Hi all,

I’m thinking of getting a single wheeled trailer for touring/load lugging, and was wondering if anyone has and pearls of wisdom on the subject? Can the BOB yak be beaten?

Thanks

Ive had a EBC copy off eBay, pretty good for only £50 (from Germany), not quite as good as the EBC is ease of breakdown but pretty solid if your not planning on carrying around bags of rock. Ive since moved onto a Bob ibex with suspension! The stock shock is appalling so i swapped it for an old oil-damped stratos i had. Its ace, stay perfectly planted all the time, great for rough offroad. The Bob are very expensive tho, so youd want a real need for a Bob to justify the cost.

BOB trailers are great. I’ve used them touring on and off road in Oregon and here in Scotland. In many off road situations they actually increase rear tyre grip, and if you can spin a gear and maintain balance its amazing what you can climb. My GF has a Yakima which is similar, but no where near as strong, she used it for a TransAm road ride.

All the ones we have were either bought nearly new or new on ebay for about a third of their RRP, so bargains can be found. I wouldnt pay RRP for one.

Cheers guys, will be on the look out for a second hand BOB! must admit the RRP scared me

BoBs rule, something very fun about the way a bike handles with the extra momentum and traction.

I think next trailer I purchase (who knows when that’ll be) would be the extrawheel trailer, not sure about the robustness but I like the idea of a bigger wheel (potentially with a nice fat tubeless tyre) as then drainage ditches wouldn’t be such a p.i.t.a.

Don’t let the B.o.B. trick you into overpacking though! Happened to me the first time I used it, carried WAY too much stuff.

I use an Extrawheel.

Light, stable, manoeuvrable (great turning circle!); useful having effectively an emergency spare wheel if things go fubar in the back of beyond!

As you’ll see from their blurb they are very capable both off and on road.

Drain, since you’ve actually owned one, how do you mount your luggage? Do you have the mesh sides or do you hang panniers off it?

Something I was aware of with the BoB was how much of a scraping and bashing the bottom of the trailer took off rocks, was wondering how to prevent any damage to panniers/mesh side bits if using an extrawheel…

I ended up being the one to carry a case of Leffe touring in France last year because I was the one with the trailer I went down hill quicker though

Just now back from a run up town to collect some stuff with a battered old ebc one. Surprising how little effect on the handling but even empty I could notice the weight climbing.

I have still to try it offroad but so far I am impressed

I’ve got the original model, the one that only had mesh sides / “saddle bag” slings either side.

So long as the load isn’t stoopid heavy (not a good idea anyway!) / doesn’t have any odd lumps/pointy bits sticking inwards, there’s not a problem with any rubbage on the wheel / spokes, even over rough ground.

I like the look of the current model of the trailer, the option to run panniers looks like a really good idea. At some point I may get round to ‘upgrading’, but I’m in no hurry!

I use the EBC one and so far it’s been very good. Used for three months to do the weekly food shop when the car was broke, used it to carry a case of beers to the Christmas tuesday night local ride (although I did sound like you were being chased by a milkman with withdrawl shakes on the rough bits!!) Only difficult thing is hitching up a full trailer to the bike when you are alone as you need to hold both upright and drop the thing on to the pins quite accurately. You get a knack though after a bit.
and even used to haul lengths of timber from the wood yard but I did have to watch the rear overhang!
As TJ said. handling pretty much the same, but noticible on the uphill bits!

You can fit a lot in a trailer….

IMG_1601 by dickyelsdon, on Flickr

IMG_0891 by dickyelsdon, on Flickr

We have the EBC one which we use for shopping, general load lugging and touring with the camping gear in it. It’s a great piece of kit, solid and well made. BOBs are a bit lighter but a LOT more expensive. We paid £75 of the STW classifides 2-3 years ago for ours.
The only bit I’d like to chage is the tyre. It’s a real cheap thing but I can’t find a nice, decent, punture proofed tyre for love nor money….. Anyone know of a good replacement?

Do EBC still sell them? They weren’t on their website last time I looked…?

I’ll second not overloading

It does indeed affect handling..and starting..and stopping.. 😳

I bought an old style extrawheel just as the new ones came out, the old ones have a far greater carrying capacity. There’s a limit to how much weight you want to carry but the mesh sides allow you to take a much greater volume. So I carried tent, sleeping bags, roll mats etc. which are fairly light but would take up a fair amount of room in a pannier.

Only had one incidence of rubbing, easily remedied, no lasting damage.

I really like it for touring, I’d go for a yak style for load lugging though

I was more concerned about the potential for the panniers/mesh sidebags to catch low level trailside obstacles, and how you would prevent damage from say dragging one side over a trailside rock or something.

The bottom picture above ^ looks horribly vulnerable. I guess if you attached plastic ‘runners’ along the bottom you could avoid any serious damage…

The photo makes them look a little lower than they really are, they’re a bit higher than the rear derailleur. And I’ve not bothered to tighten any of the webbing there, you can cinch the webbing up which then lifts the bags a higher still.

At any rate, the bags sit higher than various bits of the bike and on a touring holiday I’d be more worried about those bits than the mesh which can be repaired with a bit of cord if need be.

13thfloor – could you not adapt (for example) an old traffic cone (TJ!) to act as a ‘bash guard’ to take the scrapes on each side or bottom…?

I got my BOB or better known as the Robert from e bay, did me well on my west coast venture. The jack knife is a pretty neat trick as demo’d in McMoonters photos. Managed 44 mph with mine as well that got a bit interesting. Very stable.

McMoonter, is that Rackwick in the first pic?

EBC ones are still out of stock according to their website. I emailed them in the summer and apparently they had a prototype in testing, that would be ‘available in a couple of months’. Nothing yet though, it seems.
Also had an ebay saved search on bob yaks for the last 7 months – everything that comes up seems to go for good money – mcmoonter must have been bloody lucky at his 1/3 price!

McMoonter, is that Rackwick in the first pic?

Aye

Got mine for £105 it is an aniversary one and the guy was as sick as a dog giving it to me, he had only used it once it was like brand new 8)

I know it very well McMoonter! great place.

I know it very well

BurnBob, are you in Orkney? I will be up there sometime in the summer and would bring my bike if there were some trails you could show me.

I can see the appeal of a trailer for carrying big loads because you have to, but when cycling for fun I can’t see the appeal of carrying big loads.

Surely you’re better off with things on the bars, in a frame bag and seat pack, rather than the extra weight, wheelbase and mechanical whatnot of having to drag another half a bike behind you?

Happy to be proved wrong, but I’m thinking of a touring trip with the family that will be basically bikepacking between campsites, and I’d never consider the cost or weight of a trailer as an option!

13thFM – I rigged a sort of bungee/webbing arrangement between them to hold my drybags a bit higher, but as ebygomm says, the netting stuff also can be cinched up, plus “in the flesh” they don’t seem to hang so low or clatter things.

I think the main thing is to balance up the load either side as it can go a bit wonky otherwise.

Interesting idea about the plastic ‘runners’ – may have to give that a go regardless!

nick – the bob type trailer has a lot less effect on handling as the weight is so low down. that the theory

I put about 50lbs ( maybe more) in mine and rode it home – it was a lot easier than that weight on a rack would be

Yeah of course that kind of weight and a trailer makes sense, I’m talking about touring around the place for fun, no way would I want to lug 50lbs of gear, plus 30lbs of bike and 180lbs of me!

Surely you’re better off with things on the bars, in a frame bag and seat pack,

To make that little space work for touring youd have to wear the same clothes for a week and have quite expensive tent/sleepingbag/rollmat in order for them to be small/light eonugh to fit on you bike. Lots of people dont want to be restricted to that little gear or drop that much money on yet more kit (light/small camping gear is expensive).

McMoonter, I have sent you email.

Slightly off topic from single wheeled trailers, but what would be the cheapest way of getting a trailer for general load lugging and possibly a bit of easy road touring (big tent, bottles of wine etc)?

I’m guessing a 2nd hand child trailer bodged could work, but would they “pull” OK for longer distances?

Any other ideas?

Make one. Plans out there on the net for example http://www.re-cycle.org/trailer

the EBC copies do come up on ebay cheap

13thfloor – could you not adapt (for example) an old traffic cone (TJ!) to act as a ‘bash guard’ to take the scrapes on each side or bottom…?

Niiiice! Thats exactly the sort of thing I was thinking of.

Nick, obviously the trailer is extra weight (although subtract from that the weight of any pannier racks/rucsacs you might have used otherwise, plus extrawheels are quite light I recall). However, I found it really fun to ride, I guess the difference is maybe that with a trailer you basically just need the legs/gears to keep it moving (or on the downhills, the balls/deathwise to LET it keep moving! 😀 ) whereas when you start strapping stuff to your bars/back you might be more nimble, but traction and balance could maybe be compromised.

Plus you kind of get attached (pun not intended!) to your rumbly little friend bouncing along behind you!

Bob vs Extrawheel

Found this article useful when I was comparing different trailers