Chain Guide Adaptation for the Trail-A-Bike

We have a 7-speed trail-a-bike and since Jade learned how to shift we have been experiencing the occasional dropped chain. The problem is that the combination of a bumpy climb and Jade's down shifting will cause the chain will pop off the front ring and get caught between the ring and the chain guard. When that happens, I loose my "auxiliary motor" and have to tow 70 lbs of bike and child up the hill.

All summer I have been trying to figure out a solution short of purchasing a commercial chain guide system - which is about the same price as the trail a bike. Specialized has the Hotrock 20" which includes a low cost OEM chain guide. I tried to get one in the after market but Specialized or any other vendor offers it.

A couple of months ago, I bought a used Hotrock 20" but the bike is a little too big for Jade. With a little engineering, I moved the chain guide to the trail-a-bike and now we have a great solution for dropped chains! We're going to test this out this weekend.

A chain guide on a trail-a-bike is pretty bad ass!

Mountain Biking on the Brain

This shot was taken at the Log Gatos Turkey Day ride. It's a nice shot but there are mountain bikers growing out of our heads. The first family of mountain biking has mountain bikers on the brain.

The t-day ride was awesome. It's a great Bay Area tradition and been going for about 14 years. This was the biggest year yet with about 200 riders including a half dozen kids on trail-a-bikes and tandems. I'm sure you can read all about this on the NorCal forums on mtbr.com.