I have been using a Trek Go Bug Deluxe for the past three years to pull my children behind my bike while I train and as three wheel stroller on family walks. While the trailer does have some excellent features there is one, the hitch, that I think is a horrible design at best and unsafe at worst. For this reason I would not recommend buying this trailer and would look elsewhere.
My previous experience with bike trailers is with a Trek CC Rider; which we still own and use when my wife and I both ride so we each have a child. The hitch on the CC rider is a ball and socket which is easy to line up and attach. The one major problem was the “slop” in the system which made a jerking motion while climbing out of the saddle. Trek decided to remedy this “problem” by making the hitch on the Go Bug a male/female connection. The problem with this is the tremendous amount of tork it puts on the bicycle/hitch attachment point. This tork causes the skewer to loosen potentially causing your rear wheel to come off. This happens on normal ridding on the road, nothing extreme. The only way I have found to keep this from happening is to over tighten the skewer to the point where it is almost impossible to loosen without using a rubber mallet. The connection is difficult to line up and in general just a REALLY bad design.
Other things we have noticed with use are how small the canopy zippers are. While they are YKK they are not very beefy for the amount of stress placed on them keeping the canopy closed. Heck the zippers on my camera bag are twice the size as these. These small zippers make them difficult to align and zip in cold weather. Also the shoulder straps have a top buckle that is nearly impossible to tighten or loosen while your child is sitting in the seat. This may keep it from loosening when you don’t want to but getting a proper fit is next to impossible. You run the risk of popping you child in the head with your hand if you try to fit the harness while they are seated. Which is the only way to make sure the harness fits your child snug. I also wonder why they didn’t put a bigger helmet pocket in the seat. A Giro children’s helmet won’t fit. How do you teach your child to always wear a helmet if they can’t wear it in their trailer? With a helmet on, their chin is pushed down in their chest. Not a very comfortable way to spend a couple of hours.
There are some good points of the trailer; one is its wide stance. You would be hard pressed to flip this thing over other than by being directly hit by a car. The seats are well padded and once you have the harness fitted your child is held very secure. The weather cover fits well and keeps the elements out. My kids have never gotten wet on a ride or walk when we’ve been caught out in the rain. The cargo area will fit plenty of stuff. We’ve biked to plenty of picnics in the park or ridden to a day at the water park and never had any problems getting our stuff in there.
The bottom line is this trailer would be an excellent choice if it wasn’t for the hitch. I have tried to find directions on Trek’s web site to see if I’m doing something wrong and have not been able to find anything. So if you’re looking for a trailer so you can get out look some where else. The hitch on this thing makes it a giant looser!
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