TESTED: Shotgun Tow Rope and Hip Pack

The Shotgun Tow Rope is all about making riding with your kids more fun, and a better experience outside. The system uses a nifty bumbag for storage, and an elasticated tow rope that is easy to connect and disconnect from the tower and towee.

The Shotgun Tow Rope is pretty overbuilt to be honest, and it is load rated to 225kg. Sure, it won't pull your 4WD out of a mud pit you were told not to drive into. But you might be able to give a mate on a dead eMTB a tow if their battery runs out sooner than they thought.

Why use it? Little mountain bikers don't really have the power to weight ratio of adults when it comes to climbing hills on bikes that might still be close to half their body weight. So in general, going back up isn't a lot of fun. So this takes that out of the equation, and then the tow rope stows away neatly so you can ride flowing trails or descents together.

We tested the Tow Rope ($110) along with the Hip Pack ($45), which make for a handy $140 combo pack. Yeah, you could put the tow rope in your own hip pack or bag easily. But it does have a great build quality, fit, and good internal pockets. It's a great matching set and easy to sling in the the bottom of a bigger bag for long trail rides or days out with the family.

The tow rope fits easily over your saddle, and over the bars of the rider being towed. The tow rope is elasticated to take out the inevitable shock forces of being pulled, but it's far from being a bungy cord – there's no whip back. In general it offers a really controlled action when operated in a sensible manner by the pilot.

Our tester Ryan's take is in the video embedded above. The Shotgun Tow Rope is a sure fire way to add a little bit of security to any family ride, to keep experiences positive. But it may also be a good back up plan on mixed ability group rides as well.

RRP: $140 for the combo pack

From: Kids Ride Shotgun