After a bit of faffing picked up a trailer from EBC. It wasn’t the first place I tried, I’d been hoping to get a second hand Giant or Trek trailer but failed and none of the other shops in the area I tried had any in and to be frank it was cracking value for money, already having been reduced and then being able to get a further discount on a brand new one. Transport for two for less than the prices of a pair of XTR clipless pedals.
Talking to Tom confirmed my fears that negotiating various trail obstacles was going to be the biggest issue and so it turned out. We managed to negotiate all but one of the barriers along the local disused railway line cyclepath on the way to see the horses at the paddock last Sunday. At that point we just turned around and came home – pretty much the whole route is offroad on paths or though the park, there’s probably about 50m of road all in.
Since then I’ve been taking the boys to nursery and picking them up every day in it – again on dedicated cycle paths, through the park or on designated cycleroutes in our suburban area. There’s just one kissing gate type barrier to get past which I’ve now discovered that If I back the bike in and pull the bike up on the rear wheel and pivot it 90 degrees to the right just lets me get though. I am definitely product testing the universal joint, although hopefully not the back up safety loop.
You notice it on the ups of course, but on the flat and downs there is hardly any difference. Saying that I’ve not tried anything too extreme so far, so I’ll reserve the right to change that point of view the first time the trailer tries to over take the bike on the downhills. Nice bit of kit so far. I hadn’t appreciated the need for the bars outside the wheels at first, but effectively they’ve already served the purposes of skidrails trying to fit through various gaps, saving the wheels from getting hammered and now carry a few battle scars.
R O T H A R . C O M 