Originally Posted by
JohnJ80
Interested in hearing about your experiences with the Extrawheel trailer especially it's performance uphill. We're planning a couple of tours, our most "touring" centric bikes are still some performance cross bikes and we didn't enjoy the ride with 20-30lbs on the bike in rear panniers. We're thinking that the Extrawheel trailers using our fairly light (at least in comparison to full on touring bikes) cross bikes and the trailers is about a wash to the weight of the fully loaded touring bike so the only real difference is the addition of a lightly loaded wheel's rolling resistance. Does that sound about right?
Bottom line, we are fairly light weight on touring gear and will keep it all around 25lbs and certainly below 30lbs.
I rode 500 miles in Alaska pulling the ExtraWheel trailer. Most of the time, I forgot it was there. I took a spill on a straight gravel downhill, as I tried to improve my line by moving to another tire track. Wheels somehow went out from under me. The trailer came un-hitched from the bike, but nothing was damaged and I picked myself up and carried on. Uphill wasn't a big deal. Certainly I shifted to a lower (small chain ring) gear, because "weight is weight" and even a moderate 6% grade can get tiring after 4 or 5 miles. I've ridden a steel touring bike with front and rear panniers and a trunk bag. It was a Novara Safari and I liked it until it got crushed in a rear-ended. Heavy bike, though. Comparable loaded ride experience but overall the trailer saved me from buying a full blown touring bike. My every day bike became a touring bike, just add the ExtraWheel trailer. To be clear, I still had a handlebar roll, full frame bag and seat bag, and I carried 4-5 days of food+ lots of water, so the trailer came in very handy.
So yeah, I like my trailer, but I tend to look at few previous purchases as "mistakes". If you're comfortable riding your cross bike for hours at a time, and the gearing is low enough for the terrain you want to ride, I see no reason to have a dedicated touring bike. I could certainly be wrong, but I like my modified carbon Jamis for all pavement riding and some gravel (though I wish I could fit wider tires). The ExtraWheel trailer lets my Jamis be my (almost) anything bike.