bikes at works trailer...
 

i got my 64" one yesterday, and it's one of the coolest things i've ever owned. i took all of my roomates for rides around the block. woohoo!

i missed being able to collect all sorts of ridiculous things, but now i'm back in action. i'll post some pics later.

Please keep us updated on this trailer and the use you put it to. I have wanted one of these for some time.

Are you going to use it on bike moves?

I will...you should get one, it's totally worth it.

I'd like to...I never really look at the shift website though. I'm going to try to remember to check periodically now. If you help with those things, you should PM me and let me know when they happen.

great..please post a pic when you have time

I don't have any trailer - yet. My brother and I are saving $ to co-own a Burley Flatbed. We're only a few miles from each other, one between the 2 of us should work fine. When we get it, I do want to help with bike moves.

If you guys don't own a car, I'd definitely recommend saving for what I got if it's realistic for you...all of the carrying capacity you gave up with car ownership is pretty much reclaimed with a $300 lb weight limit. I guess it depends on your habits/lifestyle if that actually an issue or not, but for me one of the worst things about giving up the car was having to ignore all of the furntiture and whatever else on the side of the road and at the thrift store...no more though. I'm just excited:D

You also have to decide what you want to carry and where you want to carry it to.

Most of my bike trailer uses are for carrying groceries, plants from friends who don't need them, stuff for camping with kids and the occasional bike. I find that the Nomad – with a few minor modifications – is a good compromise between weight and capacity. My worst loads have been moving earth, sand or salt.
The few times I have more to carry, I either go by car or, more often, get a delivery.

A trailer like the Bike at Work one would suit a few more loads, but most of the time it would be too much of a load to carry around.

I found a really big wooden chair night, and a table, in the trash. It was the trailers first big (nonhuman) load. It handles really well, even with a lot of weight on it, and once you get going you can still move pretty fast. I also found some cones on the way home that weren't on active duty, so they got tossed on top, for a future Road Witch project(if you haven't seen it, go look: http://www.wormworks.com/roadwitch/index.html)

Anyway, it was at night, and my camera needs a new flash bulb, so no pictures yet. And I don't want to demean it by taking a picture with nothing on it. One will come soon though, I collect too much stuff:D


...the trailer is actually really light, as in I can carry it up the steps as easy or easier than a bike, and when it's not loaded you don't even remember it's back there...I went over a curb with it unloaded yesterday and didn't even feel it. And it has a quick release, so it takes about 10 seconds to attach or detach it;) I mean, I'm not riding all over town with this thing for fun, but it's certainly no hassle to hook it up if I need to use it, even for a smaller load.

I just checked the data and the Bikes-at-Work trailers are a bit lighter than I thought. However, I still feel that one shouldn't buy a too large or too heavy trailer for one's needs (i.e. don't get a truck if a car is sufficient, but get a truck if you need one).

My former Chariot 2-children trailer weighed approximately 25 lb; my current Burley Nomad weighs 14.5 lb and is only 25" wide. The Bikes-at-Work 32" trailer weighs 25 lb and the 64" trailer weighs 31 lb. If you want to carry groceries and other loose items, you need 2 storage boxes like the Rubbermaid 18-gal. containers (which weigh 2-3 lb each) to get the equivalent storage capacity you have in the Burley Nomad.

Of course, if you mostly need the trailer to carry lumber, a lawnmower, bicycles..., then the Bikes at Work trailer is a much better option; but if it's mostly to carry smaller items then the Nomad might be better. And if you need a trailer to tour with the family, then the Nomad is definitely a better option because you won't like carrying a half-empty bulky trailer for thousands of kilometres. In the latter case, I would say that the air resistance is the biggest advantage of the Nomad over the 2-children carrier, but shaving kilos helps when climbing 15% grades.

here are some pictures of the trailer in action, complete with sidekick.

ready to go:
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...DSCF0003-4.jpg

wiggy contemplating his first ride:
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...DSCF0002-1.jpg

wiggy, all packed up:
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...DSCF0004-2.jpg

home with all the stuff:
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...DSCF0006-1.jpg

inside:
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...l/DSCF0005.jpg

when i got home i had a 30lb bag of dog food, an 18lb bag of cat food, a tub half full of groceries and bike parts, and an 80lb wiggy. the uphills were pretty tough, but i'm also using a 10 speed road bike to drag the thing, so that doesn't really help. i'll have a mountain bike up and running soon with a triple up front and a big 34 ring in the back, so that should make it more reasonable. it handles really well though, even if it was tough to pull.

Dude that was really funny. Wiggy looks happy. As happy as a Wiggy gets anyway...

I really like that trailer. I can't decide between that or Extracycle, maybe both. That'd still be way cheaper than a few car parts and allot more usefull.

How's Wiggy like the ride? Gonna go to the beach in the summer?

Very nice. Thanks for the up dates.

ditto

I'm sorry, but you cannot carry pet food on a bike!

It is IMPOSSIBLE!!!

Sorry--couldn't help myself. Sometimes it seems that pet food transport is the number one "reason" that people give for owning a car. Kitty litter is number two. Taking pets to the vet is number three. :D :rolleyes:

Guess it depends on the make up of the "people" who are giving you their main reason for owning a car as transport of pets and pet supplies. Somehow I doubt that your sources represent a wide slice of the general population.

Before I got the trailer, I'd just strap the dog food to my rear rack. How is that hard?

I guess you missed the little smiley things on my admittedly lame post. :) (And now it's even lamer because somebody took it seriously!)

But there's usually a factual basis to even the least funny joke, and there actually have been many, many messages on this forum that said, in effect, "I would be carfree but I just can't get the 40 pound bag of dog food home without a car."

A search of "dog food" yields 19 threads. I didn't go in and read them all, but yes it seems that the subject has come up before.

-D

80 pounds of litter and/or food is a dandy Christmas present for a carfree pet owner.

Except it would be IMPOSSIBLE to deliver it to them. Haven't you been paying attention? ;)

True dat! I cheated. You see, I know someone who drives a car and when the subject of Christmas presents came up for my carfree son I suggested 80 pounds of cat litter. That's a gift idea that would occur only to another carfree person. People will doubtless wonder why a dog owner would want 80 pounds of cat litter. Well, Son's dog happens to be litter box trained. I know, that's another impossible thing but there you have it. As you well know we all have to do at least three impossible things every day before breakfast to be carfree. The merely improbable things we have to do to be carfree come easy.

I got this big desk for free off CL from a Chevy dealership today, and I thought it would be really funny to show up there with my trailer to pick it up. They didn't even do a double take or anything...it was weird.

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...SCF0001_15.jpg

Pac-Mule
 

New business; www.pacmulebicycletrailers.com

Dude ... That trailer is awesome!!! I definitely want one of those trailers! That would work perfectly for me to transport plants from the nursery, a couple of large bags of potting soil, groceries, supplies ....