I came up with this contraption for days when my kid needs a pick-up from school. He rides the bus to school, but on days when he has sport practice he misses the bus home.

I was inspired by this blog post which describes the idea of strapping the front wheel of one bike to the back of another. But my version uses a board with strap mount points that attaches to three MIK Side studs on the side of my rack using 3D-printed sockets.

other side of my contraption showing mounting sockets

The secret (that I learned from that blog post) is to make a tight strap connection from the head tube of the towed bike to the rack of the tow-er so that the towed bike doesn't fall over sideways.

close-up of head tube strap connection

It seems pretty secure. But my bike wobbles continuously while towing. Not too badly, but enough to discourage me from making hand signals. I think maybe because the rear wheel of the towed bike is not in line with the wheels of the towing bike. Or maybe because the steerer tube of the towed bike is leaning a little to the right.

towing setup in front of a bemused tween at school pick-up

I'm thinking of trying another idea I read that would line up all the wheels: attach a spare hub to my rack, remove the front wheel of the towed bike, and use the axle to connect to the attached hub.

One bike attached to another bike for towing
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[–] [S] 1 point 14 hours ago

Yeah, a low center of gravity sounds like a good idea. It would be nice if I could attach to something coming off of the back of the bike instead of the rack. But I don't want to go for a trailer at this point.

The passenger trailer concept looks like fun for younger kids! I used to have a long-tail cargo bike to get the kids around. But after they both finished elementary school I wasn't using it enough to keep it around.

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