My Very Active Girlfriend and I are dropping into Wales this weekend (short notice, long story) and she wants to have a go at BikePark Wales. Her 9-y-o is coming along so we'll limit ourselves to the easy bits, but the bike he has is stupidly heavy so I'm thinking I might give him a tow up the climb. I'm way too tight to pay for uplift, which is booked out anyway.

Anyone done this? Hints n tips? I was thinking a bungee cord attached to a rope to give it a bit of boing.

IMHO wouldn't go with bungees Tim. As a mate of mine once said "bungees on = eye out"

Poor mans option is to loop a couple of inner tubes together and use those

I've towed folk in the past. Decent length of ropeage required, wrap it round the young 'uns bar a couple of times (near the centre) then place the lose end beneath his hand ... should he not like what's happening he simply needs to release his grip and the rope should pull free.

I'd avoid anything elastic too.

I have done this quite a bit when I did adventure races, our female team member was not strong a bike, she was a bloody running machine mind. What we used to do was get a sturdy retractable dog lead and cable tie it to our seat post. Then either loop it round her handlebars, or over the stem and under the bolts to hold it in place. Worked an absolute treat, and tidily out of the way when we didn't need it.

In wild contradiction to the answer above, always have some elastic in the system, it makes the pick of the tow much smoother and the subsequent tow is kinder, otherwise it is full on or off, and a child won't understand about not braking with a tight tow line etc.

Bingo

I have a towhee https://towwhee.com/ that I use with my 8yr old son at trial centres etc. It makes much more stuff accessible to him and gives me a good workout up the hills.

You can probably frig one yourself for a much lower price but the towhee works really well, just the right length and amount of stretch.

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 4:58 pm place the lose end beneath his hand ... should he not like what's happening he simply needs to release his grip and the rope should pull free.

Clever, that .

You can probably frig one yourself

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 7:53 pm

You can probably frig one yourself

Good excuse

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tRotvCVKAe8

+1 for the towee bungee. Best thing I’ve found for riding with kids. Really quick to attach and take up no real room / weight when not in use.

I was at Coed y Brenin once. There was a family with a young-ish lad who were doing the Dragons Back. To help the kid on the steep bits, dad had fixed one end of a six foot length of water pipe to his seat tube vertically, so that it stood up rather like a fishing rod. It was curved and had a loop handle on the end. The youngster could hold the handle to be towed, but when released the pipe sprang up out of the way. The kid could grab or release the handle on the move. I thought it was a good idea except I had doubts of the stability of holding on with one hand. Hooking the loop around the stem in such a way that it would release easily would make it much safer.

Ok thanks all for the input. Massively appreciated. I'd like a towhee for sure but no time to get one, so I'm going with a bungee cord attached to my seat rails, and I've bent the grapple inward so there is (little to) no chance of it escaping and damaging the lad. Attached to this is a few metres of thin climbing rope. I think it will do.

Typically though, now I've made the offer, I've changed my mind and it's too late. The young fella is nice enough, but insanely jealous of his mum's bloke (me) and likes to push the envelope. I fully expect him to spend most of the time on the tow line with his brakes semi-engaged.

This could get ugly. Will report back.

Bestest
Me

Why BPW though, its prety full-on there, I only ride that stuff with Full Face helmet and pads? Also thats a fair old haul to the top?

What about Blue Scar at Afan or Forest of Dean Verderers Trail?

Yeh, have to say I'm not all that keen to ride BPW with bairns, but we're staying near there and have done Afan and FoD a couple of times. Sure it'll be fine. What can go wrong ....