Trailer, attached to the pannier/mudguard eyes? Is that daft? On the one hand they look a bit flimsy, on the other, they take pretty much the full weight of the panniers with no shock absorption, so a trailer with similar weight and a lot of that through a 3rd wheel should be easy?

Reason for asking was I was thinking of getting one of those cheap BOB copies for ~£60. the reviews cast doubts on the QR, but ends are available to mount them onto solid axles. So I was thinking take an old QR axle, insert into the trailer mounts, cut off the end and file flat. Epoxy some M5 rod into the axle, screw that into the pannier eyelet and put the trailer hitches onto those.

Would it work?

A real BOB would be great, but this works out £330 cheaper! And it’s only for shopping trips when stuff is too much/bulky for panniers. I could just use a solid axle, but rebuilding the hubs not much less faff, and means carrying a pair of spanners on rides.

Braze-on or tapped into the dropout?

Not mine, but similar style (IIRC Tange). Not ‘brazed on’, but not in the dropout itself.

[edit] zoom in on this image

[url=https://flic.kr/p/xs1ygk]20150816_194405[/url] by thisisnotaspoon, on Flickr

Hmm, I’d have thought that the sideways loading of a trailer would bend one of them. When you “Park” a BOB and bike you are also leaning the bike against the trailer and hitch. Some say that’s putting damaging stress into the spokes. I’d have thought it would also stress that mount.

Never had a problem with the QR axle supplied with the trailers (all the ones ive seen look the same, whether from EBC or Ebay), the ‘dropouts’ on the trailers are the shonky bit.

I think do probably just switch the hub to a solid axle if you were especially worried about QR failure.

Hmmm, that was my first worry, but then I convinced myself that the relatively loose clips wouldn’t be pretty ineffective at transmitting that sort of twisting force and that when parked up it’s actually more like pushing one up and one down.

I suppose the only way to rind out without destroying the frame would be to find a cheap hack and (attempt to) destroy that!

[edit] This was one of the reviews, the problem was there only seemed to be 1-2 threads into the cam part of the QR, so it ripped it out when tightened.

http://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=77175&sid=b4e998df0cdaf386aae7e81c8463a6e4

sounds like they were doing it wrong – possible that it just haddnt be built right in factory.

Mines has more threads engaged than i would like – takes for ever to fit and remove compared to the regular QR i take out to fit it….I trust it more than a little tab on a drop out.Been using it for about 10 years on off.

Im more concerned about the catch mechanism rattling to bits…..

I have also made up some solid axle consversions using double ended stabiliser extension bolts

You might as well try the fittings that come with trailer and decide on a fix if they are not up to the job.

I made a hitch with some ally offcuts, armoured cable cleat round chainstay and pick up on the skewer. It’s a single sided trailer hitch so would foul the derailleur on yours. Armoured cable cleats are good for sharing the load on to seat or chainstays if you do need to make something up. I think sizes 5, 6 or 7 are the most useful, roughly equates to 1/2″ 5/16″ and 3/4″

I wouldn’t. Totally unconsidered load and direction of load.

Mines has more threads engaged than i would like – takes for ever to fit and remove compared to the regular QR i take out to fit it….I trust it more than a little tab on a drop out.Been using it for about 10 years on off.

Other end, where the skewer is threaded into the cam end and usually tacked in place with a bit of braze. Maybe they’ve improved since but in the photo I saw there wasn’t enough material in the cam end to thread the skewer in without fouling the cam itself. Hence his solution was to buy a 2nd QR and some threaded bar, and thread two ‘not the cam’ ends onto the bar and do them up with spanners, a bit like the security/hex skewers you can get for commuters.

Reading some of that thread I never had any of the issues mentioned with the qr, and mine was a £50 version from Germany.

As said though if you know you are going to load it heavy you may as well run a solid axle and those end bolts.

spend more and buy an EBC one then ….maybe thats where the corners were cut when the design was copied then copied then copied geting cheaper an cheaper and cheaper….

as i said – 10 years of use for mine on various tours and shopping trips.