Of Bicycles, Biographies and Bits

On my bike my day to day cargo hauling needs are met with my trusty saddle bags aka panniers.  There are times when I want to haul more than that.  More often, I just want to carry odd sized things home with me.  Econopaks of toilet paper for instance.  Kitty litter can pose a real problem as well.  We have three cats and an indulgent landlord.  That means I buy the family sized box of litter.  Not only does that not fit into my bike's panniers, but, even if it did, I would have to use all of my old single track riding skills to stay upright.  Now what if I want to go to the beach?  How do I carry beach chairs and my Boogieboard?  Simple, I blow a good chunk of my paycheck on a bike trailer.  The previous post discussed what's on the market and some of my impressions.  In previous years, bike trailers were reserved for touring riders, bike nuts and eco enthusiasts.  This summer is different.  With gas hovering right around $4.00/gallon, you'll pay back even the top of the line trailer with as few as six complete fill ups.  The gas tank on my car is bit larger than most cars, so add 1.5 more fill ups for the standard ten gallon tank.  Still, that's a remarkably short period to pay something like this off!  And it's not a happy thought.  We've yet to hit peak petroleum demand in the world and we're past peak oil supply by most estimates.  How far past, we're not really sure since the Saudis appear, according to some reports, to have overstated their reserves for years.  So, if your car is becoming prohibitively expensive to operate locally, an investment of $369 for a bike trailer, accessories and spare parts doesn't look so very big.  That's about what we just paid for our new Burley Nomad.  I thought I was going to go with their Flatbed but I noticed an optional cargo rack and suddenly the Boogieboard problem was solved.  The Nomad has roughly the capacity of a supermarket shopping cart in terms of volume.  It's rated for 100lbs of cargo.  Empty it weighs less than 20lbs.  Croozer's cargo trailer weighs a lot more but it's $100 cheaper and probably just about as good for everything except long distance touring.  The Croozer trailer also folds down for easy storage, an advantage I'm just now beginning to appreciate.  My Burley Nomad trailer also makes a decent handcart with a slight adjustment to the bike hitch.  Just take it out, turn it 90 degrees and reinsert it.  Even if you just loop the hitch strap over your wrist, it handles well.  The trailer was also a breeze to assemble .  I had it mostly built in twenty minutes as I took breaks from coding up a Perl utility.  Another ten had it hitched to my bike.  And that's where the magic happens.  The first test ride was in my apartment building courtyard.  I was doing figure eights around the planters with no effort.  The next test ride was to Hermosa Beach and back.  My legs will hate me in the morning because I did a race paced ride from Palms where I live to the edge of Palos Verdes yesterday.  Figure a good forty miles there.  I'm guessing I did thirty miles with the trailer today.  I loaded it with assorted bric-a-brac to simulate a light load.  Mostly I failed to notice the trailer at all.  It dragged me down a little going uphill, but I think I can make it up the hills of Manhattan Beach towing it.  Commuting from Manayunk back in Philly really developed my hill climbing skills.  The other issue was passing slower moving cyclists.  You really need to look behind you to make sure you've cleared slower moving traffic or you'll sideswipe the unwary and undeserving.  Anyway, let's have some pictures.



When I get around to hosting my bike commuting website, I'll have fulled sized images.  Tomorrow I'll more fully test the Nomad's cargo carrying capabilities with my weekly run to the local farmer's market.  It's one of LA County's Certified Farmer's Markets.  These things are great.  They are all over the place though they convene on single day of the week at any given location.  Still, there's three we can get to without much effort so there's a lot of overlap.   The vendors are likely to be different but the produce they sell is amazing and I always overspend my allowance.  Fortunately that means we eat well.  And, given that that $40 fills both my bike panniers to the top with a cornucopia of fruits and veggies, overspending is a relative term.  Saturday is the first beach run.  The Nomad even without the optional top rack will load a Boogieboard without too much effort.  Let the rear gate down, leave the top off, slid the board in sideways and strap it down.  You'll still have room for two beach chairs, towels and even a small cooler.  Just make sure you have bungie cords.

Update:  Just did my first market run with the trailer.  Most supermarkets will probably be cool if you bring one in and use it as a shopping cart.  My local Ralph's had no problem and the clerks thought it was pretty cool.  It served well as a handcart at the farmer's market as well.  Coming back, I noticed a sort tugging when I changed speed under load.  This comes from the hitch acting as a joint and changing angle ever so slightly when my momentum changes.  The the effect is mild and does not interfere with handling with the modest load I was carrying