I asked www.carryfreedom.com for advice about how to tow four
children's bikes by bike. They came up with these three options:
OPTION 1
Fit four bikes onto a Y-Large, so that all four bikes sit between the
wheels. If all the bikes are placed inside the wheels then there will
be a 150 mm pitch from the center of one bike to the center of the
next bike. The bikes should fit, though their pedals will need
positioned carefully so the bikes will clear each other. I could see
this being a fiddle to load/unload due to the careful positioning of
the bikes relative to each other to avoid contact with each other or
the trailers wheels.
OPTION 2
Again using a Y-Large chassis we could put two of the cycle channels
to the outside of the trailers wheels so two bikes sit between the
trailer wheels, and the remaining two bikes sit outside of the trailer
wheels. This creates more space for the bikes, making
loading/unloading them easier, it also creates some visual confusion
for onlookers because it is not immediately obvious that the trailer
has wheels.
OPTION 3
We could create a custom trailer chassis to carry the four cycle
channels inside of the trailers wheels. This could be less of a fiddle
than adapting a Y-Frame, and it would allow more design flexibility in
making sure the right things are in the right place. The basic chassis
would be as pictured, this would then have the cycle holding channels
positioned as required. A minor advantage of this form is it would
allow the option of using wheels that are identical to those found on
one of your bikes(one front one rear), so in the event of a bike
puncture you have a set of spare wheels already. Sadly this would only
cover one size of bike, though the trailer would be happy to run on
either 24" or 20" wheels.
Also see: www.carryfreedom.com/images/P_C_TourBike for an idea of what
the trailer may look like.
It looks as if option 3 is the best option, but what are the views of
the urc pannel?