Originally Posted by
valygrl
Not addressing the original question, but I'm another one who had trouble with the trailer on downhills, it fishtailed horribly, and ultimately caused a terrible crash. I had really weird/bad handling - big uncontrollable swerves - over about 20 mph.
I switched to panniers, and love how they make the bike feel like a normal bike, only heavier.
I guess that goes to show there are a lot of factors that affect the bike handling - I think one big factor for me is that I'm quite a small person, and was riding quite a light bike, with a fairly heavy trailer. I think BOB is officially rated to 30 pounds and 25mph, I exceeded both and had serious trouble.
The bob only fishtails when you distribute the weight un-evenly. If you even START to fishtail, you should move a few things around. For light loads, I don't use my BOB; I just slap on a pannier or two. But for touring, I love the thing. The "raiting" of 30 pounds and 25 mph is mostly for the sake of liability. I take it out all the time and exceed those caps every ride and hill. Where I am, we have lots of short steep climbs that you can fly down. I get up to 40 mph with the bob and have no problems ( I balance it pretty darn well)