in message <[email hidden]>, Mark
(') said:I've found this thread extremely useful. I'm doing a Big Ride later on
in the year & was beginning to ponder the subject of how to carry my
stuff.
I'd never considered a trailer, but did so after someone mentioned it
in another thread. There are some Bob Yaks on the Orbit site, I note.
I was seriously considered getting one, until I realised that it
possibly won't be viable because my Big Ride involves a train journey
to get to the starting point, and I think that there may be issues
with transporting the trailer as well as the bike on the train (unless
it can be carried as hand luggage when not in use, which I'm not sure
is feasible).
In my experience (and it was twenty-odd years ago I was doing this
regularly) bike + trailer on the train is a lot easier than bike + a
lot of heavy panniers on the train. I never had a guard object to the
trailer, which is, after all, not much different to a wheeled suitcase.
If you have a bike (which is an awkward thing to lift anyway) burdened
down with panniers it becomes an exceedingly awkward thing. I recall
often getting my bike and trailer off a train, hitched up and ready to
go while other cyclists were still struggling to get their heavily
loaded bikes through the door.
In those days I was (as I'm sure everyone here knows by now) using a
bike hod. For fast touring it's probably not the best trailer but it is
exceedingly easy to manouvre off the bike, being to all intents and
purposes a large shopping trolley. So it was extremely easy to get it
on and off the train. <URL:http://www.bikehod.com/bike-hod/index.html>
Quoted message said:My question is: what do people use for front & rear panniers? I see
Ortleib have some specific front ones at 25l. Do people use ones like
this with smaller capacities on the front and larger ones on the
back? Can you get smaller ones than 25l for the front?
If you're going for panniers be sure to get a 'low-rider' type front
rack - one which puts the centre of gravity of the panniers behind
and/or below projected axis of the steering head - otherwise you can
get some _very_ odd steering effects. But, having use both, I stick to
my opinion that a trailer is much better.
--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
There's nae Gods, an there's precious few heroes
but there's plenty on the dole in th Land o th Leal;
And it's time now, tae sweep the future clear o
th lies o a past that we know wis never real.
