I've been through so many trailers! Now, I use my Xtracycle for most utility hauling. I have a bicycle-based beekeeping business, and for that, I use the Bikes-At-Work trailer. My kids ride on the Xtracycle and I haul all my honey to the Farmer's Market on the trailer. It's a heavy load, but I have it geared low. I also haul my equipment for removing honeybee colonies on the Bikes-At-Work trailer. (It's a little nerve wracking moving colonies of bees at night by bicycle, but I've certainly proved you can be a small scale beekeeper and not own a motor vehicle).
I would disagree with Jim, though, about using it for more normal utility activities. The hitch for it attaches to the bike via hose clamps. It's not the nicest looking thing in the world, if aesthetics are important to you. Mine is mostly hidden by the Xtracycle's freeloaders. If you don't own a car, and want to haul absurd amounts of stuff, they're great. If you just want to pick up groceries from time to time, I would go with something a little smaller. Of course, as a parent, I've used both a Burley D'Lite and a Chariot kid trailer. We wore our first Burley completely out. The Chariot, I didn't like. There was something weird about the Quick release. I believe the cam piece fit into a recess in the piece that fit against the dropout. A few times, I thought I had the Quick release closed, but it wasn't in its recess, and then the tire shifted over and rubbed against my frame. I rode for about three miles like that one day, thinking I was just in terrible shape that day. Consequently, there's a lot of touchup paint on my Rivendell's chainstay. So, we eventually replaced it with another Burley D'Lite I found at a thrift store. It looked like it had never been used, and it was pretty cheap considerin'. Because of my fondness for the D'Lite, I do occasionally think about buying a Burley Nomad. I just can't justify it. I also have one of those rubbermaid bins-on-a-frame-with-wheels that goes along with the Bike Friday. I think it's called Bicycle R Evolution, or something like that. I didn't like it at first because it had a tendency to flip over if you caught a curb with it, but over the years, I've grown to love it. I can lock the Rubbermaid bin. The hitch is simple, and there's a lot of space in there. The kids and I haul it on our Bike Friday triple, and I use it to run errands on my single speed and occasionally on my Rivendell. I wouldn't use it for careening down mountains, but as a utility trailer, it's pretty good. I also had a B.O.B. trailer for a while. I liked it, but I didn't use it as much as my other trailers and sold it with my recumbent when I was trying to free up some room in my office. It also wouldn't fit on my Rivendell with my Expedition rear rack on. Those little Frankenstein bolts that jut out from the bottom of the Expedition rack are in the way, and I didn't want to pull my rear rack off every time I wanted to put the trailer on, so the R Evolution trailer won. I still think of the B.O.B. as THE touring trailer though, maybe because it is pictured in so many of the photos in Adventure Cycling. Paul B. Cooley Santa Fe, NM http://carfreefamily.blogspot.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
