Trailer advice

scotty72 said:

Does anyone have any knowledge of the advantages of a Bob type trailer verses the two wheeler type?

In terms of the following

a) ease of use (which has less drag)
b) stability
c) ability to ride at reasonable speed (ie. how fast can I go without it tipping, becoming unstable or damaging the bike)

Thanks

Scotty

Never used a single-wheeler, so advice is limited, but the general things are:

- single wheelers do have less drag (how much so I don't know), and are definitely easier to manouvre due to being narrower, etc, and can lean with the bike. Should be able to go as fast as you can manage. Main drawbacks are that they're more limited in storage space, and loading them can be tricky as they won't stand up on their own and loads need to be balanced a bit more carefully.

- double wheelers hold more and load dead-easily, but are more cumbersome/wider, which is tricky if you're on paths or such. On road it doesn't really matter much. But apart from that they're pretty manouverable, to the point that i sometimes forget that mine's behind me after long rides. Probably heavier than a single-wheeler, but that's at the benefit of more space I guess.

The user reviews here (http://www.bicycletrailers.com/Cargo/index.cat) might help...

scotty72 said:

Does anyone have any knowledge of the advantages of a Bob type trailer
verses the two wheeler type?

In terms of the following

a) ease of use (which has less drag)
b) stability
c) ability to ride at reasonable speed (ie. how fast can I go without
it tipping, becoming unstable or damaging the bike)

Thanks

Scotty

I've used both types; I had a 2 wheeler until it got stolen and then
replaced it with a bob-ripoff (almost identical but with better catches
and about half the price) a few months back after loaning a bob from a
friend for a while.

My take is that the bob is so much better for my purposes that I'd
never consider a 2 wheeler again. It's much less drag, narower, turns
properly, allows you to pedal standing up (2 wheel trailers are bad at
this IME), tracks well to follow the bike etc etc. I cannot imagine it
becoming unstable at any speed, certainly not in the 30-40kph range.
Maybe if you hit 90 on an alpine descent?!?

The only disadvantage is that it doesn't stand up by itself as another
poster suggested, but you get used to that. I use mine for shopping and
general cartage, and even with 2x30kg bags of concrete and a bit of
general hardware it was still very stable and easy to ride with, both
up and down the few hills between the hardware shop and my home.

Cheers
David M

David M said:

scotty72 I cannot imagine it
becoming unstable at any speed, certainly not in the 30-40kph range.
Maybe if you hit 90 on an alpine descent?!?

I think we got up to about 80kph on a tandem towing a BOB full of camping gear out of Omeo. It was a straight stretch so we could let it rip.

I've only used a BOB on that trip but I've used a Burley kiddie trailer a lot and both have been fine at any speed.

The two wheel trailer would be feel more stable with a heavy load as the BOB is a bit like the tail wagging the dog when there is more weight in there than on the bike, which doesn't happen when towed by a tandem.

David M said:

this IME), tracks well to follow the bike etc etc. I cannot imagine it
becoming unstable at any speed, certainly not in the 30-40kph range.
Maybe if you hit 90 on an alpine descent?!?

How are trailers (of whatever type -- I don't have one yet) on steep
and winding road descents (i.e., not trails!)? Do you need trailer
brakes to stop jack-knifing?

David

--

David Trudgett
http://www.zeta.org.au/~wpower/

First they ignore you,
then they laugh at you,
then they fight you,
then you win!

-- Mohandas Gandhi

scotty72 said:

Does anyone have any knowledge of the advantages of a Bob type trailer
verses the two wheeler type?

You didn't say whether you were buying or making, so I'll throw in my
2c. So far I've built 3 single wheel trailers (bob-style) and a double
wheel is probably my next one.

Note, there is also a third wheel style trailer that was recently linked
in this newsgroup that might interest you.

Quoted message said:

In terms of the following

a) ease of use (which has less drag)
b) stability
c) ability to ride at reasonable speed (ie. how fast can I go without
it tipping, becoming unstable or damaging the bike)

The answer depends on where you ride, how you ride and what you carry.

Panniers on your bicycle have less road drag. A third wheel is another
wheel and up to 50% extra drag.

Bush track, rough tracks, etc; the single wheel trailer is fantastic as
it just follows in the path of the bicycle wheels. a double wheeled
trailer would just have two options to catch stuff you naturally avoid
with your bicycle wheels.

My first home built had a keel under it and I could jump logs and climb
rocks and it would just skid over the log/rock and keep going.

Double wheels are obviously more stable under heavy loads and rough
surface. It is easier to build a double wheel trailer and place most of
the load below the axle of both wheels, where as a bob style single
wheel usually has all the load above the trailer axle. The third wheel
style splits the load to hang beside the wheel. Single wheel trailers
and bicycle usually require proping up.

Ease of use, I love my home built bob-style (flat tray) because I fasten
a large wire basket (800x600x600mm) to them and can just go shopping
(throw in stuff).

On the other hand, it was so easy to throw in 50kg of rolled newspapers
into the basket and them have the combo virtually flip the bicyle over
(high centre of load, spongy connection, fat tyres). Fortunately it was
just in front of the house. {:-). Unfortunately, there was blood from
hands and knees from rough surface {:-(.

I see someone else has claimed stable at 60 kg (about 1/3 load height to
my experience and probably commercial built {:-).

Speed stable really depends on load, loading and riding conditions. How
fast you are going to go really depends on how much you are carrying and
how much power you can put out. Basically 50kg will see you really
spinning up a long steep hill, but I've always regarded walking up some
hills as part of bicycle touring.

Places where I wouldn't use a trailer are;
1) on public transport, e.g. trains,
2) long distance buses and flying ($$$ for extra weight),
3) tours and rides that cross fences and locked gates,
4) places that have problems with trail bicycle and do tight barriers
everywhere (mutter, mutter, mutter - mate with long hands behind can help)
5) ????

quote='David Trudgett''David M said:

this IME), tracks well to follow the bike etc etc. I cannot imagine it
becoming unstable at any speed, certainly not in the 30-40kph range.
Maybe if you hit 90 on an alpine descent?!?

How are trailers (of whatever type -- I don't have one yet) on steep
and winding road descents (i.e., not trails!)? Do you need trailer
brakes to stop jack-knifing?

David
[/QUOTE]

I've never had a problem with my BoB trailer being unstable. It tracked fine at ~60kmh with a least 20kg of load. I've read that off road you can get the trailer pushing out your rear wheel. I would think it would take a loose surface, heavy trailer, too much speed & not enough sense for this to happen.

David M said:

The only disadvantage is that it doesn't stand up by itself as another
poster suggested, but you get used to that.

A few years back in Munich I saw a couple who were bike touring around
Germany. One of them was towing a BOB Yak. When they stopped, the trailer
towing bike "jack knifed" the trailer against the bike and that seemed to
keep both bike and trailer reasonably upright without any other support,
although it may have been a matter of loads of practice and good balance.

Graeme

scotty72 said:

Does anyone have any knowledge of the advantages of a Bob type trailer
verses the two wheeler type?

In terms of the following

a) ease of use (which has less drag)
b) stability
c) ability to ride at reasonable speed (ie. how fast can I go without
it tipping, becoming unstable or damaging the bike)

Thanks

Scotty

I haven't used a two-wheel trailer, though I used to work with someone
who happily rode to work towing one that container her spaniel! I have
done a couple of tours recently towing a BOB, though. A few things that
haven't been mentioned:

You can park a bike and BOB by deliberately jack-knifing it. The BOB
falls over as far as it can, and then supports the bike. This is quite
handy, but not really suitable for loading the trailer as it sits at an
angle to the ground.

Stability at speed. I recorded 76km/h down a hill in Tasmania towing
about 20kg. I have heard credible claims of 80+. The makers however
recommend no more than 45km/h, which is almost certainly
litigation-protection [censored]-covering.

The only time I have noticed a stability issue with BOB was towing a
slab of beer back from the shops on a flexible steel-framed MTB. The
load was not well centered and the bike started to tank-slap at
not-very-high speed. That was interesting. Moral: load your trailer
carefully.

Drag. BOB's wheel is a mere 16in in diameter, which means it has
inherently more drag than one 700C wheel or 26in MTB wheel shod with a
slick. Terry's "up to 50 percent" could therefore actually be worse. If
BOB's wheel isn't inflated very hard and the bike has good tyres
inflated hard, the extra rolling drag from BOB could be quite high
indeed. However, this is mitigated by rolling drag being proportional to
the load on the tyre, so if you don't try and carry all your woildy
possessions, the extra drag will be lessened. Replace the stock BOB tyre
with a slick, and pump it up fairly hard and you won't notice the extra
drag.

There's probably an amount of extra aerodynamic drag too, but as
two-wheel trailers tend to be wider, they will be even worse.

Steep/winding descents. On or off road, I have never experienced BOB
trying to overtake or push the back wheel. I don't see any need for a brake.

Flying. Bike in a bag counts as one piece of luggage, with the yoke and
wheel in there; BOB, dry sack and frame counts as the other. Lesleigh
and I weren't charged excess when flying to Tasmania or Adelaide with
Virgin Blue, because under VB's rules the bike counts as a piece of
sporting equipment and therefore only uses 5kg of your allowance.

No problem either flying to and from Kangaroo Island with some tiny
airline whose name I've forgotten. There were only three of us on one
flight anyway!

We have even managed to cram bikes and BOBs on to trains to get from
Sydney to Berry, but it must be admitted that this was a major pain in
the [censored] and we wouldn't do it again.

John, BOB touring convert

John Stevenson said:

I have heard credible claims of 80+.

Yes, he is silly enough to do that, isn't he...

Quoted message said:

Moral: load your trailer carefully.

And don't split the load with your belly.

--
Dave Hughes | [email hidden]
Random miscellany, as opposed to that other kind of miscellany
- Patrick Shaughnessy

Random Data said:

John Stevenson said:

I have heard credible claims of 80+.

Yes, he is silly enough to do that, isn't he...

Yep, and a rare and special use of 'credible' that was.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Moral: load your trailer carefully.

And don't split the load with your belly.

Hey, I wasn't planning to drink any of it till i got home!

Bikesoiler said:

David Trudgett said:

David M said:

this IME), tracks well to follow the bike etc etc. I cannot imagine

it

Quoted message said:

becoming unstable at any speed, certainly not in the 30-40kph range.
Maybe if you hit 90 on an alpine descent?!?

How are trailers (of whatever type -- I don't have one yet) on steep
and winding road descents (i.e., not trails!)? Do you need trailer
brakes to stop jack-knifing?

David

I've never had a problem with my BoB trailer being unstable. It tracked
fine at ~60kmh with a least 20kg of load. I've read that off road you
can get the trailer pushing out your rear wheel. I would think it would
take a loose surface, heavy trailer, too much speed & not enough sense
for this to happen.

Thanks for that info. I assume by "tracked fine" you mean that you had
no control problems going about 60km/hr on steep winding downhill
gradients, braking, and hairpin bends. Is that correct?

Not that I'm a speed demon or anything (but speed is nice, isn't it?
;-)) but I do have the thought in my mind that excessive braking might
overheat rims and blow tyres or tubes. I suppose there is no point in
asking if this has actually happened to anyone here...

I've only been down a long steep gradient once or twice, and I applied
the brakes intermittently and sparingly. Was also slowed down by motor
vehicles in front crawling along at 40.

Cheers,

David

--

David Trudgett
http://www.zeta.org.au/~wpower/

It's sociologically interesting, though scary, that you can be inside
an evil system and be somehow unaware of it.

-- Actor Anthony Sher on growing up in apartheid-South Africa,
interviewed by John Walsh, The Independent, 1 May, 2000