BRO QUEST 2009

Bike, meet Trailer. Trailer, meet Bike.

Since I got a pretty sweet deal through Outdoor Adventure, I decided to get a Burley flatbed trailer rather than the usual rack-and-panniers setup. Touring with a trailer in general offers a different experience than touring with bags, but the Burley Flatbed has specific pros and cons that other touring trailers don't have.

First off, Burley makes an actual touring trailer that is covered, more-or-less waterproof, and has a narrow profile perfect for varying road conditions. The Flatbed is made for cargo hauling, and as such is uncovered, has a larger payload (both size and weight) and has a wider wheelbase (for better load distribution).

Trailer, loaded up

I have the trailer loaded with a hiking backpack and a Chrome messenger bag, which is waterproof by design. I keep documents, books, and other such things that shouldn't get wet in the messenger bag, and keep my sleeping bag, travel pillow and clothes in trash bags in my hiking backpack.

Mechanically, the trailer is extremely sound. Granted, it's a pretty simple machine, but I've had no problems with any of the moving parts aside from the tires, which simply were not meant for touring over sometimes rough terrain. I wore through one tire in about 3200 miles, primarily due to narrow roadways in Washington, Idaho and Montana necessitating my right wheel tracking in dirt and gravel.

The trailer mounts to the bike via knuckle joint, secured with cotter pin and backup strap

The trailer having a wide wheelbase is actually not too bad--you get used to estimating clearances, and the wheelbase prevents "road shimmy", which is the bane of most single-wheeled trailer owners' existences--at high speeds narrow trailers will tend to waggle back and forth, which is very obviously not a good thing, as it can lead to crashes, death, etc.

As far as the trailer not being covered, the only serious issue is that everything gets covered in road grime when it rains. This is a pretty minor gripe, as the only things that could really be affected by dirt are already all in sealed containers (the messenger bag, trashbags, ziplocs, etc) and thus don't get dirty or wet.

Since I have a trailer I can typically load and unload faster than Pat, and my bike is a little easier to maneuver. However, the trailer tends to drag the bicycle with it whenever I have it parked somewhere, meaning my bike hits the ground a lot. Not really a serious issue, but it does ding up the paint.

The only thing I would ask for in terms of improvements would be a tailgate, occasionally stuff falls out of the front or the rear due to less-than-secure packing job. This can be chalked up as operator error, and isn't an issue either. I'll probably make a tailgate and frontgate when I get back.

If I were to just get a trailer for touring, I'd probably get a Burley Nomad. But as I was planning on using this trailer for serious cargo-hauling after the trip was over, I have absolutely no complaints. I fully expect it to last as long as I do, and probably need fewer replacement parts.

This is probably not interesting to anyone other than touring cyclists, and I'm also tired and not very witty. How about we watch a video of a shrimp on a treadmill?