Paulwho100
Active Member
hi there for my GCSE project i am making a bike trailer.It will have an old sports car seat in it with a seat belt so i can taxi my friends/shopping around town and i was wondering if this would be road legal.
bike trailer (is it legal)
- Thread starter Paulwho100
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Lanzecki
Über Member
- Location
- A Boreen, Ireland
There are several professionally made bike trailers of several designs. I don't think that there is a law specifically allowing them, but there isn't a law prohibiting them.
So to answer, work away, but please make it safe. We don't wanna see fingers get caught huh?
So to answer, work away, but please make it safe. We don't wanna see fingers get caught huh?
irw
Quadricyclist
- Location
- Liverpool, UK
I can't say for certain, but it might be worth checking that if you fit a seat-belt that you then don't need to conform to various standards...It might be that you would be better forgoing the seat belt, and having a suitable handle-bar arrangement for the passenger?
Lanzecki
Über Member
- Location
- A Boreen, Ireland
mickle
innit
- Location
- 53.933606, -1.076131
For motor vehicles it used to be that passengers weren't allowed to travel in trailers at all (I'm pretty sure it was intended to prevent people travelling in caravans) until the arrival of the dreaded Bendy Bus on these shores for which they revised the legislation. Bicycle trailers have been carting kids around since the arrival of the Cannondale Bugger (yes) in the 80s. So, it's probably legal - the question is; will it be safe? Heavy trailers have an alarming tendency to take over, the cart steering the horse as it were, in tight corners or under heavy braking.
The question of how to attach the trailer to the tractor bike is the most important one. Seat post mounted hitches work well in terms of how much influence the tractor can weild during changes of direction - and in rider 'feel'. But they have a horribly scary habit of raising the back wheel of the tractor off the ground under heavy braking. Left side chainstay clamps are simply not capable of managing high trailer weights. Rear wheel nut attachment (as used by most decent kiddy trailers) puts massive loads via the poor little wheel nut. With high trailer weight you're just asking for axle trouble. And then there's twin nut attachment such as is found on trailers like the single wheeled B.O.B Yak and the like. However, if you want it to have two wheels and not lean with the bike, you'd have to introduce some form of articulation between the hitch attachment point and the trailer.
There are products available which are designed to carry larger humans such as The Mission Piggy-back. though the weight rating is low, designed for' teens and young adults'.
Then there are fully rated trailers for folk with disability such as the Speedy tandem from Speedy Reha-Technik which bolts to a wheelchair. *Note that the tractor bike is an integral part of the whole rig, especially designed with a relatively low hitch point to avoid that rear-wheel-lifting-under-braking issue.
But if you're just carrying humans and a bit of luggage maybe you'd be better off with a boring old ExtraCycle.
The question of how to attach the trailer to the tractor bike is the most important one. Seat post mounted hitches work well in terms of how much influence the tractor can weild during changes of direction - and in rider 'feel'. But they have a horribly scary habit of raising the back wheel of the tractor off the ground under heavy braking. Left side chainstay clamps are simply not capable of managing high trailer weights. Rear wheel nut attachment (as used by most decent kiddy trailers) puts massive loads via the poor little wheel nut. With high trailer weight you're just asking for axle trouble. And then there's twin nut attachment such as is found on trailers like the single wheeled B.O.B Yak and the like. However, if you want it to have two wheels and not lean with the bike, you'd have to introduce some form of articulation between the hitch attachment point and the trailer.
There are products available which are designed to carry larger humans such as The Mission Piggy-back. though the weight rating is low, designed for' teens and young adults'.
Then there are fully rated trailers for folk with disability such as the Speedy tandem from Speedy Reha-Technik which bolts to a wheelchair. *Note that the tractor bike is an integral part of the whole rig, especially designed with a relatively low hitch point to avoid that rear-wheel-lifting-under-braking issue.
But if you're just carrying humans and a bit of luggage maybe you'd be better off with a boring old ExtraCycle.
Lanzecki
Über Member
- Location
- A Boreen, Ireland
Not home made though
Nope I would think long and hard before making a trailer for use by an adult passenger. That ignore the fact that they must be a lazy git to have someone haul them around.
I do have a history of trailers though, and while I've not made a adult hauling trailer but adapted a well designed off road buggy to be pulled by my Utility bike. It is pulled by the left chain stay. I've sat in it (12 stone) with my wife riding and everything was OK. I got the weight up to 20 stone before the buggy's suspension bottomed out.
As Mickle says they do have a tendency to rear steer under breaking or and turning. I use a mountain bike rear tire when hauling.
The practicalitys have to be taken into account here. Hauling my trailer and a small child is hard enough let alone a trailer fit for the purpose of hauling PFY's and the PFY it's self. The rider's gonna want a serious set of legs.
Edited to link a picture of my trailer :
Beebo
Firm and Fruity
- Location
- Hexleybeef
why not just get a rikshaw?
Sheffield_Tiger
Legendary Member
I also made a cycle trailer for my A-level project (my GCSE was a wheel jig - yes, I used my metalwork/CDT/Design Technology/Whatevertheycalleditnextweek classes just to make stuff for myself, didn't everyone?)
It was a cargo trailer, not a passenger trailer but as it had a separate frame and box so it could be a flatbed, when I left for Uni I gave it to a friend who used to use a rickety bodged thing made from an old pram, tied on with polypropylene cord. He cut the box down and fitted the long bit of a 2/3 split car rear seat so he could carry his stall and his 2 kids.
His legs were always so spindly...god only knows how, pedalling all that lot around.
It was a cargo trailer, not a passenger trailer but as it had a separate frame and box so it could be a flatbed, when I left for Uni I gave it to a friend who used to use a rickety bodged thing made from an old pram, tied on with polypropylene cord. He cut the box down and fitted the long bit of a 2/3 split car rear seat so he could carry his stall and his 2 kids.
His legs were always so spindly...god only knows how, pedalling all that lot around.
classic33
Leg End Member
I enquired about a nine foot trailer, from bikes at work, to be told that it only needed the one rear light for it to be towed behind a Brox. The only instructions/guidelines given in a folder nearly two inches thick. From a traffic officer, who asked me to return when he'd had time to look for the correct legislation. H e was suprised at the fact that there was so little covering their use.
Passenger carrying. How do you intend to prove you're not doing it for profit. Should the question be raised?
Rohloff_Brompton_Rider
Formerly just_fixed
Rohloff_Brompton_Rider
Formerly just_fixed
MrJamie
Oaf on a Bike
http://www.tonystrailers.com/cargo/hd.php Some of the pictures at the bottom of that page, they definitely don't travel light!
