All hail the bike cargo trailer!
Bike cargo trailers are amazing tools for getting more out of a bicycle -- and keeping you a out of your car. In all their variety, bike cargo trailers are the perfect tools for hauling stuff by bike.
We cover touring, commuting, errands, and generally doing more by bike -- so we don't leave out cargo bikes and conversions.
The topics of bike child trailers and trailer-cycles are covered in our Family Cycling section.
This blog is about sharing the fun, the utility, and the creativity that bike trailers can inspire. We want photos of how you've used your trailer -- whether it's an off-the-shelf model in a beautiful or interesting setting, or if it's a Franken-trailer customized in a way only you could have conceived.
Photos help to spread ideas, and stimulate discussion. It doesn't matter if you bought from one of our shops or not -- Bike Trailer Shop, Bike Bag Shop and Bike Kid Shop. Your photos and the stories behind them want to be seen and heard.
Batman, who apparently also moonlights as a keyboardist, sent in this photo of his bike trailer setup. I’m guessing that the somewhat blurry, dark photo was taken as Batman was jumping on his bike to chase after a criminal in between gigs. Or perhaps it was intentionally blurry to hide some of its alternative crime fighting functions.
Happy Halloween from the Bike Shop Hub!
Richard sent us these photos of his son on an Xtracycle with PeaPod and a stroller attached on the PeaPod. It sounds like he is a real fan after a few months. He included this video of his adventures with the Xtracycle.
Speaking of the PeaPod, we are kicking off our Fall Inventory Reductions. We happen to have some overstock off the PeaPod at the moment. Click through to our PeaPod page for details.
Dear BikeShopHub People:
Earlier this year, when Xtracycle kits were no longer available in the shops here in Australia, my partner and I, after searching the Internet, found you! We ordered a Free Rad kit, a PeaPod, and a 2nd Snapdeck, and the rest has been history. We are now a 2 Xtracycle family, and I ride mine every day, for any reason!
Thanks, Richard Monfries (PS: I wear your BikeShopHub.com T-shirt when I’m out and about on the bike too)
'The Blobinnator' - that's what my 5 year old son Max has called my Xtracycle.
Its been a tough summer and fall as I’ve been scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to the finances of our business here at BikeShopHub.com. As I scramble to make ends meet and make some tough choices to get our business plans in line with reality, I’m very glad that I’m doing this for a business that I believe in. Everyday I’m inspired and excited to be working for cyclists trying to do more with their bicycles. I don’t think I could sustain the same stamina if I was trying to repair a business with a primary motivation of accumulating wealth.
While money is a necessary elixir to solve our current financial issues, the accumulation of wealth is not a driving component of what makes this business work unlike many business models. Our financial equation is much more about finding a balance. I believe that this part of our business plan equation is an essential piece of what has allowed this business to grow rapidly over the past 5 years.
It is difficult to know whether growing a business rapidly and collecting debt is the right direction when you are in the middle of the experiment. I’ll need time to know how our rapid growth while building up debt will play out for the long term. But even if our moves forward were off the mark, because wealth accumulation was not the driving force, I’m confident that we are fully capable of handling the issues in our current lack of financial balance. We’ve pushed our growth to the limit and now we are in the tough process of rebalancing. And with our customers motivating us, we are finding our footing and moving forward with steadiness and a new understanding of how to maintain our financial equilibrium.
I was quite pleased with the strange colors and shapes that my camera was capturing a few nights ago. Not that there is that much to do with what we do here at Bike Shop Hub other than these photos were taken down the block from us and you can make out cyclists in the shot.
The theme for this weeks posts seems to be followups on previously submitted bike trailer posts. Last week I posted quite a few images of Steve’s innovative jumbo trailer. He sent in a few more images showing the rig he set up to haul his wagon around with.
Appropriately enough, he’s got a new Surly Troll, the new all purpose utility bike with a bend towards heavy-duty touring and utility use. Stu here has been riding around on one. A few images of the Surly Troll with Stu’s custom “mystery” rack. Megan rode one with Cass in Costa Rica and Cass liked the look of it so much he got his hands on one and wrote a nice review.
A few days ago I posted about Fabian’s fantastic trailer train. Now it has grown into a fabulous dragon beast. I think Fabian is on his way to setting some sort of world record here.
We’ve been enjoying all of the uproar over GM’s recent Reality Sucks ad campaign, directing college loosers to become winners by further signing their lives away to paying off a car loan.
Many cycling bloggers and even Giant bicycles have glommed onto this softball that GM lobbed over the plate and GM’s own Facebook Page for their college promotion has become a major hatefest against GM.
We’d like to join in and capitalize on the ridicule by promoting our end of year closeouts on our 2011 electric bikes that we still have in stock. We still have 4 fast and efficient electric bikes available to get you around town just as quickly as you might in a new (or even used GM car or truck) at a fraction of the operating and purchasing costs.
We are offering 20% off on the four following bikes:
Ohm Urban XU 700 – 18.5″ silver frame – was $3299 now only $2639
Hebb ElectroGlide 500 – 17″ silver frame – was $2199 now only $1759
A2B Velociti – white frame – was $2199 now only $1759
A2B Velociti – red frame – was $2199 now only $1759
Please Note: this offer is for in store purchases only on the 4 select models – while supplies last.
Fabian previously sent in some photos of his eye-catching, baby blue bike trailer. Now he’s added on two more trailers just in case you weren’t watching him go down the road already.
For a long time I’ve wanted to tow a multi-combination trailer set with some serious road presence. As things currently stand, front to rear dimension is 6 meters (19.7feet). Surprisingly it tows better with three trailers than two, tracking perfectly strait at speed and most importantly under hard braking. The turning circle is a small 2.5 meters (8 feet) which allows access to any bicycle path.
It’s proven to have great load carrying capacity as is evident by the photos. As we speak, i’m in the process of adding a fourth trailer for extra carrying capacity.
Stephen sent in these great photos of his bike trailer solution. This is a bike trailer designed for big loads and big time fun with the kids. With kids riding along, a trailer like this is only safe for slow, casual, smooth rides through the park or other low or traffic-less areas. But with all of the open space it looks like the kids really enjoy using their imagination in how they set it up.
An interesting aspect of Stephen’s design is the integration of the BOB Trailer fork into the trailer. Because the BOB trailer is designed for single-wheel bike trailers, the fork only allows for side-to-side and up-and-down rotation of the bike trailer. A two-wheel trailer also requires the ability for the bike to rotate side-to-side in relation to the trailer. With a single wheeler, this rotation would not work as the trailer would flop over this. Stephen was able to achieve both this side-to-side and pivoting rotation in his fitting between the BOB fork and his trailer (See picture immediately below).
About a year ago, we posted up a great example of converting a bike child trailer into a bike cargo trailer. Basically, the trailer was stripped down to its bare essentials and rebuilt for carrying gear and goods. Harry was kind enough to pass along these photos of the finished product all loaded up for a camping trip. With a little bit of ingenuity, it doesn’t cost to much to have a whole lot of fun with a bike trailer.
