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Review: Weehoo Igo 2 Child Bike Trailer

We have used several different ways of transporting our kids via bike and when we found someone selling this used Weehoo trailer online for a great deal, we needed to give it a try! This trailer was attractive to our family for a few different reasons:

  1. We wanted a trailer with a single wheel. We also have a couple 2-child Croozer trailers, but we specifically wanted a single wheel trailer. This makes travelling the side of roads safer, and biking on trails more possible. 

  2. We wanted a trailer that the kids could help petal. There are many tag-a-long type kids bikes that attach to an adult bike (check out  Trail-a-Bike's Website  for both single and tandem trailers) which are also a great option, but the Weehoo can accommodate younger children. We try get our kids independently biking fairly young, so we only use trailers for the little ages (4 and under).

  3. We wanted a trailer that fit at least 2 kids. Having 4 little kids means we need to get creative when biking, especially when doing our bike touring and all the extra gear that we have to bring along! 

Since the Weehoo is a single-wheel trailer, it can go on trails! But, because it has no suspension of any kind, it is an extremely rough ride.

Kids mean lots of gear!

So now to the features of the Weehoo Igo 2 itself, along with the pro's, cons and things I would change about this trailer. 

 Mounting to the Bike

The Weehoo is mounted to the adult bike via the seat-post. They did a very good job on the design of the detachable mount. The whole unit swivels on the seat-post, instead of part of it being clamped to the seat-post. When the whole trailer is clamped onto the seat-post (like some other trailers) it can make your whole seat move and puts more strain on the post. Since I attached this trailer to my fat-bike, I had to add a length of PVC pipe under the attachment in order to give my tire more clearance. I still found on some hills my tire hit the bottom of the bar a few times. I think that was mainly the clearance issue because of the fat tires.

Even though it is a fairly long trailer, the Weehoo can turn quite sharply behind the bike because it is attached to the seat-post and not the back wheel of the adult bike. 

The only con to this design is you can't put a rear rack for panniers or other child seats on your bike. You could however mount gear to the forks of the rear wheel. 

 

Seats

The Weehoo Igo 2 has two adjustable Recumbent-style seats.  I really like recumbent seats (so comfy) and can fit little to big kids. Kids often get tired when riding for long distances, and they can rest easier when sitting down as opposed to a saddle-style bike seat and handlebars. I want to add padding to the seats, or even design a fabric sling style seat like most adult recumbent bikes.

I found that when the front seat is as far back as it can go, that was a pretty good pedaling distance for my four year old's legs, and a tad too short for my 5 year old.  However that meant that the back seat only fit my 3 year old (or better yet a 2 year old), with my 4 and 5 year old being too squished. It is best to put the smaller child in the back and the larger child in the front seat. I think you wouldn't want to use this past 5 years old, as they are starting to outgrow it. In my opinion it would be the perfect size for a 2 and 4 year old!

Both seats have a 3 point harness with a chest strap. We only strap in the littlest ones. It is quite difficult to help buckle in and out two children and keep your bike upright all by yourself. The back seat is pretty much enclosed with the armrests so there is no fear of them falling out. We have never had an issue with our kids falling over or out of their seats, even when the back child fell asleep a few times! 

 

Storage

There is a little set of pannier bags and some storage pockets on the back of the seats and on the armrests (for a water-bottle or snacks). The kids really liked the pockets for storing their treasures they find on the way, whether that is cool rocks (we set a limit on that because of weight!), sticks, pretty flowers or bottle-caps. 

 

Pedalling

The pedals have a Velcro strap over the top which is nice to keep the child's feet secured to the pedals. The back seat child has a foot rest with straps over their feet as well. I can put my 1 year old in the back seat, but her feet don't reach the foot rest, making it better sized for a 2 year old. 

The front child helps pedal at their own speed (helping turn the chain on the trailer tire), but because the trailer is a ‘single speed’, you can only feel the child’s pedal’s helping when going up a steep hill. 

The chain runs inside of a plastic tube acting as a chain guard, which creates a safe place for the chain, but makes it extremely noisy when the child is pedalling. 

 

Riding in the rain

There is a small mud guard that comes with the trailer that attaches to the curved bar  in front of the child. It is not really effective at all if you are riding in the rain, and for our trip across Florida (you can read about that HERE), we actually lashed a temporary corrugated plastic mudguard onto the entire length of the curved bar.  That worked very well, eliminating almost all spray. I suppose if the adult bike had a good full-length fender the trailer wouldn't need a mudguard at all. 

You are able to buy a rain/weather cover that fits over the seats of the Weehoo trailers. However, it would not totally cover the child's legs (at least the front child) in the rain. We never used the covers, but it would be nice for those times we rode through Florida downpours! 

The rain/sun cover that can be added onto Weehoo trailers. (Source: www.rideweehoo.com)

 

What would I change?

I would love to see the Weehoo come with suspension of some kind-shocks would be best. It is a very hard ride on bumps, and cracks, even on pavement for the trailer. Since we do a lot of off-road type riding (and that was the purpose of getting a single wheel trailer), the Weehoo is too rough of a ride on trails for our family to use much.

Another thing that would help would be a larger or fat-tire option to go on trails, gravel, wet ground. A fat tire would also provide cushioning for the bumps.  

I think if we modified the trailer, we would remove the entire pedalling assembly. The help of the reduced weight would be a bigger help than the slight help the pedalling produces.

Overall, the Weehoo Igo 2 is a pretty nice trailer, but we need to do some modifications to this trailer to make it a better ride on the trails.

Enjoying the view from the Weehoo!