CliffordK

Another trailer to consider is the Origami trailer.

https://www.bikeforums.net/folding-bi...-trailers.html

BromptonBikeFan

The bike is great for traveling, however I think it is important to protect it. I could not take it with me near my seat. It was just to much trouble and many things can go wrong.... I placed it in the odd baggage zone. Here it was very important to protect it with a box (original box will do) and a cover just to be more describe. A college of mine took a IKEA dympa but the bike got damaged.

BromptonBikeFan

These trailers take travelling to another level!!!!! WOW

2_i 

Tinypic is not working so image quality is going to be limited. In consequence of this discussion I completed the project of getting a Bike Friday trailer to work with Brompton. I got the Radical Design hitch designed for Brompton and made a coupler for coupling the Bike Friday hitch with Radical Design. Basically I took an M10 stainless steel bolt and fashioned its head to the form of an air tool coupler, using a grinder and files. Another tricky part was to attach my Minoura kickstand for Brompton, normally going onto the axle, to the Radical Design hitch.

While at the end it all looks straightforward, finding the path was actually not . I am particularly proud of the kickstand solution . Altogether the Brompton, lock, trailer pieces and Vincita bag seem to add up to just about 23kg (to be verified). Apparently I have no space for my dedicated bike tools in air travel, but I usually have general tools that can be utilized for the purpose and a pump + tube repair kit usually anyway go separately.

Thanks for all the helpful comments here. Andersen Shopper will come in the future hopefully.

badmother

Nice! Now I am impressed, both with the bolt that is reshaped and the kickstand/hitch combo!


I tested out the Andersen today. Just strapped it to the rear end of the rack of my 3 speed Dahon Curve. Felt like nothing was atatched to the bike. Empty bag, just a 5 pound bike lock

As I arived at the shop there was a bike parked outside with a trailer atatched. What I really liked about the Andersen is that nobody would call it a bike trailer so I brought it innside the shop and hung it on the front of the shopping cart as it is made to do.

After shopping I cheated by getting a ride with my son in his "new" pickup

There was some "squeeking" from the wheels (Andersen not pickup) becouse they only have plastic bushings and I forgot to lube them. My friend is in Germany at the moment and he is going to look for wheels with ball bearrings for me and also a Hydro bag. I really hope he can find a dealer!

I would not load up the bag when the trolly is at such a relaxed angle as it was today (not enough weight on the wheels, too much weight on the handle) but just wanted to try. I`ll post some more pix in a few days time.

Also tryed to put my Dahon Curve innside the suitcase that came with my NWT. A fast test told me that if I remove the stem from just over the headset the bike can fit. Later I`ll try to see if it is possible to remove the front wheel instead. Would be a bit simpler not messing with the headset on airports an train stations.

2_i 

I botched the bolt a bit, not realizing which part was off in dimensions and preventing the coupling with BF hitch. However, it is good enough for now and I will be hopefully be testing it in travel at the next week. Real flaws should come out then.

Andersen seems perfectly suited for making the shopping on a bike completely uneventful. Currently I am either coming back overloaded or try to limit the scope of the shopping, i.e. implicitly bike gets in the way.


I am worried that the dealer at my next year's European destination might not stock up on the bike oriented Andersen models. I will start emailing them well ahead of time.

I started pondering the hitches on bikes if starting to use an Andersen in everyday life - a hitch on every bike that might be used, a quick release hitch?? On Brompton with BF I wonder about the hitch being lower than on the BF 20" bikes.


I managed to transport my Boardwalk type Dahons in the Brompton BW suitcase after taking off the front wheel and turning the fork rearwise or something. Pedals had to go off etc. Overall I prefer the dropping of the Brompton into the suitcase and closing the lid so much more.

badmother

The bolt is important to you for your trips so maybe bring a spare?


And if your bike is stolen you can keep traveling by buss or train . not so easy with a Carry Freedom Y trailer and some others.



Sounds like a good idea. A lot can be fixed if there is enough time available. I think my friend is going to several dealers if possible. He was interested in the Andersen himself so I am lucky that way. I recently pointed him in the direction of a Strida and he is into gadgets so he may be riding around German towns looking for Andersen dealers and want the Andersen as a trailer for the Strida- or maybe to see if the Andersen bags can be used with his Carry Freedom City trailer.


This is what I am investegating now. A hitch is weight and also money spent. For short travels I just loosely wrap a nylon webbing (can also use welcro) around handle on the Trolly and rear of the rack. If rack is squarish in the tubes (like on the B) a piece of some sort of padding can be good or sandpaper the corners.




Totally agree with you. I am just investegating my options (and thinking others could find it useful) and looking for solutions to use my Curve more plus also using it in areas where I would not use my B


Edit: On the lower hitch on the B. I have some times installed the hitch upside down to deal with the height problem. Not easy with the hitch you are using now. You could send your wife on a short holyday and when se is away you drill new holes in the trailer further forward of the present ones- so you can slide the suitcase further back on the frame...

BromptonBikeFan

Wow. That’s an idea. A Brompton could be great for it, since it has front and back luggage carrying capability.

badmother

In this case "it"is??? You need to clarify, especially if you have a good idea..

2_i 

[QUOTE=badmother;19816616]The bolt is important to you for your trips so maybe bring a spare?[\QUOTE]

Good point. Radical Design offers a short steel cable to get you home when the hitch fails. It goes around the plastic coupler. If I were to put one I should plan on circumventing all potential points of failure including rubber hose. In the forthcoming travel, I would be just riding from railway station to lodging on outskirts of town so if everything failed I would just call a cab or board a tram. I know the area and it will be uphill - good for testing the riding with a trailer.



If your friend finds any gold lode of an Andersen dealer please share it with us. A trip here and there can be skewed for a still to be determined one or another irrefutable reason.

I still have to gain a general comfort of riding with a trailer. I loaded the BF suitcase pretty heavily in testing the hitch and the suitcase hardly bothered me in riding.

It is the issue of compromise between ability to ride and walk with a trailer and/or to mount it higher, right? Radical Design put their axle closer to the center of gravity of the loaded trailer, but they use larger wheels and their Chubby trailer is more square-like ao you can still tip it up a bit without rubbing the other end against the ground.

Regarding the other issue, hmm..., it is even more complicated - I need to drill the holes in the new suitcase, less than a year old . As the groundwork I suppose I will clean up some of my messes during the forthcoming weekend, wash bikes etc. I should not to be too eager doing that, so as not to raise immediate suspicions. The drilling needs to be revealed as close to my departure as possible, but to make it right the first time I will need to spread out to get the measurements right and it is not easy to conceal that. At the end I am sure that I will learn that I am not suitable to have a family, though. The bills for all the hitch parts, hoses etc. will drip down over time, so that is less of an immediate concern

berlinonaut

Talking about the rear rack: One can leave out the trailer part, at least when not touring but only travelling. Looks a bit strange but works pretty well.



The case is a polaris folding bike pod (initially announced as brompton b-pod). It is a bit smaller and a lot lighter than the clapton case and the brompton is a tough fit - not much room for anything else. It does not fit with the combination of rack and extended seatpost, therefor I am using the telescopic post and remove the upper part when putting the bike into the case. The quality of the case is very mediocre and it is usually heavily overpriced for the quality when not on offer. But it is an airline-legal hard-case (well, semi-hard) for the Brompton and works w/o trailer.

Despite the strange looks no problems at all when riding, case sits very stable on the carrier and luggage can be carried inside the case when it is mounted to the bike. I would probably not go on a multi-day camping-bike-tour with this setup, though there is no real objective reason why not. Just the looks. ;-) However, for a transport ride, i.e. from the airport to the destination I see absolutely no issues.

badmother

Andersen at Eurobike!

Messedaten - Andersen Shopper® Manufaktur

https://www.eurobike-show.com/eb-en/i...79363580026666

badmother

Had some contact yesterday trough SMS. Shop said to my friendthat spares like wheels and bags you need to contact the company and order directly from them (a different shop in a different European country told me the same some years ago). Then I sent Andersen an e-mail and explained the situation so lets see what they answer. I wrote in English. My German is not good enough to write, reading is fine. Usign Google translate is not always a good idea since often the words are translated fairly accurate but grammar is way off so the message can be lost. Maybe we need to track down a forum member with perfect German skills to communicate with them for us. Today is sunday so lets give them some time to reply.


Not seen a Chubby in person yet but remember a Youtube wideo explaining that there are two places wheels can be atatched on each side. The two rear mounting points is for hand carting the trailer. If you are making a trailer the rear atachment do not need to be as strong (and heavy) as the regular use ones IMHO.

Since the BF trailer is using a suitcase it should be possible to just take off the trailer wheels and hand cart the suitcase on the suitcases own wheels I guess? Unless you have to put them on and off often.


Maybe your wife have her own "projects" to make up for yours- like maybe those shoes she bought on sale was not on sale at all...

Being an old gal I have known some nuts cases. IMHO if you worry about not being a good enough father/ husband/ person I am sure you are fine. It is those who do NOT worry that often is the problem- the "world champions in everything" guys and gals. I bet you know one or two too...

2_i 

Similar situation with my German. The worst are legal documents such as bank regulations. As a consolation, presumably Germans themselves are lost in those. I write letters with a heavy help of on-line translators and only short ones so as not to overexert myself and the recipient.

A very good point. I was all set to drill the holes, having already solved the problem of the BF pieces being lose on tolerances, basically adding extra separation between the holes so that the lack of right angles in BF trailer gets absorbed. However, now you threw me off - I will agonize for the next couple of days whether to go for walking, with BF wheels active, or for the center of gravity. Tim Tower, in excellent write-up on BF trailer, tells to anticipate plenty of walking. Wike put their axle closer to the center of gravity. Oh, it will be a mental torture. I will delay the holes concentrating now on better straps inside the Vincita bag.

Wow, I am learning new things in quite another area! Actually we had a couple of food projects over the weekend where I had to smell and admire but then the food has so much higher ranking than the bike suitcase trailer . In any case, I decided that I could not go ahead with drilling without a prior consent - even though I might be the main suitcase user, the suitcases are passed around the family and it was a significant financial investment. I had to explain hmm... on my knees why my life depends on the drilling of holes in the new suitcase rather than the older one I already wrecked. I got the permission to drill provided I reviewed the backlog of all my billings since the end of last year - mostly $1 Paypals and alike. It took several hours and now I do not know where to drill

Hisamatsu

Does your heels hit the case while pedaling?

CliffordK

As far as BF trailer holes.

I got mine used, so pre-drilled, TWICE (6 holes). I haven't tried to figure out why there are extra holes

Anyway, the holes hold the frame together so I'd make them tight.

Mine has the wheels fairly far back. You want at least some tongue weight. Negative tongue weight and you get a shimmy. If only I could find a tape measure. Mine has about 2/3 in front of axle, and 1/3 behind.

At times I'll grab it by the side handle to carry on the side. My handle rubs hard against the tire, but does open and can be used.

I don't use the pull handle much, but it is on the rear, and makes a handy place to attach a light. If moving by hand, I'll just pull the tongue.

I would find it handy to have tiedowns on the clam-shell lid to attach a backpack or something for easy access. Good epoxy?

berlinonaut

No, surprisingly not.

badmother

There are trailer stackers if you want to bring a lot. https://store.bikefriday.com/index.p...v702&cPath=206

With a backpack I would try to use the straps already on the bag. Can you make them long enough to go around the case in any way or bring some extra welcro or webbing straps (or elastic) to keep ti in place? We managed to do that with a Hagløfs xxl backpack I own on my friends Carry Freedom City. Strapped it on as if the trailer bag was a person.

CliffordK

I used cam straps looped around trailer to tie down pack plus some stuff that was too big to fit inside.

Problem was that everything had to be untied every time I needed inside the trailer.

Tie downs on the lid should allow access inside trailer and to anything on too.

badmother

Maybe atatch D rings to the sides of the lid? You could make or get hold of a big "pocket" with a zip made of the same material as the outer side pockets of the Brompton T bag https://www.radicaldesign.nl/grondst...-mesh-3mm.html

One D ring in each corner atatched to D rings on the suitcase. Something similar can be bought ready made for strollers and walkers.

Could also epoxy some of that super hardcore welcro to the lid but I doubt it`ll last!

I would maybe try to atatch extra stuff on the bike instead of trailer becouse you compromise strenght by drilling plus less water tight.

EDIT: Looking at my own suitcase and the pictures on the TIM TOWER site that 2 i linked to There are two "feet" sticking out on one side. Could be used to atatch something to the lid on that side but drilling could make them weaker. On the oposite side there is the handle so atatch to that or drilling. If you use a bag from webbing like I suggested and atatch to handle with welcro you need to loosen to open but if your stuff is innside the bag it is not a big job.

2_i 

Myself I plan to use the handles of a trolley suitcase for attaching on one side and wheels on the other. Tim Tower just drilled the suitcase extensively and attached all kinds of things: bumpers, flag.

badmother

Is there no sources for second hand suitcases where you live? I find them all the time around here..

Update on the Andersen communication. I sent them a total of three e-mails trying to explain the situation. I get the impression they do not read before answering. They just tell me "contact a dealer" or "What country are you in?" I try to explain that so far two dealers has refused to order and that there are several peopel waiting for an answer who live in different countrys and I get "thank you for contacting us and merry x-mas and happy summer hollyday" type of answers. Sad.

On my search for wheels I bought a baby stroller at a flea marked. It had three wheels. One rim was broken but the other two was fine. Two sealed bearrings and one quick release axel in two of the wheels plus an axel with one reciver for the quick release in each end. The wheels are 12,5". I know they can be used with my smal Y frame Carry Freedom wich is great becouse they take up less space than the 16" that came with the trailer.

Looking into using parts of the frame to make a BF- ish trailer or even a trailer where the frame/bed is above the wheels like on the Carry Freedom city trailer. I`ll see how much I have time to do before the winter since I have ordered some bike parts that need attention too and DIY projects like this can take some time in the planning period. This is just a hint to those who do not know where to start to look for wheels or peopel on a budget.

berlinonaut

It is probably the worst time of the year for questions to bike companies. Currently the Eurobike trade fair in Friedrichshafen is running, Europe's (or maybe the world's?) biggest bike-fair. Therefor almost all bicycle-related companies are heavily stressed during the weeks before and after the Eurobike with effects on their communication-abilities and -willingness. Maybe things look different in a couple of weeks.

Regarding the Anderson in general: What is interesting is that the Anderson Shopper was initially a licensed and much cheaper mass-production-derivate of the much older British Bike-Hod. The original Bike Hod, dating from something like the early 80ies, is still available today, but clearly in a totally different price-range. It is however totally different from a craftsmanship-perspective as well:

Bike-Hod bicycle trailer for shopping, commuting and carrying stuff
Bike-Hod Carryall Deluxe Review
Velo Vision::Review: Bikehod trailer (2005)
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/i-...ike-hod.95625/

Sometimes one can be found on ebay.co.uk cheaply - unfortunately the sellers are usually unwilling to ship them, local pick-up only.

badmother

Thank you for the links and for reminding me about the Bike Hood. I remember reading about them and storing pictures many years ago. The widest Andersen option is 58 cm wide so a tiny bit narrowrer and would fold smaller. I like the quick release wheel option becouse you can easily use the wheel size you want- at least 12" and 16" and it does not have the axel sticking out when folded like the Andersen does. Maybe I should have my Andersen modifyed using my recently bought stroller. Hmmm...

I am back to sewing bike luggage so was thinking about making a bigger bag for my Andersen but it is a lot of work so I need to do some serious planning if I do. Typical winter work.

2_i 

We live in a semi-rural area, so no flea markets here. However, if you saw the number of suitcases at our house, you would have thought that you were at a flea market or pawn shop. Same goes for bikes...

I solved the testing problem by taping the BF trailer to the suitcase and looking for an optimal placement of the wheels. I ended up with about 1/3 location from the rear such as that for CliffordK. However, the reference here includes the caster wheels rather than the body of suitcase only. The 1/3 might have ended up being a tad too forward, because the caster wheels eventually to their downward position and begin to grab the ground a tad earlier than you might have determined in a short-term testing .

I use a Samsonite suitcase rather than Carlton because it is just vastly superior to Carlton when in travel. Although both Samsonite and Carlton are supposedly made from propylene, that in Samsonite is much thinner and harder. Trailer tongue did not hold very well to the suitcase with just one bolt so I strapped by the handle to limit movement.






Sounds very familiar.

At some point I looked at stores with supplies for handicapped people. Then when I met someone in a wheelchair we chatted about tubes and tires.

Wow, are you sewing the thick bag cloth?! I only sew in hand, straps, velcro, zippers, some pockets. My wife, though, had sewn a rainfly for a tent and even a full-blown expedition backpack, but that was some ages ago when we had no means to buy one commercially.

I am in travel today (airports/trains/railway stations). The two checked in pieces ended up weighing just under 23kg each according to me and up to 1kg above according to the airline. They don't penalize you for this amount, but I have no reserve. I managed to take my standard bike tools and spare tube though . Vincita holds the Brompton, lock and trailer add-on. Tools and helmet are in the other one. T-bag holds mostly work related stuff but also a rain cape and Brompton cover. Apologies for picture sizes. The plane is taking off and I cannot fix that