A while back I purchased a Radical Design Cyclone trailer from flying furniture. Today I fitted the trailer and it fitted better than I thought. There are a few reasons why I chose this trailer over any other. I had decided on a two wheel design. Most of the problems with a two wheel design relate to a normal two wheel bike and do not have as much impact with a trike. Though I am aware that a heavily loaded trailer can push the trike around. The reason I chose this two wheel trailer is that it disassembles into a travel bag. The wheels come off and can be put inside the bag. This is good for putting it on other transport like buses, trains and planes.
There are a few teething troubles. One is not a design fault, rather it is an annoyance. Both the trike and the trailer have 16″ wheels. But the trike has 16×1.25 wheels and the trailer 16″x2.15 wheels. Owing to the vagaries of the world of cycling, the trike wheels have a larger diameter at 349mm against the trailers at 305mm. How both these numbers work out to 16″ is beyond me. But the down side is that they need different tubes and tyres. So I will look at changing the trailer’s wheels to the same size as the trikes. This involved pulling the hub out of the wheel and replacing the wheel and spokes. An upside of this will also mean that I only need one set of spoke lengths when touring for spares.
The second issue is where the hitch mounts. The trike is very low to the ground. My test showed that my Arkell panniers fit with the trailer hitch mounted with about 1 cm to spare. But the Ortlieb panniers are deeper and rub against the hitch. Still, removing and putting the hitch back on is just a task that involves one bolt, so I will leave it off unless I need the trailer and then I will put it back on. The Ortlieb panniers I use around town, and the Arkell for touring.
2010 Jan 8: It turns out that my trailer has the tow arm for a larger wheel, which is why it does not sit flat. I have ordered the correct tow arm. I will keep this one in case I need to use the trailer with a bike with bigger wheels.
2010 Jan 24: the new tow bar arrived and I went for a test ride.
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