Pulling a bike with a bike
 

Ok I want to pull my mountian bike behind my commuter ocassionaly, any one ever tried it? I don't want to pull a trailer, and I'd like to leave the frot wheel on. The reason I don't just ride the MTB is its a down hill bike, no enough gears to realy peddle.

I've contemplated this myself.

My experience with hauling loads in the child trailer leads me to believe that pulling a DH rig with a road bike is probably noticeably faster than just riding the DH bike on the road.

But I have yet to device a non-trailer method to verify this hypothesis.

Hand horse.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3487/...157fdb8c95.jpg

Need something like the Trail-Gator for adult bikes. Might be kinda long though.

Is it me or the picture - that rear tire looks really flat...

^^^ definitely NOT faster than just riding the DH bike on the road.

Something like that picture shown above.

just use your imagination and some handy work, and rig up both bike into like a 4 wheeler.

but you just ride on either side of it ;)

then you can even take the whole car lane :thumb:

it'll be like one of those multi people bikes you see often on TV, used for fund raising and stuff :p

http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-...80191_3983.jpg

I've done it before, but wouldn't advise it by my method unless it's a short ride.

That's supposed to be a tough call. I once saw a team in training.. The head cyclist was wearing national team kit.. What I saw, this guy must have been a professional cyclist.. He had a bike attached to the lead bike. with cyclists aboard.. With the two bikes attached, the leader was pulling both bikes faster than I could ever hope to go solo.

This might give you some ideas

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=508167

Or you might be able to do something with this

http://www.trail-gator.com/

http://www.x2cycle.com/assets/images...en/a_dwg1a.jpg




http://www.x2cycle.com/html/technical_specs.html

I heard of some one wanting to do that (another thread on BF?) they mention putting one of the skewer mounts for pick up trucks like this:
http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product...5_10000_201356


on the towing bike's rack. Not sure what to do with the front tire.

I think this would be fun. but I useally just ride my MTB to the trail if I am not driving it or getting a ride.

good luck. Let us know how you work this out.

Jeff

That won't keep the rear bike upright.

If it'd work without the rear bikes front wheel in the forks, that might work - OP said he doesn't want to take it apart though ...

Maybe use that X2cycle thing and somehow lock the bars/forks into place so that the rear bike becomes "rigid" for towing?

I've seen the fork mounted into holsters on the lead bike idea (attaching the rear bike by the front forks) but I can't help but thinking that'd raise the centre of gravity really high for that rear bike - it'd become tricky to manouevre - I had a fair amount of trouble with my setup above, and that was u-lock'd to the bike & bungee'd to my seatpost rack pretty damn tight.

Ghost riding/hand horse can be just hectic/crazy ;)

Not to thread hijack, but has anyone done it WITH a trailer. I would like to commute on my touring bike and occasionally bring along my MTB or polo bike. I am trying to find a cheap kids trailer with aluminum/steel frame, rip off the fabric, and adapt a thule/yakima/etc. tray to carry the bike. Anyone do it before?

Check out the "post your trailer" sticky in the utility bikes forum, several people do it there.
Also, BF member Dif Lock2, I believe, has several photos posted up showing how he connects another bike to the bike he's riding. Sorry that I can't find the pics.

I pull single speed cruisers on my mountain bike-turned-heavy duty hauler. It has a Surly rack on the back. I just place the bikes so they are facing away from each other, then pull up on the front wheel of the cruiser like I was popping a wheelie, but I keep going until the cruiser is upside down and the handlebars rest on the rack. Then I just bungee cord the handlebars to the rack real well and off I go. It won't work if you have fenders on the bike being towed, but a MTB should be OK.

I had the same goal for pulling my CAAD9-5 I'm in the middle of paying off to charity rides. I love my commuter and its geared well for hauling. I could carry my extra water, food, jerseys etc in the panniers and have the other bike in the back.

I've seriously contemplated a trailer so I could have my son with me while the wife drives the rest of the crew there.

Definitely made me start thinking though.

i like the Pannier method as the pictures shown on the other linked topic :D

easy, simple, and it works :thumb:

be VERY gentle and careful when turning corners...

Still wouldn't work. That tandem rack has a balljoint designed not to transfer any torque into the shaft, and thus can't develop any stabilizing forces. It's also designed to release if the rear bike tips.

I can't speak for the OP, but it's worth mentioning that my DH mountain bike weighs about twice as much as my commuting bike and has very wide, low-pressure knobby tires.

I'm still thinking a trailer that gets the entire bike off the ground is going to be the only way to realize any speed gains vs. just riding the thing.

trail gator should work if there's nobody on the rear bike. I wouldn't try it with the weight of an adult on the rear bike.

I had this setup on an old moped of mine once. It worked well. I ended up bungie-cording the front wheel to the front of the fork and handle bars of the trailing bike. It was quite stable even at the top speed of 27mph.

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...Bikeaction.jpg