets really are. Your child does not need to wear a bike helmet while riding in this thing. Would your parents have put a bike helmet on you? No, get real.