One of the reason that I really enjoy my job writing the Bike Trailer Blog is, of course, sharing the many great bike trailer stories, but also writing about some of the more unusual creations and set-ups that people have come up with. We received an interesting story from Brian about his child/cargo bike trailer setup. Brian has come up with an interesting twist on a single wheeled trailer. I think this is one of the times where a picture is worth a thousand words. To make it even better Brian added some electric assist to the equation. To brake down his set-up. Brian has taken a BOB like trailer (could be a Yakima, but I’m not sure) and attached it to his bike, but instead of using the standard 20″ wheel that comes with the trailer, Brain decided to kill two birds with one stone and attach the front 20-inch wheel of his son’s bike to the rear of the cargo trailer. I have to say this is the first time that I have seen someone do this with a child bike and a cargo trailer. I guess this is kind of a take on a Trail-A-Bike, but adding a second steer point and a place for cargo.
In order to make hauling this train a little easier Brian has an electric assist front hub. It also looks looks like he has has wired his commuting lights into the electric system for the hub drive as well. In his story brian points out that ” The trailer is cheap and provided me with a macgyver moment with some black electrical tape to keep it together”. Interesting. Obviously this is a prototype configuration as Brian also states that “I like this idea, it’s just not sturdy enough”. There are multiple pivot points in this design which might add to the less then sturdy feeling. In a situation like this I think that going with something like a BOB YAK which is fairly over-built might help stiffen things up but I don’t think that it is the ultimate solution.
I really like the stab that Brian took at integrating child transportation with cargo capacity. I think with a little refinement this system could be made to work quite well. Keep an eye out for the upcoming Bike Trailer Blog User’s Choice Awards. We will be setting up a couple of different bike trailer categories for you, the readers of Bike Trailer Blog to vote on. The winners will receive gift certificates to the Bike Trailer Shop and plenty of respect or ridicule, depending on the category.