benb
08-29-2016, 09:24 AM
We had a family vacation last week in Vermont.. ended up riding about 10 hours.
We just got a Weehoo for our son, he is turning 4 in November. We had a lot of fun with it. He's been in a Burley since he was about 18 months so he's really used to coming on rides. Longest ride we did with the Weehoo was about 19 miles. Our typical rides involve rest stops at farms, playgrounds, restaurants for breakfast/lunch, etc..
The Weehoo is longer than a Burley but narrower. I'd say it's a little tougher to ride in a crosswind but vastly better in the woods and on dirt since it's a single track trailer. Weight is probably heavier but that's a wash, my son pedals surprisingly hard, hard enough that I can feel the load drop on my pedals when he starts pedaling hard. On flat it felt like we could drop my wife pretty easily. (Granted I'm much stronger than her) I had to experiment, I ended up having to raise my rear tire pressure a ton to ride with it compared to the Burley. I only put about 40-45psi in the rear 38c tire on my Space Horse when riding solo and I had to go all the way up to about 70psi when towing the Weehoo. IME the Burley has very little tongue weight as the load is pretty much centered around the trailer's axle. On the weehoo the child sits about 50% between the Weehoo's wheel and your rear wheel. I am thinking I'm probably going to be putting a 42c rear on my space horse and upsizing the Weehoo's rear wheel as big as it goes. It came with a 20x1.75 I am going to go up to 20x2.2 or 20x2.5 if possible. It's hard to get out of the saddle when towing it which is pretty hard on your backside on bumpy stuff.
I got in 3 solo rides during the week, 45 miles, 50 miles, and a 34 miler. I leaned heavily on the Bike ferry between Colchester, VT and Grand Isle/South Hero to ride a lot on the islands this time. There has been a bike trail on an old rail line that went between the mainland and the south end of Grand Isle for a long time, but there was a cutout in it for sailboats so you couldn't get to the island. Maybe 5 years ago they started having a ferry sporadically for cyclists. It's gotten popular enough it's open 7 days a week in the summer now and is only $5 for a one way and $8 for round trip. t've been riding out to the Islands for as long as I've been cycling but typically didn't get to explore that much as there was 40 miles of riding to get out there and back before you even started riding around on the good stuff. The bike ferry makes it much more accessible, you're on the island in about 5 miles from where we stay and maybe 10 from downtown Burlington. This trail is supposedly the longest trail in the world where you're riding with water on both sides the whole trail. It's beautiful as you have the green mountains looming on one side and the Adirondacks as the other. Wind is often incredibly high though. On a light wind day I averaged 21.5mph down the trail, on a high wind day this trip I was riding at the high end of my tempo zone and averaged 13mph.
The islands are beautiful, lots of deserted roads, farms, views of the lake, nice dirt roads. The only thing really missing is significant climbing.
I also did a neat ride called the 3 ferry loop, I rode south to Burlington, VT, took the Ferry across Lake Champlain (that takes an hour) to Port Kent, NY. Then I rode north through Plattsburgh, NY to the ferry at Cumberland head. That was about 15 miles in NY, with heavy winds. At Cumberland head you take a ferry to Grand Isle which is only about 5 minutes. Ride to the south end of Grand Isle and you can take the previously mentioned bike ferry back to the causeway trail and head back towards Burlington. Really neat ride.
I took my All City Space Horse.. mostly initially because it's the best bike I have for towing things. I had to swap on a different post to be able to safely mount the Weehoo's hitch. Turns out it was the right bike for here. I've done the paved rides to death around where we stay, the ability to do all this dirt riding (which the Space Horse did exceptionally well) and the lack of huge climbing (which it is pretty painful for at 26lbs) made for a much more entertaining riding than if I'd brought my Domane. A lot of the dirt road riding I did was new to me, which was huge, as I've been riding in the area for almost 20 years. I know the white saddle looks odd... I will probably put white tape on this bike next time I replace the tape. I got a good deal on the White SI flite and it fits me really well. I rebuilt this bike with Rival 10 speed in July.. probably going to try an 11 speed front derailleur on it as the 10 speed is not great and I already have the Rival 22 cranks on it. Otherwise I love the Rival. Great rear shifting, very comfy hoods and the easy reach adjustment allowed me to get the hoods in just the right place.
We just got a Weehoo for our son, he is turning 4 in November. We had a lot of fun with it. He's been in a Burley since he was about 18 months so he's really used to coming on rides. Longest ride we did with the Weehoo was about 19 miles. Our typical rides involve rest stops at farms, playgrounds, restaurants for breakfast/lunch, etc..
The Weehoo is longer than a Burley but narrower. I'd say it's a little tougher to ride in a crosswind but vastly better in the woods and on dirt since it's a single track trailer. Weight is probably heavier but that's a wash, my son pedals surprisingly hard, hard enough that I can feel the load drop on my pedals when he starts pedaling hard. On flat it felt like we could drop my wife pretty easily. (Granted I'm much stronger than her) I had to experiment, I ended up having to raise my rear tire pressure a ton to ride with it compared to the Burley. I only put about 40-45psi in the rear 38c tire on my Space Horse when riding solo and I had to go all the way up to about 70psi when towing the Weehoo. IME the Burley has very little tongue weight as the load is pretty much centered around the trailer's axle. On the weehoo the child sits about 50% between the Weehoo's wheel and your rear wheel. I am thinking I'm probably going to be putting a 42c rear on my space horse and upsizing the Weehoo's rear wheel as big as it goes. It came with a 20x1.75 I am going to go up to 20x2.2 or 20x2.5 if possible. It's hard to get out of the saddle when towing it which is pretty hard on your backside on bumpy stuff.
I got in 3 solo rides during the week, 45 miles, 50 miles, and a 34 miler. I leaned heavily on the Bike ferry between Colchester, VT and Grand Isle/South Hero to ride a lot on the islands this time. There has been a bike trail on an old rail line that went between the mainland and the south end of Grand Isle for a long time, but there was a cutout in it for sailboats so you couldn't get to the island. Maybe 5 years ago they started having a ferry sporadically for cyclists. It's gotten popular enough it's open 7 days a week in the summer now and is only $5 for a one way and $8 for round trip. t've been riding out to the Islands for as long as I've been cycling but typically didn't get to explore that much as there was 40 miles of riding to get out there and back before you even started riding around on the good stuff. The bike ferry makes it much more accessible, you're on the island in about 5 miles from where we stay and maybe 10 from downtown Burlington. This trail is supposedly the longest trail in the world where you're riding with water on both sides the whole trail. It's beautiful as you have the green mountains looming on one side and the Adirondacks as the other. Wind is often incredibly high though. On a light wind day I averaged 21.5mph down the trail, on a high wind day this trip I was riding at the high end of my tempo zone and averaged 13mph.
The islands are beautiful, lots of deserted roads, farms, views of the lake, nice dirt roads. The only thing really missing is significant climbing.
I also did a neat ride called the 3 ferry loop, I rode south to Burlington, VT, took the Ferry across Lake Champlain (that takes an hour) to Port Kent, NY. Then I rode north through Plattsburgh, NY to the ferry at Cumberland head. That was about 15 miles in NY, with heavy winds. At Cumberland head you take a ferry to Grand Isle which is only about 5 minutes. Ride to the south end of Grand Isle and you can take the previously mentioned bike ferry back to the causeway trail and head back towards Burlington. Really neat ride.
I took my All City Space Horse.. mostly initially because it's the best bike I have for towing things. I had to swap on a different post to be able to safely mount the Weehoo's hitch. Turns out it was the right bike for here. I've done the paved rides to death around where we stay, the ability to do all this dirt riding (which the Space Horse did exceptionally well) and the lack of huge climbing (which it is pretty painful for at 26lbs) made for a much more entertaining riding than if I'd brought my Domane. A lot of the dirt road riding I did was new to me, which was huge, as I've been riding in the area for almost 20 years. I know the white saddle looks odd... I will probably put white tape on this bike next time I replace the tape. I got a good deal on the White SI flite and it fits me really well. I rebuilt this bike with Rival 10 speed in July.. probably going to try an 11 speed front derailleur on it as the 10 speed is not great and I already have the Rival 22 cranks on it. Otherwise I love the Rival. Great rear shifting, very comfy hoods and the easy reach adjustment allowed me to get the hoods in just the right place.