Tow Monster Review: The Ultimate Cargo Bike Solution for Towing Kids' Bikes

[Bike Shop Girl]

What do you think of the Tow Monster?

 

[Barb Schwendtner]

Innovative design, looks like it would work well. Not sure that wood was the best choice for material, they should consider a metal version to lighten it up.

 

[Jonah]

Innovative design, looks like it would work well. Not sure that wood was the best choice for material, they should consider a metal version to lighten it up.

Thanks for the kind words and thoughtful feedback!

We actually gave a lot of thought to the material choice. Wood turned out to be surprisingly light for its stiffness and is more cost-effective for U.S. fabrication compared to metal or plastic. It’s also beautiful, sustainable, and easy to customize. (One customer screwed a safety flag into their Tow Monster, for example.) Additionally, wood lets us to add new mounting points for future models without requiring a redesign. We use Okoume marine plywood with a spar urethane finish, which holds up well outdoors. So far, we’ve very happy with this choice.

 

[Anufea]

The design looks rock-solid, I would certainly trust it to handle any bicycle I strap to it! I was wondering if a safe installation could also be achieved through tool-less clamping -- similar to the clip-on solutions that some bike bags are using (sorry for the imprecise wording, English is not my main language).

 

[Jonah]

The design looks rock-solid, I would certainly trust it to handle any bicycle I strap to it! I was wondering if a safe installation could also be achieved through tool-less clamping -- similar to the clip-on solutions that some bike bags are using (sorry for the imprecise wording, English is not my main language).

Thanks!!! We did actually explore a clipping version, and built some prototypes that were easily removable. (Although the mechanism would have needed substantially more work to bring to market.) However, we saw during user testing that all our beta-testers preferred to leave the Tow Monsters permanently attached to their bikes. Additionally, screwing the Tow Monsters to the bike had advantages in that it was stronger, more secure and simpler, and so we decided that it made the most sense for our first design to permanently attach instead. We have high hopes for our new little company, and I envision a lineup of products in the future, and I very much would like to revisit a removable design at some point.