Built a bike trailer
I wanted a small bike trailer that I could take with my folding bike with the notion that I can take a train/bus/plane/whatever to my destination with a folding bike and whatever bags I have and then be able to ride away from the terminal with everything. The constraint was that it should tear down to small enough to fit with my folding bike and not weigh enough that the folding bike plus trailer plus case exceeded the 50 pound weight limit or the 62" size limit (Brompton bikes are one of the few bikes that fit within this size limit in the first place). For a while I flirted with the idea of building a lightweight flight case that could be converted to a trailer but I couldn't get the weight down below 50 pounds (bike plus case) even when looking at overpriced lightweight materials.
So I made this: (click on any image for a larger version)
Which tears down to this:
Which compacts to a nice little bundle of aluminum square tubing, some hardware, and a pair of 8" scooter wheels.
With wrenches and extra hardware, this comes to about seven pounds and the long pieces are twenty inches long. It is designed so that it can carry up to the relatively standard full size luggage (up to about 18" wide by 36" long) and just about anything smaller. It worked flawlessly when I took it to DC this past weekend. I can (and did) attach a large handle carabiner and use it as a hand held luggage cart as well.
pluses:
All in all, I'm quite happy with how this came out.
So I made this: (click on any image for a larger version)
Which tears down to this:
Which compacts to a nice little bundle of aluminum square tubing, some hardware, and a pair of 8" scooter wheels.
With wrenches and extra hardware, this comes to about seven pounds and the long pieces are twenty inches long. It is designed so that it can carry up to the relatively standard full size luggage (up to about 18" wide by 36" long) and just about anything smaller. It worked flawlessly when I took it to DC this past weekend. I can (and did) attach a large handle carabiner and use it as a hand held luggage cart as well.
pluses:
- size and weight are great, better than I expected when I started out
- the frame is absolutely solid and
- easily handles 50+ pounds of full size bags or anything less than that
- assembles in 10 minutes (yes I timed myself)
- lots of small hardware rather than just folding up
- doesn't handle curbs or off road (or even larger pot holes) due to the 8" tires
- hard scooter wheels are a bit noisy
- need to make a bag for it, probably out of canvas
- I'd like to come up with a better hitch for it. Right now I'm just using a steel shackle connecting the trailer to a mounting point I bolted onto the rear rack which makes the connection a bit sloppy but it's not an actual problem
- I should probably add some side guards so the bag can't slide and rub on the trailer wheels (but I sized the axle bolts in anticipation of doing this)
- It wouldn't hurt to explicitly add a few places to hook bungy cords to
All in all, I'm quite happy with how this came out.