Borrowed one rather similar to this from a mate to test out whether shit’s good. Have given it a few testrides now and here’s my impression:

  • towing it empty you really don’t notice it at all. Gotta watch out in very sharp turns like hairpins, but otherwise goes off easy.

  • with weight (I got up to ~15kg so far, so think like a weeks shopping) you do notice it but not nearly as much as you’d think. What’s nice is if you’re used to panniers for most operations your bicycle feels way less sluggish since all the weight sits a lot lower and on a rotational axle

  • Parking is a bit annoying, most bike parking isn’t made for vehicles that long excluding some rare cargo bike parking. So you have to unhitch it and since you probably want to lock it up, too that’s a hassle. I think if I got one for myself I’d either devise some sort of lock to keep it affixed if possible and just carry a spare cable lock for all other times since they’re usually fine for the 30 mins or so you spend at the store

  • Going past cyclist pinch points is a full ass hassle now because there’s really no way to do it without unhitching it. I avoided some routes due to this

  • this one is highly area dependent but like with anything car drivers aren’t used to seeing they seem to pay a lot more attention at the weirdo who’s bicycle towing shit. You’re also gonna get stared at a lot.

  • braking doesn’t seem to be really affected all that much so far. I took down my cruising speed by maybe 5 - 7kph just in case but I’ve not really noticed it shoving me all that much, but then I also didn’t have to go full emergency brake so far.

  • for most things I’d just strap down a big plastic tub on it to throw shit in, but I do like the versatility of the flatbed in case you ever need to transport something long. Theoretical legal maximum where I live would be 1,5m over the end of the trailer, which comes to about ~2,5m of length you could transport if you’re willing to also push it over the edge of the connection side a bit.

  • I have plenty of storage so this isn’t much of an issue, but I do appreciate the wheels release at the press of a button so if you can store it upright against a wall or so it takes about 30cm of horizontal space

All in all; I think I’m gonna get one, this is pretty nifty and fills the missing middle for things I’m annoyed at having to use a car for because you can’t really strap them to a standard issue bicycle, so things that are big but not hugely heavy. A weeks shopping, some particle board for DIY stuff, a beer crate or two and the like.

    • 7bicycles [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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      8 days ago

      There’s like 2 common standards here, either it’s high drawbar which just uses something like this:

      Usually attached to your seatpost to hitch a trailer, alternatively and the one I’ve been using is a low drawbar, something like this:

      which you put on your rear axle and then over that goes the bolt. You do need a few milimeters of extra axle here so the bolt can actually be attached, if you don’t, there’s adapters there that basically provide a combined nut and extra threading for something else: