Tow ropes?

[stevage]

I recently had a couple of experiences where we ended up towing someone, and was curious whether anyone else ever carries a tow rope.

1) On day 2 of what should have been a 3 day ride into Snowy River NP (southeastern Australia), I broke a derailleur hanger. We coasted back back down the mountain, then reached a few k's of flat dirt road. Walking wouldn't have been the worst thing, but towing worked great.
2) On a normal cycle tour with about 12 of us, my partner started to get heatstroke on the scorchingly hot final day. We wrapped her up in a wet towel, then got the strongest rider to tow her for more than an hour (at close to 30kph!) on flat, sealed rail trail.

In both cases, I just happened to have a piece of paracord around 3m long. It weighs next to nothing, and was easily strong enough. I didn't anticipate using it this way, but now I'm thinking I'll always bring it for this purpose. A 20km tow is nothing compared to a 20km walk, let alone 50km...

Anyone else? Maybe you should?
[originally posted in the wrong forum - oops]

[Done]

I always carry a short length of cord, since it can be useful in all sorts of unexpected situations. Never needed to tow anyone with it--but its good to know that I could. Thanks!

[offroute]

Ace bandage

[tanslacks]

A funny, sad and true story.

Last year I talked my wife into joining my on a tour of the Oregon coast fully self contained. My wife was a trooper, but had no time to get in shape for the long miles and hills. I towed a BOB with all our gear and she still had trouble getting up some of the grades. At first I would just gently put my hand on the small of her back and support her along. This got awkward as you can imagine so I found a long piece of cord like you describe and it went from my seat post to her stem over the BOB. It worked great. She still pedaled, but the added pull made all the difference. We only did this on the longer grades as it took time to organize. I thought I was the only one!

This summer she is training and we should complete California.

[stevage]

Btw how we did it: tie one end of the rope around the tower's seatpost. Wrap the other end around the towee's handlebars a couple of times and hold it in place. Then, if you need to break the tow suddenly, just let go of the rope.

[cavscout]

I've used 1" polyester webbing to tow my youngest up some grades just too big for his legs.

[Done]

I just remember that buddy of mine used a retractable dog-leash to tow his kid. Make sure that the handle is on the adult's bike so that if the clip breaks the kid doesn't get smacked in the face with the retracting cord!

[bartspedden]

I talked to guy at a skimo race that took an adventure racing course from Kloser - This guy seemed a pretty strong athlete but he said that on a ride Kloser put him on tow.  

[mbeardsl]

I've towed a friend with a 6' stick once over rolling terrain.  Only 3-4 miles but it beat walking.
Hard to climb one handed and it was funny to try and use your arms to take up slack when slowing and accelerating but it worked surprisingly well.

The adventure racers have a neat way to tow with a small pvc(?) pipe suspended off the seat post with an elastic cord inside.  The towee holds the cord and if he lets go it doesn't recoil into the back wheel of the person towing.  Seems to work well for them.

[kkjellquist]

I always carry a short length of cord, since it can be useful in all sorts of unexpected situations. Never needed to tow anyone with it--but its good to know that I could. Thanks!

rope/cord, knife, fire, space blanket.....all on the shortlist indeed.

I bet we could quickly list 100 uses for a 6' length of cord.....ridgeline for emergency shelter, laundy line, sling, pot lid handle, tow rope, restraints 

[adelorenzo]

I have used two inner tubes tied together, from tower's seatpost to towee's stem. This was a multi-hour tow out of a remote area with no easy options for rescue. It's really nice to have the shock absorbing factor to help absorb the accelerations.

If I was planning to tow someone I'd bring the skijor line we use for our dog, it has a shock-absorbing bungee section in it.