Another big birthday to rally for - Theo's fifth. Theo had many requests for this one - a scavenger hunt, pinata, a sperm whale cake, all at a favorite spot - the "Giggly Hills" along the Mississippi River Gorge. Hillary's mom was in town so we had access to her rental van. But how could we quickly carry lots of stuff, including a long table, all the way to the trail-only accessible site? Leave it to "Tully" our bike cargo trailer. Tully is a tough one, built to haul up to 300 pounds, and long. Now that is a burly trailer.
Soon after we went car-free some eight years ago, we did some reading on how to do it. Acquiring a bike cargo trailer was highly recommended. From a friend who worked at Peace Coffee- our awesome local coffee roaster that delivers much of their coffee by bike (!) - we learned about Bikes At Work trailers. These are serious utilitarian cargo trailers built in Iowa. We soon purchased one with the savings that we reaped from reduced car insurance costs. Tully has served us very well hauling groceries, bales of straw and bags of potting soil, brush (buckthorn), xmas trees, and even furniture to sell as a mobile yard sale. But this time it was Mission 5th Birthday along the Mississippi River Gorge.
Hauling in full coolers of food and water, watermelon, scavenger hunt materials, fold-up table, blankets, rain gear, etc. I popped off the bike trail and rode the short dirt trail in. The uphill was a bit of a challenge but I managed by walking the bike and trailer.
Add a table cloth and voila you have a perfect table for serving four pizzas and watermelon to a bunch of pre-schoolers.
Mormor chatting around the trailer table.
Pinata!
The Birthday Boy enjoying his sperm whale cake.
Soon after we went car-free some eight years ago, we did some reading on how to do it. Acquiring a bike cargo trailer was highly recommended. From a friend who worked at Peace Coffee- our awesome local coffee roaster that delivers much of their coffee by bike (!) - we learned about Bikes At Work trailers. These are serious utilitarian cargo trailers built in Iowa. We soon purchased one with the savings that we reaped from reduced car insurance costs. Tully has served us very well hauling groceries, bales of straw and bags of potting soil, brush (buckthorn), xmas trees, and even furniture to sell as a mobile yard sale. But this time it was Mission 5th Birthday along the Mississippi River Gorge.
Hauling in full coolers of food and water, watermelon, scavenger hunt materials, fold-up table, blankets, rain gear, etc. I popped off the bike trail and rode the short dirt trail in. The uphill was a bit of a challenge but I managed by walking the bike and trailer.
Mormor chatting around the trailer table.
Pinata!
The Birthday Boy enjoying his sperm whale cake.
Packing to head home and catch a bit of a refreshing rain storm. With a bike trailer you can roll your load right up to the house for easy unloading!
Can you pull 300 lbs with any bike? I had tried pulling a heavy load (maybe 100+ lbs) and my chain fell off the gears twice, and I snapped the chain the 2nd time. My bike guy replaced the chain, and said the new one was a much better quality, but I haven't tried pulling a big load with it yet.
ReplyDeleteNot with any bike. You definitely need low gears to make it physically possible for the rider, but also to reduce stress on the chain. The Bikes At Work website discusses this in detail here: http://www.bikesatwork.com/hauling-cargo-by-bike/gearing-and-gear-inches.html
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