Monday 19 May 2014

Long Wheelbase

We really don't need yet another vehicle in our household. A 9th bicycle for a family of four is getting excessive. But this Adams Trail-A-Bike (I believe the Canadian firm invented them?) seemed like a good idea. ike is fast on his own micro mini, but he has zero road sense. Bristol is hilly and pedalling our trusty 45kg Dutch Bakfiets is getting more strenuous as the kids get heavier by the week. The combined weight of the new set-up is 21kg less, there is some extra HP on tap and it was only £20 on Gumtree so it's ticking lots of boxes. In theory.
In practice there is a frightening amount of tail-wagging-the-dog effect (even if ike isn't doing ballet plié), and it's 23cm longer over-all. Not good. I've now tightened right up the universal-joint coupling but there is still slack in the connecting pin. I reckon 20cm could be cut out of the main top-tube to bring the the trailer as close as possible to my back wheel. But even with those modifications, the bottom line is, I don't like not being able to see what he's up to, or if other traffic is paying him any attention. BP

OR as Dutch Brothers, Jan-Willem suggests, go for the family tandem designed by Ronald Onderwater. It's wheelbase is 19cm shorter than the Bakfiets.

8 comments:

Paul said...

Cool! I reckon a couple of clicks of compression on the front will help the tail-happiness. Also, if you shorten the wheelbase... it'll slide easier!

rustyli150 said...

remember having my youngest on one of those in devon. Freewheeling down a hill I seemed to be going much faster than I expected, only to discover she was still pedalling!

rustyli150 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sideburn Magazine said...

That was a very strong memory. Or deja vu? G

Captain Highside said...

Ben,I run one of these off the back of my 26" cruiser and she's sweet. I had to re-engineer the connecting joint to get zero play and even slightly tight. One word of caution though, never (ever) loop it !

rustyli150 said...

Yeah, sorry, no idea why that posted in triplicate. Pesky magic box.

Sideburn Magazine said...

Hi John
Yes I put mu UJ in the vice one side at a time & pinched it. I think if I replace the old M6 connecting pin with a new long-shank M8 & re-drill the hole very carefully up to size, that should help.
What do you mean by 'loop it'?
BP

Captain Highside said...

I mean flip the cruiser. If you're into wheelies it's a bad thing to land on your offspring as they're enjoying the sunshine! I had a 'near' moment once and tend to keep the front wheel lower now while towing.