Chariot Cabriolet bike trailer

I have now had my Cabriolet for just over a year and absolutely love it. My kids have gotten so used to it that we go everywhere in it. I have strapped our 6-person tent to the back and filled up the space with even more camping stuff. The storage space in back in not nearly as wonderful as I had originally hoped: the support bar eliminates some of the space and you cannot pack it too full without it pushing against the childrens' backs. I have had my bike fall over many times and nothing happens to the trailer. I have also used it to carry a cooler with beer and ice as well a bunch of other groceries. In short, this is a great trailer.

I'm the kind of person who does so much research before buying a product that I figured I should share what I found. I have 2.5 year old twins and originally bought the InSTEP Quick N EZ for $50 on craiglist. The intention was to see if a) my kids even liked riding in a trailer and b) I liked pulling one. The answer to both was yes and so after a year and a weekend filled with riding I decided to start looking. My requirements were: 1. wide and long comfortable seating for the kids where they could fall asleep without slumping over to much 2. a decent amount of storage space in the back 3. a bike trailer that would fit them for a while and then be useful for pulling cargo later on. The top contenders after all my research were: 1. The Chariot Cabriolet 2. The Burley d'Lite 3. WIKE Moonlite Double The Wike was out because I couldn't look at it anywhere and couldn't get myself to buy something that i hadn't seen yet. In reality, this looked like the best, but there you go. I looked at a friend's Burley d'Lite and was almost sold on that instantly: it has great storage space, plenty of space in the cockpit and was made of very high quality material. Something else we noticed is that the bike does not travel in the center of the trailer, but slightly to the right, so that the bike and trailer can remain close to the edge of the road. This seemed like a very wonderful product. For the Chariot, only their Classic series has any storage worth mentioning, and I didn't need any of the XC skiing, stroller options, so the Cabriolet made the most sense. This was the standard size and still within my price range. I ended up going with the Chariot, mainly because of a crossbar underneath the seat, behind the kid's knees. In the Instep trailer, the kids were always sagging towards each other, but this crossbar completely prevents that. The stability is fantastic. While parked, the bike has tipped over and the trailer didn't move at all. The storage is a bit smaller than the d'Lite due to the folding mechanism, but still perfect for stuff you would need for a picnic or to go swimming. Both this and the d'Lite have back padding to offset the helmets. The 20" wheels made the ride very smooth and much better than the Instep 16" wheels. The Chariot is also made with very sturdy construction and looks very stylish (not that this counts all THAT much.) The best thing is that my kids like riding in it and seem to want to ride it a lot, which is good for me. I ended up buying this from a local store because, again, I wanted to actually see the product. I hope this write-up helps you decide.