Towing with a vendetta

[Alan Clucas]

Umm, so I'm probably not quite right in the head, but I figured why not.

That's an old radical design cyclone trailer. I did 10 miles, through usually awful traffic in the city. Bike handled wonderfully (actually got a 2nd fastest on one short stretch according to Strava), and will tow again.

So there you go.

Winter upgrades include TRP Hylex (hydraulic disk) brakes, and they help with confidence doing this.

 

[ratz]

Well I put race wheels on a burley and pulled it with a silvio; so a trailer with vendetta isn't so bad either.

 

[KneeDrachen]

@ratz do you predict any trouble pulling a trailer with the S3o due to the rear suspension design?

 

[Alan Clucas]

I doubt there would be any issue with an axle attached trailer (as mine is). It depends on the trailer.

 

[KneeDrachen]

@Alan Clucas it is a Burley trailer where as the hitch mounts to the rear skewer. I wasn't sure about pulling the rear wheel out of alignment since the load is on one side of the skewer and not both sides like a BOB.

 

[ratz]

@ratz do you predict any trouble pulling a trailer with the S3o due to the rear suspension design?

If you accelerate slowly and don't hard brake I never had a problem; but you can tell there is a elastametor in the equation; it's a definite at you own risk thing. I was say the same of the v20 the rear triangle is slender it was not designed for this; but it is still over engineered.

 

[super slim]

@ratz do you predict any trouble pulling a trailer with the S3o due to the rear suspension design?

The bottom titanium + carbon fibre stay is extremely strong sideways, and longitudinally, but weak in the vertical mode to allow for suspension movement!
Since there is no rotating suspension pivot like on a MTB, there is no pivot to wear out.

If you are going to load more than 15 kg onto the trailer, I would change the rear disk to a 160 mm, and check the C of G of the trailer so there is a 5 kg increase rear wheel load so more rear brake can be used.

I know that the single wheel Bobsled is VERY CRITICAL on load C of G, for speed wobbles above 36?? kph.

 

[Alan Clucas]

@Alan Clucas it is a Burley trailer where as the hitch mounts to the rear skewer. I wasn't sure about pulling the rear wheel out of alignment since the load is on one side of the skewer and not both sides like a BOB.

With the V2.0 you're definitely not going to pull the skewer around as there's no where for it to slide. As for doing frame damage:
* Vertically - I'm carrying much less weight on the trailer (which is balanced) than the V2.0 maximum load.
* Forward<>Back horizontally - I'm never going to do as much damage as braking, so it's just extra load horizontally when braking trying to compress the frame, which isn't going to happen, especially with slightly more use of the rear brake.
* Side to side horizontally - the wheel is doing way more of this than the trailer.
* Torsion due to the asymmetry of the hitch - well, I run disk brakes which are doing a much worse version of this every time I brake

So I have no worries. My trailer has a cloth bottom, so has a fairly low maximum weight limit (but can carry bulky items nicely). Today I took cakes to work in it.

 

[Alan Clucas]

The V2.0 can't take any more than a 140mm disk. With my brakes I reach tyre traction limits under all circumstances before I run out of brake performance on the rear - e.g I skid on a perfect road in the dry. Surprisingly, skidding when lying on a bike is not as scary as I thought before I had tried it.

 

[keithkling]

I pulled a Burley trailer with a Silvio 2.0 on our trip across the U.S. in 2014. I pulled it for about 3000 miles. The last 1000 miles a friend hauled it and most of our gear in his van . There were no problems with pulling it. The suspension would make no difference since the trailer is attached at the axle. The only problem was the weight! The trailer is so big the temptation is to keep putting stuff in it until it is full; then ugh, it is hard to pull. But, that is a problem with whatever bike you are pulling it with. I have also used a BOB trailer on a 400 mile trip with a different recumbent. The BOB is better if you don't have very much weight in it, but as it gets heavier then balance becomes a problem you have to deal with. My preference now is to use panniers and other bags to keep everything on the bike, but here again, if you get too much weight, then balance becomes a problem. So, keep it light weight is the goal.