Strixowl

Anyone know of this type of trailer/product out there or one that would work (for Recumbent & girlie's Mt. Bike?)

sch

Seems like the motorcycle trailers could easily be adapted to this purpose, assuming
some fabrication skills on your part. There are 2&3 motorcycle trailers readily
available that are light and compact. Front wheel fork clamps that are bolt on are
available for $6-10* from most bike catalogs, or you could adapt car top racks to the motorcycle racks. Yakima and Thule sell individual bike trays for cartop use that
can be used anywhere with a drill and some nuts and bolts. Use lock washers, lock
tite and nylock nuts and grade 8 or higher bolts though, you don't want the tray to drift of the trailer at 80mph on the interstate. Steve


*Thats what I remember paying, but the latest Performance catalog has them upto $20!!

BlazingPedals

You can buy small 'kit' trailers for around $200-250 and add a plywood bed and build in a tray with a bike-tite fork mount. The problem will be the hitch. Make sure you can put a hitch on your car before getting the trailer.

Strixowl

Good point about checking on the ability to put a hitch on the car. And I did find some "kit" trailers at a good price $$$. thanks BlazingPedals. It seems amazing to me that others don't have this problem. Do all recumbent riders own trucks/SUV/RV's or just stick to the neighborhood?

It seems most racks don't fit. Does anyone know of a rack that will carry a Burley Limbo safely on a Ford Escort GT (hatchback)?

spambait11

Maybe you could do something like this with PVC conduit:
https://www.bicyclecommuter.com/CarrierCradles.htm

N_C

I would not recommend towing a bicycle behind a motor vehicle. Where the front wheel is strapped or clamped in something & the rear wheel is left to roll on the ground. The reason: Well for one the bearings in a bicycle wheel are probably not designed to handle such constant high speeds. Second it is probably way to hard on the rim, unless you want to true or replace it after almost everytime you tow it. And finally when the motor vehicle stops or if it has to stop suddenly that can be rather hard on the bicycle's frame.

If you want to haul a bike with a vehicle that is fine. But find a way to have both bicycle wheels off of the ground. For my recumbent I use a Sportworks tray carrier. It goes into my receiver hitch & folds up when not in use. Works great. I actually have 2 trays for it. The first one I bought is a Vision SWB recumbent only tray. I bought the 2nd newer tray, which is a universal recumbent tray when Sportworks finally came out with it. For the whole think including both trays I spent about $400.00 total on it.

But I have seen people build a custom application on a 4'x8' flat bed trailer. And of course there is the ever popular Yakima style carriers.

What ever you decide that is within your capabilities is fine. But do not tow a bicycle behind a vehicle with the rear wheel rolling along behind. This is not a motorcycle you're talking about here. Bicycle's are just not designed to handle that sort of thing.

Strixowl

Thanks N C,
I wasn't really planning on towing it on it's own wheels. Sorry If I gave that impression :-). I'm new to bents and the shop I'm purchasing from (at least 1 person) said they hadn't ever seen a rack, for a bent, that they felt they could trust. But I figured that with all the bent riders out & about somebody must have come up with something workable.

I went to the Sportworks site : https://www.bicycleracks.com/ and looked at the Universal you mentioned and was quite impressed, especially since I may want to also haul the ladies MT Bike and hopefully later ;-) her bent. I also found 6 dealers (even REI 6 blocks from me) in my area. I'm going to check it/them out and with luck I won't have such bad sticker shock I won't need it anyway. Thanks for the good lead. Happy Peddling :-)

When your new to something you get all kinds of info to sift throught & not sure of any of it

Glasspacker

I have a Rans V2 LWB (65" wheelbase) and had the same questions you did. Fortunately, I already owned a cheap ($200) kit from Northern Hydraulics which was my mower trailer. I tore the bed off and replaced it with a 40" x 8' bed with sides. I built a wind block on the front (angled to match the angle of the front fairing), since the height of the bent was up above the height of my little Toyota pick-up, and I was afraid of the wind effects. So now I can roll it right into the trailer, as is, upright, and do nothing to it except strap it down (two wooden side arms hold the seat/bike upright). The Fairing is blocked. Man, it's different looking. But didn't I already cross that bridge with the bent?

No "break-down" time of the bike when I want to transport. Handlebars, fairing, seat, stay exactly at my preferred settings.

Strixowl

Aaaaahhhh now I'm getting some possibilities :-) I'll take all I can get.
Thanks again all.

GeezerGeek

My bent fits on one of those cheapy racks that has two bars sticking out if I turn the bent upside down.