which is better-loaded bike or trailer?

in message <[email hidden]>, Chris Nowak

(') said:

I used a road bike to tow a luggage trailer from Calais to sluis
Nederland in one day, and I've done a slightly shorter trip in one day
with fully loaded pannier bags of about the same weight.
It seemed easier to cycle using the trailer - is there an explanation
for it? Apart from good beer along the way that is.

I too prefer to cycle with a trailer, but cant give any scientific
rationale for it. After all, you have at least one more wheel with
rolling resistance, so it _ought_ to be slightly less efficient. But it
surely doesn't feel that way, and you don't have to clutter your bike
with lots of racks and stuff.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; Human history becomes more and more a race between
;; education and catastrophe.
H.G. Wells, "The Outline of History"

Maybe it's more aerodynamic than panniers, plus the handling isn't much
affected by a good trailer. I *much* prefer using my trailer, but I've
only done short trips with it.

Chris Nowak said:

I used a road bike to tow a luggage trailer from Calais to sluis Nederland
in one day, and I've done a slightly shorter trip in one day with fully
loaded pannier bags of about the same weight.
It seemed easier to cycle using the trailer - is there an explanation for
it? Apart from good beer along the way that is.

Which is better will depend to a large extent on the size/bulk of the
load. A trailer is much better when you get serious weights and/or
bulks because it extends the load area and puts a lot of the weight
through its own wheel(s) while keeping the load's centre of mass very
low, so as not to lever the bike over. But though this is good for
Serious Loads it involves quite an overhead, and where panniers don't
weigh or bulk enough to affect the handling of the bike much they're
usually the better option.

My freight bike (see
http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/pictures.htm#eight) is much
the best thing I've got for heavy loads: the handling is largely
unaffected with 50 Kg in the cargo bin, but it's the slowest and most
unwieldy of my bikes if it's empty because of all the extra weight and
wheelbase to take the loads when it has to.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

On 7/2/05 9:18 am, in article
[email hidden], "Simon Brooke"

Quoted message said:

in message <[email hidden]>, Chris Nowak

(') said:

I used a road bike to tow a luggage trailer from Calais to sluis
Nederland in one day, and I've done a slightly shorter trip in one day
with fully loaded pannier bags of about the same weight.
It seemed easier to cycle using the trailer - is there an explanation
for it? Apart from good beer along the way that is.

I too prefer to cycle with a trailer, but cant give any scientific
rationale for it. After all, you have at least one more wheel with
rolling resistance, so it _ought_ to be slightly less efficient. But it
surely doesn't feel that way, and you don't have to clutter your bike
with lots of racks and stuff.

I find that a trailer combo is more stable and nicer to ride than using
panniers, but is slower. This is up towards (and beyond[2]) the upper limit
of what one can comfortably take in panniers.

...d

[2] Two 25kg bags of cement are quite happily towed in the trailer but would
push the rack beyond it's limit.

Peter Clinch said:

Chris Nowak said:

I used a road bike to tow a luggage trailer from Calais to sluis
Nederland in one day, and I've done a slightly shorter trip in one day
with fully loaded pannier bags of about the same weight.
It seemed easier to cycle using the trailer - is there an explanation
for it? Apart from good beer along the way that is.

Which is better will depend to a large extent on the size/bulk of the
load. A trailer is much better when you get serious weights and/or
bulks because it extends the load area and puts a lot of the weight
through its own wheel(s) while keeping the load's centre of mass very
low, so as not to lever the bike over. But though this is good for
Serious Loads it involves quite an overhead, and where panniers don't
weigh or bulk enough to affect the handling of the bike much they're
usually the better option.

My freight bike (see
http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/pictures.htm#eight) is much
the best thing I've got for heavy loads: the handling is largely
unaffected with 50 Kg in the cargo bin, but it's the slowest and most
unwieldy of my bikes if it's empty because of all the extra weight and
wheelbase to take the loads when it has to.

Pete.

Link's a bit off. I missed...

a) any piccies of said Cheryl's tired legs
b) piccies of the scree run of stob coire nan lochan ( probably a
spelling mistake, and seeing as I'm about as far from Glencoe as I'm
ever going to get... ) - is it still open?

But I did enjoy a lot of memories. Considering I was a southerner ( and
still am, but a southerner's a northener down here if you get my drift
), our paths crossed on many occasions (:

Steve

Steve said:

Link's a bit off. I missed...

Sometimes the case that a browser will try and load up a name tag before
it's got the full page. Try refreshing once it's in and it should land
at the freight bike.

Quoted message said:

a) any piccies of said Cheryl's tired legs

You'll just have to imagine them...

Quoted message said:

b) piccies of the scree run of stob coire nan lochan ( probably a
spelling mistake, and seeing as I'm about as far from Glencoe as I'm
ever going to get... ) - is it still open?

I don't have any piccies of that, and haven't in fact run a scree there
(been full of snow when I've come down), and indeed when I trudged up
(to pot Dorsal Arete).

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Chris Nowak said:

I used a road bike to tow a luggage trailer from Calais to sluis Nederland
in one day, and I've done a slightly shorter trip in one day with fully
loaded pannier bags of about the same weight.
It seemed easier to cycle using the trailer - is there an explanation for
it? Apart from good beer along the way that is.
Chris Nowak

When towing a trailer wind direction and road surface make even more
of a difference than when riding solo, IMHO.
On smooth asphalt, with no wind or a tail wind, I don't really notice
my Radical Cyclone trailer, but on cobles, or with an unfavourable
wind it seems to morph into a drag chute with square wheels.
I can stow two weeks' camping suplies in two panniers, but if I take
the trailer I tend to bring everything but the proverbial kitchen
sink, so I only use it for short trips.

David Martin said:

[2] Two 25kg bags of cement are quite happily towed in the trailer but would
push the rack beyond it's limit.

"push...beyond it's limit"? It'd be over double the limit of any of the
racks I've seen or owned.

Jon (Impressed of Edinburgh)

On 7/2/05 10:09 pm, in article [email hidden], "Jon

Senior' jon_AT_restlesslemon_DOT_co_DOT_uk said:

David Martin said:

[2] Two 25kg bags of cement are quite happily towed in the trailer but would
push the rack beyond it's limit.

"push...beyond it's limit"? It'd be over double the limit of any of the
racks I've seen or owned.

Jon (Impressed of Edinburgh)

Don't be so impressed.. I'd never considered putting the cement on the
rack..

...d