This spring, I was looking at “adapted” options for Olin to better participate in our bike-riding adventures. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, we do have a couple of trailer-cycles. Olin tolerates them, but tires easily from holding himself up on the handles, and has trouble with the seat becoming uncomfortable quickly. I discovered the Weehoo iGo and thought it would be exactly perfect for Olin’s needs. The iGo Two, especially, would be very helpful, and would accommodate Olin’s increased weight and longer legs as he grew. Unfortunately, it was quite a long ways out of our price range.
I worked with “the system” and Olin’s waiver case worker for a couple of months, trying to get it covered as durable medical equipment/adaptive equipment through his insurance or waiver, but it was a very long shot. During that time, I mentioned the item to his geneticist/pediatrician, who helps us with a lot of our resources for Olin. She suggested applying to the Children’s Miracle Network to see if they would help Olin get the trailer, and a couple of months later… They did! Thank you so much to CMN for helping us with this awesome addition to our family’s outdoor activities.
Now, to tell you about the trailer… The short version is: this thing is awesome.
It shipped incredibly quickly once the company received the check, and communicating with them was easy and very friendly. We invoiced for an extra hitch with our Weehoo, and they sent it to us for free, which I thought was really awesome of them. The trailer arrived in pieces, of course, but was relatively easy to put together. (It would have been easier without quite so many ‘helpers’, but we persevered! Kids are good at tearing armrests out of bubble wrap, and losing graduated seat-post adapter thingies.) I happened to have a drill bit with the right head so I used a drill to seat the armrest screws, but it wouldn’t have been necessary if I had the right hand tools. The pieces fit very, very snugly and were a little bit of a challenge to place – I think because of the powder-coating – but they are definitely there securely!
I positioned the back seat as fr back as it’d go, and then the front seat as close to the back seat as it would go, just to see how much leg room there would be for Olin. It fits very well this way already, and there is enough room for either of the girls in the back without too much squishing.
We took the Weehoo for its first real outing on Father’s Day weekend, and tried it out with Olin and Seraphine. Olin loves it and pedals to his little heart’s content. Seraphine found it comfortable enough that she actually fell asleep. (You can see her little arm dangling in this picture, because she is passed out cold.) We do have a little bit of a problem keeping a helmet on Seraphine while she’s riding because the top of the seat is right at the level where it pushes the helmet forward, but when she grows an inch, that problem will be negated.
This thing is long! Tim rides an XL frame bike, and the Weehoo is almost eight feet long. He’s like the bicycle version of a Freightliner hauling a Low Boy. (Which makes Olin an excavator and Seraphine a bulldozer, I suppose…) His frame accommodates the trailer much better than mine does, for a number of reasons. It’s much taller, first of all, so the front of the trailer has a little more clearance for pedaling and handling bumps. The shape of his frame has a much less angled seat post and so it attaches higher and doesn’t interfere with his rack.
I have a medium-sized Specialized Expedition Sport and the angle of the seat post combined with how low I need my seat makes the window for a seat post hitch very small. It directly interferes with the rack, which is the mounting point for the Burley Kazoo that Evie likes to ride. [I will explain the hitch hassle in another entry…] In any case, it is a much better fit for Tim’s bike than mine, although it is possible.
Lance (our other primary kid-trailer-hauler) rides a bike very similar to Tim’s with a large-size frame and he also has a rack, although not the kind that hauls the Kazoo. The Weehoo hitch interfered with his rack initially, too, but then we stacked the hitch for the Weehoo on top of the hitch for the Trek trailercycle (which doesn’t scrape the rack) and that workaround seems feasible, if a little silly.
The Weehoo doesn’t break down very much for transporting once it has been assembled, but we have discovered that we can stuff it sideways in the van and still fit all the kids and other stuff – barely. The other reviews that I have seen seem to be by people who take their bikes/trailers out of the garage and start their ride from there. We don’t have that luxury, usually. Our stuff travels, so we like it to squash in to (or strap on to) the vehicle. First world problems.
Overall, we love this trailer! After our ride, Seraphine crawled back in to find a comfy place to chat on her ‘phone’, so apparently she approves. (Today, at least…)
Tim and I wish we could get a second one and have ‘instant’ room for all the kids at their current sizes, instead of playing roulette with who will fit in which trailer and struggling to have enough adults to pull them so the whole family can participate. Something to look at in the future, maybe. For today, this is a GREAT, comfortable, versatile trailer! Thank you, Weehoo and CMN!