Living Car Free - Any car-free ten pin bowlers?

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.
dejinshathe
05-02-07, 06:21 AM
I'm car-free, but my wife isn't. This makes sense if I tell you that I don't have a driver's licence, so when I don't have my wife, I really am car-free - forcibly so. I'm trying to convince her to sell the car and become car-free herself, but that's another thread.
I bowl ten-pin at least once a week, my wife doesn't bowl at all.
My alley is a 35 minute walk away, pulling a two-ball bowling bag behind me on its little wheels.
My thought is to pull the little wheels off the bowling bag, fit two kiddie-bike sized wheels to it and then somehow rig a bike-trailer sort of arrangement to it, so I can fit it to my bike and off I go ...
... am I crazy? Has anyone done this before? Advice? Blueprints? Help?
Cheers guys.
Wouldn't loading the bowling ball bag into a general-purpose bike trailer be a better option? It's certainly bound to be sturdier than your jury-rigged solution.
hockeyteeth
05-02-07, 09:12 AM
Yeah, just mount two 16" wheels to some plywood, then add side rails and perhaps bolt a trailer tongue to a training wheel arm. That way you could just bolt it to the axle. Good luck, and make sure to take pics!
EnigManiac
05-02-07, 10:07 AM
As a fellow car-free guy, I addressed the problem of hauling things such as groceries, poker tables and chips, lumber, etc. at the same time I sold my car: I bought a trike with a trailer. Immediately, I modified the trike into a cruiser trike with springer forks and cruiser bars as well as increasing the chain rings to improve from 5-speed to 15-speed. Together, with the trailer, I can haul just about anything. Just last Sunday, for instance, I stacked my sons' heavy, bulky hockey goalie bag into the trike with five hockey sticks and secured them with bungee cords. Worked like a charm, didn't take much room and was more efficient than all the parents who had to park a kilometer or two from the ball-hockey tournament site and then haul all their equipment over their shoulder while I pulled right up to our bench. Maybe you want to consider something similar. I'm a bowler too and have a similar two-ball bag. I've hauled it in the trike and on the trailer and it works great.
I'd try and use a trailer. There are some two-ball bags that have larger diameter wheels. If you're bowling in a league, I'd recommend a locker.