[Closed] Touring - anybody used an 'Extrawheel' ??

Climbing out of the saddle still feels slightly odd as the bike doesn't flick from side to side like before - but the advantage is less loading on the axle as the weight is central over the wheel...

I have to admit to being a fan of panniers for touring, and have never found that they prevented out of the saddle climbing?

Never said it prevents out of the saddle climbing but it feels very odd due to high centre of gravity.

Bencooper - Go on......... Any other views on it? Worth the cash? Stable? Lightweight? Good? Bad? Strong?

I've got the original extrawheel trailer and there's a huge difference in feel between towing that and riding panniers so I imagine it would be the same with the new version. Towing effects the handling of the bike far less imo.

Tried a BOB and didn't like it

Really? Why? you won't get any better or more unobtrusive than that IME. We use an EBC trailer (Think cheaper BOB) for touring and it's ace. Once you get to the campsite, unhook it and you're just left with a nice light bike.
We do have panniers on the rear too, just for clothes. The camping/sleeping/cooking gear goes in the trailer
Once we're camped up, the panniers are empty and handy for odds and sods 🙂

EDIT
Like this, this is how we roll! 🙂

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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/peter_atkin/5902894976/ ]IMG_1586[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/peter_atkin/ ]PeterPoddy[/url], on Flickr

Beg to disagree on the BOB, I had it on a lightweight sub 4lb steel frame and you could see the whole rear end flex when hooked up. Out the saddle climbing was very very odd feeling, and quite unstable at low speed, as you got low speed wobble which admittedly disappeared at speed. Thats was with a lot of kit on it.

Toured all over Scotland and England with it and just not my cup of tea.

Once you get to the campsite, unhook it and you're just left with a nice light bike.

You could say the same with any touring bike, you just leave the panniers behind and you are left with your normal bike but with a rack attached.

Got my luggage down to 2 front panniers on the rear and a lightweight tent on top of the rack. So dont want a BOB when it weighs as much as all my kit combined.

The extrawheel looks like a good alternative using the best bits of both systems and not too heavy

Anybody from the day users - have any experiences?

I quite like the barge like feel of a loaded touring bike. Puts me in the right frame of mind for touring. I can still rock the climbs* in the saddle or out.

*I may have my own definition of "rock".

Sorry this is not helpful OP, I just like the touring chat.

This has caught my eye:[url= http://www.freeparable.com/t2 ]T2 trailer[/url]. No experience of it but I like the idea of lighter weight and portability.

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Costs a lot of money though...

Seen that T2 but the cost is astronomical for what you get.

Sure you could get a frame builder to build a custom one for that kind of money....

Like the look of that T2 apart from the wheel, looks like it would hook up on anything bigger than a curbstone... Got the EBC one to do the Sustrans C2C route and found it fine with the only instability on soft sandy trails at well above the recommended speeds. The path down from the cafe near the end, Park Head?

My partner and I both had Extrawheels when we toured in New Zealand 3 years ago. First trip was to an island (Great Barrier Island) on a 5 hour ferry. Rough crossing and upon arrival discovered the connecting strut/bracket had sheared on one point, rendering the whole contraption useless. Due to its construction it wasn't repairable and I couldn't get any spare parts at the time (NZ didn't have a distributor and Extrawheel didn't answer my emails).

Thus we both bought Bob's in NZ which were heavier but strong, worked well and before flying home we sold them to a local sports shop for a decent price. Extrawheel IMO wasn't a bad idea and you could certainly argue I was unlucky, or maybe careless (or the ship's crew were careless when stowing it) but the Bob is significantly stronger.

I also found with a big load it was proper PITA to manouvere at slow speeds, like getting started etc. Or just for loading the bags into it - really this took 2 of us to do properly.

What's it like getting on and off trains with a trailer (Extrawheel or BOB-type)? Sometimes it can be hard enough getting a bike on - especially if you've not booked or (more likely) the train company have just let a lot of un-booked bikes on.

I've tried road touring and off road touring with a BOB. Climbing out of the saddle was rare especially off road. Traction from the rear wheel was unbreakable. Geared down I could climb steep gravely climbs seated.

I tried touring with the BOB behind my carbon road bike, it was a disaster. It flexed like a flexy thing. My last couple long tours have been on a proper touring bike with panniers, I liked the handling much more. Climbing out of the saddle, I tend to move more side to side than the bike. Mostly I can sit and spin more efficiently.

Travelling by bus or train with the BOB was a pain.

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