I had made a trailer for myself a while back as a fun project and learned a lot from it. The goal this time was to build a trailer so smooth that you’d forget it was behind you while cruising down the street. To do that, I needed to make some design changes. For one, an empty or lightly loaded trailer will have a tendency to dance around on a bumpy road. This can cause the items you’re pulling to bounce and fall out if they’re not secured (as well as a lot of rattling noises from the BOB skewer connection). A nice large tire was the first step to smooth out the ride. Since there are no supple 16×2.125″ tires on the market and I only needed one, I decided to shave an existing 16″ Kenda knobby tire. I also wanted to add a means of damping the bouncing caused by larger road imperfections. I chose to do this by adding a pivot on brass bushings and a polyester-based elastomer. This is not the first use of this style of bumper in the cycling world as can be seen in this picture from 1947. After many test rides, the perfect elastomer was chosen thanks to Miner Elastomer in Illinois.
The BOB skewer set-up is a great design for attaching a trailer as it allows for easy mounting without interfering with the seat or chain stays. The weight that can be supported with the skewer isn’t enough for a child but rather loads like groceries or long distance touring gear. The shear strength of the skewer is plenty strong for the 50lb limit I have set for it.
The trailer is built up with a very clean Tange sealed headset in the front, a 700c aluminum fender reformed for a 16″ wheel, an alloy wheel with a Campagnolo Record 28 hole hub, and a Velo-Orange reflector. The finish needed to match the green J.P. Weigle bike that it was going to be attached to so the front and rear sections were nickel plated and the rest was painted green with gold pin striping. Since I do my own paint, I had a bit of a learning curve with the Beugler striper on curved tubes. Jack Taylor, who recently passed away, was definitely an inspiration while building and painting this one. His trailers, based off of a suspension model by the French builder Goëland, were beautifully lined using a Beugler striper.
Special thanks to Peter Weigle who kindly let me display this trailer attached to the green bike it was built for in his booth at the 2014 Philly Bike Expo.
See the full slideshow of the build.
Elton’s suspension trailer
November 20, 2014
I had made a trailer for myself a while back as a fun project and learned a lot from it. The goal this time was to build a trailer so smooth that you’d forget it was behind you while cruising down the street. To do that, I needed to make some design changes. For one, an empty or lightly loaded trailer will have a tendency to dance around on a bumpy road. This can cause the items you’re pulling to bounce and fall out if they’re not secured (as well as a lot of rattling noises from the BOB skewer connection). A nice large tire was the first step to smooth out the ride. Since there are no supple 16×2.125″ tires on the market and I only needed one, I decided to shave an existing 16″ Kenda knobby tire. I also wanted to add a means of damping the bouncing caused by larger road imperfections. I chose to do this by adding a pivot on brass bushings and a polyester-based elastomer. This is not the first use of this style of bumper in the cycling world as can be seen in this picture from 1947. After many test rides, the perfect elastomer was chosen thanks to Miner Elastomer in Illinois.
The BOB skewer set-up is a great design for attaching a trailer as it allows for easy mounting without interfering with the seat or chain stays. The weight that can be supported with the skewer isn’t enough for a child but rather loads like groceries or long distance touring gear. The shear strength of the skewer is plenty strong for the 50lb limit I have set for it.
The trailer is built up with a very clean Tange sealed headset in the front, a 700c aluminum fender reformed for a 16″ wheel, an alloy wheel with a Campagnolo Record 28 hole hub, and a Velo-Orange reflector. The finish needed to match the green J.P. Weigle bike that it was going to be attached to so the front and rear sections were nickel plated and the rest was painted green with gold pin striping. Since I do my own paint, I had a bit of a learning curve with the Beugler striper on curved tubes. Jack Taylor, who recently passed away, was definitely an inspiration while building and painting this one. His trailers, based off of a suspension model by the French builder Goëland, were beautifully lined using a Beugler striper.
Special thanks to Peter Weigle who kindly let me display this trailer attached to the green bike it was built for in his booth at the 2014 Philly Bike Expo.