BagBoy Sidekick Push Cart - Review

[GolfSpy Tim]

BagBoy Sidekick Push Cart - Review

An Official Mygolfspy.com Review

 

When Golf Digest hands out awards, golfers tend to perk up their ears. So when I saw that the BagBoy Sidekick cart had received a silver medal I was interested to see why.

 

 

So, I contacted BagBoy and setup delivery of one of their Sidekick carts. I ended up with a blue cart which plays well off of the yellow custom MyGolfSpy cart bag I reviewed from JStwart Golf.

 

 

Aesthetics (10 Points)

Always subjective, aesthetics are not a major determining factor when I'm looking at push carts, but needless to say, looks always come into play at some point or another.

 

I love the way the blue plays off of my cart bag, and I feel like the two go together well from a color standpoint. The design of the cart looks clean and a bit understated. I like to make statements/be loud in most any way I can, and I would say this cart doesn't do a lot of speaking with her looks - but this isn't to say she doesn't look good. I think if the cart was loud, it would detract from my bag, but instead I feel like this cart does a good job of being a cart and allowing my cart to do the speaking.

 

 

Looking closely at the cart, there are spots such as the umbrella connection point, where I think looks could have been more carefully considered, and they haven't gone out of their way on this model to match any of the parts to the main body color, all of the parts are consistently black through all cart colors.

 

The cart isn't flashy, but keeping I like it's looks and ability to not take away from my bag.

Score 9/10

 

 

Ease of Use (10 Points)

When the cart arrived I quickly cut open the box and began assembling my cart without ever looking for directions on how to correctly do so. Normally this would result in me installing something in the wrong spot, and/or with extra screws that should have been installed, but instead sit in my tool box.

 

 

The Sidekick was so simple to put together, I just slapped the wheels into place and had a working cart. The only two items that took some thought were the cup holder and the umbrella holder. The cup holder didn't take too much thought, but the umbrella holder had me tricked for a few minutes (it actually caused me to dig around for directions which I never found, but eventually I figured out how to install it - and then promptly uninstalled it)

 

 

Folding and unfolding the cart and strapping on your bag couldn't be easier. Strapping the cart folder closed relies on an elastic strap - while this doesn't seem ideal, it gets the job done and I never had a problem with it.

 

Score 10/10

 

 

Performance (60 Points)

When it's all said and done, how the cart works on the course will make it break it for my experience. As a device for rolling my bag around, the Sidekick did it's job flawlessly. Unfortunately, for me, the performance goes beyond a rolling cart and is dependent on how useful the cart is, and there are a few spots where this cart left me longing for more.

 

 

On the rolling end of things, this cart was easy to push, it rolled smoothly, and went uphill and downhill for me with ease. My home course has some pretty steep sections, including a few foot paths that I'm used to taking and decided I needed the cart to travel through - and it took everything I threw at it with ease. The handle was comfortable in my hands and the padding has held up through a TON of abuse.

 

 

Getting the cart to roll straight was incredibly simple. The only tool the provide with the cart is an allen wrench which is used for adjusting the front wheel. I did this the first time out on the course and after only one adjustment I've never had to adjust the cart since. (I've probably played 20-30 rounds with the cart without ever needing to adjust the front wheel again, and I've SLAMMED that front wheel into a wide variety of rocks, curbs, trees, feet, markers and more.

 

What I was left longing for were more spots in the control handle to store and organize things. Many carts incorporate netting to put head covers in, and/or provide more organization for tees. The Sidekick has a single storage compartment with no organization inside. I toss my tees, chapstick, ball markers and other loose goodies into this compartment and they all jingle around together and when it comes time to pull one item out, I have to sort through everything. Also, everything moves to the bottom of this compartment making it difficult to close at times.

 

 

The ball holder on the control handle is easy to use and holds two balls. The score card holder never had a chance to do anything but clip down my glove when putting.

 

 

 

I was not a fan of the cup holder on the cart. It is too small for my water bottom, and every time I used it to carry my coffee cup I ended up with spilled coffee before the end of the first hole. The cup holder just seems to be "too secure" - ie: it would need to be free to swing a bit more right to left in order to keep from spilling.

 

Braking on the Sidekick is wheel mounted on the right rear wheel. While not the easiest thing to get to, I never had any problems reaching my foot out and making contact and getting the wheel to lock. I think the lock received more abuse than most other parts on the cart, and it's still holding strong.

 

The biggest performance issue I found with this cart during review was a creaking sound that I started hearing after about 10-15 rounds. Anytime I am pushing the cart and applying on and off pressure, there is an annoying creak, creak, creak from the cart. Turns out some of the screws holding the control arm to the rest of the cart. With some tightening from a crescent wrench and a phillips head screw driver the creaking has gone away. Also, the metal stays running from the control arm down toward the wheels have started to bend a little bit. This hasn't affected the performance at all as they control the carts folding, and the cart still folds without any problems.

 

 

Also, while my cart bag sits well in the cart, my carry/stand bag will not stay put unless mounted sideways. It mounted with legs back as the cart is designed to carry the bag, the plastic molding allows the bag to twist around in the mount. This was really annoying, and it was not just my bag, but I tried my friends bag to the same end. The straps couldn't be easier to use and are definitely secure, but BagBoy will need to find a better way to secure stand bags to this cart in the future.

 

Score 48/60

 

Value (20 Points)

The price point on the Sidekick falls in a gray area for push cart prices I see searching around online. At $140, the Sidekick is not the most expensive, and it's not the cheapest.

 

If you were shopping on a budget, I would say you can find a cheaper cart. If you are looking to splurge, I think BabBoy's lineup gives some better options for only $59 more with their Quad.

 

I feel like the price point might be just every so slightly high for this cart due to the lack of storage features in the control console alone. The addition of a net here would make a big difference. And I tend to believe most people purchasing this price point and style of cart are likely sporting a stand bag, not a cart bag, so the mounting problems I had with a stand bag would be an issue for most.

 

Score 14/20

 

 

Total Score 81/100

 

 

 

Summary

The BagBoy Sidekick is a decent little push cart. I do have some concerns about how it will hold up over another year of use for 3-4 rounds a week, but so far it's held up to some pretty heavy abuse. There are some features missing, but at the price point this cart sits at, if those missing featured were added, I couldn't really see a reason for spending more on a cart. If recommending a purchase from BagBoy's line, for the budget minded I would look at the SC 600, and for those with just a couple more dollars to spend, I would check out the Express or the Automatic.

 

But, for a cart that fits in my tiny trunk along with my bag, the Sidekick gets the job done.

 

 

[GolfSpy Dave]

Nice review. Excellent continuation of the trunk motif

[Matt Saternus]

Nice review, Tim. Have you used any other carts? Any notes on how it compares to, say, the Clic Gear?

[GolfSpy Tim]

Haha... yeah, the trunk motif I think is important. That's where my gear sits most of the week, if something is in the back seat, my wife might realize just how much I play, and then I might get put in timeout. ;-)

 

I've played a little bit with the Clic Gear 3.0 and feel like it's price makes it tough to compare evenly with the Sidekick. The 3.0 seems much more "designed" and "cool" from the looks department, but I haven't played with it enough to say performance wise how they'd compare.

[Tyk]

As a longtime walker, I must confess to being a bit of a "push-cart geek". The Clic-Gear is hands downs the best push cart out there, its at the top of the price range for push carts, but the reason for this is evident and justified the minute you use one. Also, Clic-Gear is better than the competition's high end carts.

 

My prediction Tim is that you'll get perhaps another season out of your Bag Boy there before those bending support rods fail completely, I can't remember if it was my Walter Hagen or Bag Boy cart that had that same thing happen but once they go the cart is done for.

[GolfSpy Tim]

Tyk,

 

I'm curious to see how it holds up through the winter as I play more and more.

 

Thankfully the metal stays that are bending only serve in folding the cart up - but time will tell if they get worst or not and if the cart can continue to fold properly as they bend more.

 

Funny enough, was walking with another "pusher today who had sun mountains 4 wheel model and the hand break actually broke while we were talking - said that he's already sent it back once, but now it's out of warranty.