Bicycles: Trailers

The "Shopper" and "Heavy Duty" -- and the Tao of Bike Friday Trailers

Most of what I've needed to tow, I've towed with my BicycleR Evolution "Shopper" trailer. It's essentially a lockable, waterproof box on two wheels. I've fit a household's week of groceries in there.

The photo on the right shows how I secure it: with two padlocks and a cable. If you look really closely at where the trailer is hitched to the bike, you might recognize a standard air compressor hose coupling. This is the easiest bike trailer attachment I've ever used.

If you're familiar with the Bike Friday folding/travel bike system, you've already seen this design. Folded, the Bike Friday fits in a hardshell suitcase, and the suitcase becomes a trailer thanks to a collapsible version of the Shopper's undercarriage, two wheels, and hitch (which fit inside the suitcase as well).

The Shopper and the suitcase trailer use the same hitch coupling, so I can easily use the suitcase trailer for smaller amounts of cargo. (It should be no surprise that the president of BicycleR Evolution and the president of Bike Friday are brothers, from a family of mad scientists, and their businesses are right down the road from each other.)

The only drawback of this trailer is that a lot of thirsty people seem to think it's a cooler filled with tasty beverages. Of course, that has tended to make people friendlier towards me. In general, I get a lot of compliments (and even catcalls) when I ride around with this trailer. It seems to be something of a babe magnet.

Alas, all of the above should be written in the past tense, because my Shopper trailer and suitcase trailer were stolen by burglars. Apparently they found them very useful for loading up with my other possessions and wheeling them away!

I have replaced the Shopper with a new "Heavy Duty" model which has a lockable box with more capacity and larger wheels. It's working out pretty well for me. I used it for a bike move from one apartment to another, and it carried most things, including my loft bed (with stuff atop as well as inside it).

The "Kit" and the "Pet"

The BicycleR Evolution "Kit" trailer is a do-it-yourself project, for people with a little bit of the "MacGyver" thing going on. The kit is two wheels, a hitch (with the same hitch coupling as the suitcase and Shopper), and a paper jig for drilling holes in the place. You build whatever you want from them.

In its simplest form, you attach these parts to a piece of plywood. That's what I did with it, and I immediately put it to work hauling furniture. With a few boards nailed onto the sides, it was ideal for hauling compost and mulch.

The environmental group TIME'S UP! organizes rides around New York City, sometimes with musical entertainment. They had a portable sound system built on a heavy work trike, but the trike broke down. I donated my Kit trailer to the cause, and with a little added wood, a battery, some speakers, and electronics, it's got a new life as a music trailer.

The "Kit" trailer kicks out the jams as TIME'S UP! holds a ride to kick out the traffic jams!

Environmentally-benign, nonpolluting forms of transportation are good for animals, and some friends of mine in TIME'S UP! have addressed all of these interests and concerns with a BicycleR Evolution "Pet" trailer, which is used to rescue and transport dogs who are in need of special care.

The air compressor hose coupling is visible on the right. With an adapter, this makes it possible to hitch the trailer to almost any bike ...

"Bikes At Work"

Bikes at Work (formerly Fresh Aire) is a very versatile trailer, and it can also handle some really heavy-duty cargo. I know people who have used it to move pianos, and the Bikes At Work website shows it in use to transport a fridge. If you want to buy tons of stuff at one of those big-box discount warehouses, this is what you could use to bring it all back home!

If we'd had an easy chair or even a couch available, my girlfriend could have rested her foot in style. As the photo on the right shows, this trailer can certainly handle a couch. This couch, a recurring feature of the Berkeley Critical Mass ride, holds more than one person, of course. It might even support the weight of Homer Simpson and his family!

It's pretty big, but the strength is in the truss construction, so it's lightweight. One can easily pick it up and hang it from ceiling hooks. I don't have room for one at my place, but fortunately, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has one that members can borrow. Perhaps your local bicycle coalition offers the same deal -- if not, perhaps it should.

The attachment requires two points of contact in the rear, as it is designed for the seat stay and chain stay of a normal diamond-frame bicycle. The regular Bike Friday frame handles it just fine, but my V-framed Bike Friday Air Glide doesn't.

B.O.B. (Beast of Burden) YAK

The B.O.B. YAK trailer is a compact single-wheel trailer that's great for riding through narrow spaces, such as trails. The hitch swivels into the inside of the trailer for compact storage, as well.

The trailer attaches at the rear axle. It comes with a special quick-release skewer that the trailer hooks onto. For bikes whose rear wheels have hubs, there's a set of "BOB Nutz" instead of the skewer, but I couldn't get these to work with my Bike Friday.

I've found it to be especially great for camping, and I've used it to take my cat to the vet, but it's too small for most of my other uses.

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