bluegoatwoods
Well-Known Member
Plus a cautionary tale! (I'll get to that after the description)
This was meant to be my wife's bike. But she just couldn't get the hang of it. So it sat in the basement all winter. This spring I took it out to fix it up and tear down my second build (my bike) for painting and rebuild. So until that's done this is my bike.
My only problem with it is that it's just a bit small for me. It's a 24 inch beach cruiser and I'm 6 ft tall with no shoes. But a bent seat post sitting way up high just about makes up for it. It's comfortable enough for, say, a 10 mile ride.
I imagine you'll recognize the trailer; it's one of those things for hauling children around. I took off the top canopy and made a wood slat floor. Add in a weatherproof cargo bin and it's ready to go.
The electrical system is powered by a 14 amp/hr ATV battery. Originally I used two 55 watt headlamps (mostly two in case of one burning out. I'd have a spare). I got about 2 hrs run time out of that. Eventually I went down to 1 headlight. That's more than enough light to really light up the road and the battery has all the juice I'll ever need. I also spliced in a cigarette lighter to be the power source for a 12 volt air compressor. I've never needed it out on the road (no flats yet) but it's certainly handy for making sure tires are inflated properly.
I did have one mis-adventure a few weeks back. I was pulling a different trailer. It's nearly ten years old now. Five or six miles from home the hitch broke. I didn't think much of it. I'd ride the bike home, get the car and come back for the trailer. I locked the trailer to a fence right across the street from the police station. It took me a few hours to get back and I found the trailer gone. But the lock was still there. Curious....... I went across to the police to ask if they knew what had happened to it. It turns out that they had my trailer.
What had happened was that they recognized me and my equipment, something I was counting on, but passersby did not. They were calling the cops (over and over again, apparently) to warn them that there was a weird looking trailer with a big red box and a battery attached parked right across the street from the station. They got so sick of these calls that they decided to get the stupid thing out of sight. They were cool. They didn't cut the frame or anything like that. They dis-assembled and re-assembled it.
And they didn't seem to be mad at me, either. I think I detected a bit of annoyance, though. I gave them my best hang-dog body language and admitted that I should have anticipated that. And that it wouldn't happen again, and so on........
But these things happen in paranoid times.
It also occurs to me that I'm very lucky that they do recognize me. If they had not, then they might well have called in the bomb squad, evacuated the police station, blocked traffic and who knows what else....
I imagine I would have gotten into some hot water over that.
So if you haul a cargo trailer, particularly if it has an obvious battery, and a break down forces you to leave it somewhere you'd probably be wise to explain the circumstances to the cops before you leave.
Have fun out there.
This was meant to be my wife's bike. But she just couldn't get the hang of it. So it sat in the basement all winter. This spring I took it out to fix it up and tear down my second build (my bike) for painting and rebuild. So until that's done this is my bike.
My only problem with it is that it's just a bit small for me. It's a 24 inch beach cruiser and I'm 6 ft tall with no shoes. But a bent seat post sitting way up high just about makes up for it. It's comfortable enough for, say, a 10 mile ride.
I imagine you'll recognize the trailer; it's one of those things for hauling children around. I took off the top canopy and made a wood slat floor. Add in a weatherproof cargo bin and it's ready to go.
The electrical system is powered by a 14 amp/hr ATV battery. Originally I used two 55 watt headlamps (mostly two in case of one burning out. I'd have a spare). I got about 2 hrs run time out of that. Eventually I went down to 1 headlight. That's more than enough light to really light up the road and the battery has all the juice I'll ever need. I also spliced in a cigarette lighter to be the power source for a 12 volt air compressor. I've never needed it out on the road (no flats yet) but it's certainly handy for making sure tires are inflated properly.
I did have one mis-adventure a few weeks back. I was pulling a different trailer. It's nearly ten years old now. Five or six miles from home the hitch broke. I didn't think much of it. I'd ride the bike home, get the car and come back for the trailer. I locked the trailer to a fence right across the street from the police station. It took me a few hours to get back and I found the trailer gone. But the lock was still there. Curious....... I went across to the police to ask if they knew what had happened to it. It turns out that they had my trailer.
What had happened was that they recognized me and my equipment, something I was counting on, but passersby did not. They were calling the cops (over and over again, apparently) to warn them that there was a weird looking trailer with a big red box and a battery attached parked right across the street from the station. They got so sick of these calls that they decided to get the stupid thing out of sight. They were cool. They didn't cut the frame or anything like that. They dis-assembled and re-assembled it.
And they didn't seem to be mad at me, either. I think I detected a bit of annoyance, though. I gave them my best hang-dog body language and admitted that I should have anticipated that. And that it wouldn't happen again, and so on........
But these things happen in paranoid times.
It also occurs to me that I'm very lucky that they do recognize me. If they had not, then they might well have called in the bomb squad, evacuated the police station, blocked traffic and who knows what else....
I imagine I would have gotten into some hot water over that.
So if you haul a cargo trailer, particularly if it has an obvious battery, and a break down forces you to leave it somewhere you'd probably be wise to explain the circumstances to the cops before you leave.
Have fun out there.
