weed eater

All the other forums have 'em...let's have one too.

Here's where you can post photos of interesting and/or ridiculous loads you have hauled using your bicycle/trailer/messengerbag/panniers/etc.

I will start things off with two photos of me pulling an uprooted butterfly bush. We transplanted it from our community garden to our front yard about three years ago, and it is flourishing. The plant provided lovely shade on the ride over. I think it was actually easier to get in the trailer than it would have been to get it into a car...

tfahrner

o plenty: https://todd.cleverchimp.com/bike/movepdx/

weed eater

wow!!!

AverageCommuter

That is awesome tfahrner! I especially love the green trike with the platform to one side of it.

Cyclaholic

WOW! I'm floored!!! I just don't know what to say!

If it wasn't for the photos I would be screaming "BULL$HIT" if someone told me they moved house like this.

I'm impressed beyond words.

Roody

These are some incredible beasts of burden!

scoana

OH NO! Now the tinkerer in me is waking up.

Those are some awesome pics!

KirkeIsWaiting

that's truly somethin' else! Great pics.
An amazing feat and a credit to the green bikers of the world.
Almost makes me want to load the groceries up on the old peugeot.
Nah, I hate grocery shopping. I'll just go for sushimi again.

sethw

I so want one of those smaller bike trailers from Bikesatwork. Especially since I need to move soon.

karmical

incredible....great job.....

cheg

..

Robert Raburn

Sixteen 12' Valet Bike Racks along with advocacy display materials and unsold T-Shirts loaded on two Bikes at Work model 96" trailers with optional racks. Over 200 bicycles were parked at the Solano Stroll in Albany/Berkeley CA in September 2004.

Other similar trailers carried banners in the event parade and hauled decorated bikes to the event.

lala

Do you know what's up with that xtracycle? Is that a regular conversion, or is there something else going on?

tfahrner

The latter: https://todd.cleverchimp.com/blog/xt/xtravois.html

AverageCommuter

Thanks for asking that question, lala. That is something that has been bugging me since the first pic of it. Nice looking custom job, tfahrner.

Patrick A

This pic is awesome!

Juha

Nice rigs!

This is me and my bike, leaving the kayak shop with my brand new sea kayak and kayak trailer. The trailer follows nicely, but tight corners can be a problem.

--J

Alloy Addict

Todd,
I have been reading your blog for a few days now, and really enjoy it. I am fascinated by the Xtravois. I just wish I lived close enough that I could bug you for a test ride. I'm following the Stokemonkey progress like many people watch soap operas. "Will The Lightening arrive on schedule? Tune in next week to find out if all the parts got packed on the pallets. What about Todd's liver?"

Seriously, I enjoy your blog, and your ideas are inspirational. BTW I found your blog through the Oil is for Sissies blog.

What is your opinion of the Rohloff Speedhub? You seem to be having good experiences since you have used it on more than one bike.

tfahrner

Thanks Mr. Alloy. You get extra points for noticing the multiple Rohloffs. My opinion of the Rohloff hasn't changed much since I wrote this: https://search.bikelist.org/getmsg.as...10201.1530.eml . I get a lot more use out of it on Xtravois than on the touring rig, where the heavier loads translate to more and wider shifting. It is particularly well-matched to Stokemonkey, as the throttle makes two-handed shifting that much less desirable.

Alloy Addict

Thanks, Todd. That is precisely what I was looking for, a detailed personal review. You brought up the two major drawbacks I have been able to find: price and maintenance. You also brought up the noise issue, which I hadn't really thought about too much though I do seem to remember Sheldon Brown mentioning it in his review. I wish I could find a Rohloff equipped bike here to test ride. I keep watching for them. Though if it were me I'm not sure how I would feel about some stranger flagging me down and saying, "Hey, isn't that a Rohloff Speedhub? Mind if I try it out?" The audacity.

The price is the biggest obstacle for me, both because I am cheap and the worry of theft. Cincinnati probably doesn't have the bike theft problem that SF or Portland do, but it would still be a worry. Though the rear wheel is usually the most secure part of my bike when locked in public. I really want to build up an "all rounder" type bike with one of these, mostly for city riding with perhaps a short tour here and there. Cincinnati is quite hilly and there always seems to be a stoplight at the bottom, and I'm just not sure the Nexus system has enough range.

citizen560

Nice!!! I was thinking of doing something like that so I could own a canoe - it's only 12 miles or so to the lake, even closer to a couple nice rivers.

Juha

If you mean an open top canoe, there are even simpler ways of towing that. You can fit a yoke of sorts in the bow and a connecting bar from there to the seatpost. Add a pair of wheels under the canoe and you're all set. Swedish Linder have a system like that, for a pic go to https://www.linder.se/engold/inkas/In.../Eng_Inkas.asp (click "Advice & Tips" on top navigation bar, then "Material and Accessories" on left).

It's more difficult to attach a reliable towing mechanism to a closed top kayak (without making permanent modifications to the bow), hence the need for a "real" trailer. My trailer is from Tony Hoar in Canada. After a couple of summers' worth of test rides of varying distances (from 3 to 110 kms) I can say it works well. The idea of towing a canoe/kayak with a bike is definitely feasible.

--J

brunning

a few years ago, i moved from to an apartment on the other side of the manhattan bridge, about 3 miles away from where i was living.

i was able to get into my new apartment a few weeks before i had to be out of the old place. this meant i could take my time and gradually move stuff over instead of doing one massive 20 hour day of moving.

since i was freelancing and had lots of free time during the day, i'd load up a huge hiking backpack with anywhere from 30-50 lbs of stuff and take a trip over to the new place once or twice a aday.

when the end of the month actually came, i just had to throw a couple of pieces of furniture and some other large things into a van. took about an hour!

weed eater

bump!

today we hauled a big dehumidifier from a rental shop. our basement is flooding cuz of saturated earth and constant rain, so our landlords rented us this thing to try and dry out the stuff down there. We thought about getting a flexcar, but I am really tired of getting a damn car every time we need to go haul some huge thing. we had to get a car last week, when the basement started flooding, so we could get a dozen forklift pallets, a wet vac, etc.

So today we took the bikesatwork trailer to the rental place and got the dehumidifier, and hauled it away. I put a piece of plywood on the trailer to provide a flatbed, and that worked, although the dehumidifier seems like it was built to be carried on this very trailer, so it may have been fine without it. During transit we covered it in a blue tarp and tied it down with ratchet webbing.

The guy who brought the machine to our vehicle thought the whole rig was pretty cool. He helped me load it onto the platform and said something approving. I asked him if it was OK to put the machine on its side and he said yes. Then another guy came over and said "That's not gonna work!" I said "Cuz it's on its side?" and he said "Yeah!" I said, "What if we leave it standing for a day before we use it?" and he said "That'll work!"

Then the guy from the paperwork desk came running out to let us know that if we laid it on its side like that, we'd have to let it stand upright for a couple hours before using it. We told him this was fine.

I have to wonder if they'd have been so freaked out about us laying it down if we'd been loading it into a compact pickup. Or a station wagon!

Anyway, the ride was slow and uneventful. The trailer was a bit more wobbly than usual, I expect because the weight was riding a little higher than it does in the tubs. We stopped halfway for a spectacular lunch at Genie's.

I love doing stuff like this.



This is version 3.0 of my 1993 univega. That's Holly holding it, but I got to ride it for the pull. The univega's been in transition for most of the year--I finally swapped out the fork for this rigid Karate Monkey job, and now it's sporting Albatross bars and a stripped down gearing (1x7). There's a 27" wheel on the front because I didn't realize the Karate Monkey fork couldn't use 26" wheels! So it's got a bit of 1890 style, at least till I build a 26" disk brake wheel. I am really glad to have this bike back on the road, so I can do my share of the hauling again!

CommuterRun

You guys are awesome.