| jocko |
03-18-2009 05:00 AM |
bike trailers
A couple of years ago when gas prices were climbing steadily I got interested in pedal assisted biking and built qute a neat little clip-on for an acquired MTB based on a 25cc weedeater engine, roller drive. Although it worked a treat is was very noisy and left a blue smoke trail behind it. I was reluctant to ride it on shared cycle/pedestrian paths because it attracted too much attention.
I then decided to go electric, a decision I have certainly not regretted. I bought a front wheel hub motor kitset for $NZ320 (including 2 x 12v SLA batteries), controller, wiring harness, panniers etc. Everything worked out just fine. I could cruise around town (pedal assisted - I get some exercise!) at around 28kph with a range of about 20kms.
HOWEVER, you can't carry a helluva lot just on a bike carrier and the heavy batteries put a fair strain on the pannier mountings etc. I thought a bike trailer might be worth looking into and after a lot of searching around on the internet I built one using light angle iron, drilled and bolted - not welded due to possible required modifications - with an air hose coupling centred behind the back wheel on a drawbar made of aluminium channel.
I plonked a couple of 12v SLAs in the trailer and hooked them up via a little extension lead to the controller. The rig worked well but I became dissastisfied with the central hitch when I saw a couple of tricky ones on the net using a caster wheel mount. That was a brilliant idea whoever thought of it first! The offset drawbar works far better than I imagined it would - there is no rattle or vibration and the trailer runs nice and true with the heavy batteries in it. (There is still plenty of room for groceries and stuff.)
It might seem a bit stupid for an old guy of 74 to be mucking around like this but I'm having a ton of fun fiddling with the contraption and riding it around and about on errands and stuff. If anyone is interested I've got some pics.
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