Bike Forums - View Single Post - Burley Flatbed or Nomad?

04-15-07 | 08:00 PM

#1

donnamb

tired

Joined: Apr 2006

Posts: 5,651

Likes: 2

From: Portland, OR

Bikes: Breezer Uptown 8, U frame

Burley Flatbed or Nomad?

Hey all,

I'm hoping to hear your opinions about the Burley Flatbed versus the Burley Nomad trailer. My brother and I are both car-free and live within 4 miles of each other. We decided that there was no reason not to split the cost of a utility trailer and share it. After a year of using my bike for about 90% of all my trips, I think I'm physically ready to pull a trailer. My brother has been using a bike almost exclusively for about 5 years. Now that he is a homeowner, it would be nice for him to be able to bring home largish items without always having to shell out for Flexcar.

We have our choice narrowed down to the 2 Burley trailers. We want a 2 wheeled trailer for sure - no BOB. My brother's fiancee and I prefer the stability of a side hitch, and we would both feel a lot better if my brother did not have the opportunity to do crazy things with a seatpost hitch trailer.

Burley is a sure thing for safety and reliability, and either of the utility trailers are within our budgets. We can easily obtain them locally for the same price as mail order. A used Burley child trailer isn't going to save us much money in Portland - it's a seller's market for those here.

My brother has pretty much deferred the final decision making to his big sister (as usual

), and I was pretty much set to go with the Flatbed, when the guy at the LBS was convinced we should go with the Nomad. Sure, if Brother and I had all the money in the world, we'd have both - but we don't. The LBS guy feels the Nomad is a better quality trailer, will carry more (though Burley says the limit for both is 100 lbs), more versatile, etc. The only thing that gave me pause is the LBS is a co-op and not known for steering customers to needless purchases. But really, the Flatbed seems more versatile to me as you can carry weird, bulky items with it that may not fit in the Nomad. As to the quality - what do I know? Not much.

Many of you good folk do, however. So here I am, starting this thread in hopes of some good advice. Brother and I can only get one. Which do you think it should be?

Links:

Flatbed - http://www.burley.com/products/flatbed.html

Nomad - http://www.burley.com/products/nomad.html

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