My Grocery Hauler- v.2

After reading my recent story about my Woodie homebuilt trailer, my work compadre Jim K. free-cycled a complete jog stroller and saved it for me, thinking that at least I could use the wheels off it for a future project.  Being in the afterglow of the Woodie project, I took it thinking I would not have a real need for the parts, but the wheels were nice.  So it sat stashed in the garage for the last few months.

One night last week I was reclined on the couch reading a magazine, and BAM! like a bolt out of the blue I had the urge to make something out of the stroller.  Do not know where that came from or why, sometimes it happens that way, like a dormant seed pushing itself up through the soil to find the light.  So down I went into the garage and opened up the stroller.  It was a big dude: canvas seat, sunshade, backpack storage, 16" wheels, mostly aluminum frame.  It had a third smaller front wheel on a fork, the fork made of steel.  Nice stuff.

I started by tearing it apart.  Before I did that, I considered giving the stroller away to someone who might need one.  I could just leave it on the sidewalk and it would disappear overnight.  Nah.  This was given to me to re-purpose, so re-purpose it became as I took my Ryobi screwgun and drilled out the frame rivets, removed all the canvas parts, and disassembled everything into three piles:  aluminum parts, steel parts, and wheels.

Low center of gravity, bigger wheels, and flexible tubes yield a smooth ride

Now at this point I should disclose that the Woodie, while successful, and very cool looking,  is not a brilliant design.  For one thing, it's HEAVY:  I was shocked when I weighed it and the result was 32 pounds!  That's as much as a full suspension mountain bike.  Secondly, it's very stiff, and with it's relatively small diameter wheels, it bounces over pavement wrinkles, and porpoises noticeably.  ( a rythmic shifting of weight forwards and backwards)
Third, it's BIG!  I can't wheel it through doorways or narrow spaces so it lives in the garage, taking up space.

It was great when I had exchange students, you can see from the pics that I filled it with stuff.  Now that the kids are gone, Flashette and I use far less resources, and I have been doing my shopping on the Dutch bike, filling the panniers and a box I bungee cord on for shopping.  So my limit is 3 grocery bags, and also large items are a problem. So those are the reasons that congealed to form a new trailer idea, a smaller, much lighter trailer that would allow me to carry 4-5 bags of groceries, and/or larger items.

Flashblog's organic strawberry field to the right of the rig

Once I had the parts disassembled and on the floor, I started dry fitting frame parts and soon enough it was clear that the stroller handle would fit right into the rear axle assembly, forming the chassis of a small trailer.  Too easy!  Then I took another aluminum section and cut it into two crossbars, and bolted them onto the handle part.  I decided to greatly simplify the hitcharm by using a piece of steel lawnchair frame that I bent into shape, painted black, and attached to the left side of the unit.

So far this project was flying together, and looking very promising.  The crucial item that required the most thought was the hitch mount to the bike.  I really wanted to keep it simple.  The re-purposed bicycle fork method I used on the Woodie is heavy, clunky, and just a tad bizarre.  So, using a variation of two eyebolts that I used with the Woodie, I've created a very minimalist attachment:  1 P-clamp, 2 eyebolts, and a combination lock serving as a hitch post.

It works.  It allows not only swiveling, but also leaning if necessary.  I took the trailer out for the September East Bay Bike Party night ride, and banged it over all manner of ruts and potholes, expecting it would fall apart rather quickly if the design was flawed.  It held up fine!  The P-clamp loosened up a bit, but further tightening fixed that. Voila!  So now I have a 12 pound trailer that is light and flexible, that is so smooth I can't even feel it behind me when I ride, even with 30 pounds in it.  ( I do feel the overall weight)  I think it looks good behind the Kaptein, and I painted the hitch arm and wheels to compliment the black aspects of the bike.  (The Kaptein is a much more appropriate tow bike with it's long, stable wheelbase.)   The blue storage box is what I had on hand, and works great, but something more stylish that matches the bike could present itself as well.  Finally, I can detach the trailer and easily carry it into the house or wheel it from room to room... much more practical.

So my original hope of leaving the car home and biking for all my around town needs has been refined.  When I made the Woodie I was thinking too big, but I had a lot of fun with it, and it is still here for those really big loads.  I could have just purchased a trailer and felt good about that too.  But there's nothing like the feeling of creating something new from something old, with zero cost and only using my hands, tools, and brain to fulfill a dream.

Let's Green Our World My Friends!

Flash

Truckin' Like the Do Da Man

My first full-on leave the car at home full load grocery haul using Flash power. Success! Just as I predicted, its heaaavvy and slow going, especially up the grade by the hospital, oh man, I thought I was going to blow a calf. (note the 20lb container of cat litter, under the Viva towel package is a 30 box of MGD, plus 3 gallons of juice and milk to give you an idea... maybe 100lbs of cargo) Need to work on the bike's gearing to get a granny gear going for that part. But otherwise, very satisfying to fulfill the dream. And really, its so easy to pedal down there and back. This turns an ordinarily mundane trip to the market into a real adventure.

I had 3 unsolicited comments on this trip. The first was a woman in her 30's who offered "that's a gorgeous trailer". I said thanks, but what I really wanted to say, channeling my best Joey Tribiani, was "hey, how YOU doin'?". Second comment was a senior couple walking by as I was taking a photo at Safeway and the gentleman stated " we've been admiring your trailer" and his wife added "oh yes". Thirdly, as I was panting after Hospital Hill, two teen girls on razor scooters standing on the corner said " THAT'S cool!" Motorists seemed totally nonplussed and unaffected by my display. The jury is out on that one, but I'm sure one will eventually say something, and when that time comes I will surely report it here.

I've unwittingly built an irresistible babe magnet. Who knew the ladies, young and old alike, were turned on by...handiness. So a very positive initial outing. I may not be the first cyclist with a trailer, but I may be one of the few with a wood mega-trailer. Today I feel like a trendsetter.

Ride on,

Flash

PS: I've since replaced the rear derailler with a nice Suntour part someone gave me, which has allowed me to utilize the 32 cog in the rear. While this is certainly an improvement, it is still not low enough for Hospital Hill, but there is really nothing more I can do because the bike uses an old style Ashtabula crankset which is nearly impossible to mod for lower gears. But overall I'm happy with the whole package and the last run to the mall was very smooth.

Carrying My Own Weight....The Woodie

Greetings and welcome to Flashblog! In this installment I reveal my long mulled over and at long last constructed trailer build up. Here's a micro video of my (first successful run to the mall and) return to home base.

The maiden voyage captured by Sweeps McNulty

So. I've thought about a bike trailer for a few years now, thinking how environmentally sound it would be to have the means to self propel groceries home from the local mall. Normally, I get into my Taurus or Civic, fire up the motor and drive the half mile. I feel guilty about that. The cars don't even warm up in that short drive so they are spewing the maximum pollutants, getting the worst gas mileage possible, and then I have to suffer through the parking lot wars, weekends have been especially bad and it sometimes takes me longer to find a space than it would have to pedal my bike down there. Just a bad feeling of lock stepping into our dysfunctional car culture. Rather than just buy a trailer, and there are many good ones out there for very reasonable cost, I decided it would be much more interesting to build my own from scratch....design....parts...everything. With as much material used from what I had in storage as possible rather than to purchase new. That is where the creativity really comes into play.

I started my bike hauling experiment a few months ago when I managed to carry $50 and 40lbs worth of groceries on my local errand bike (early '70's AMF Roadmaster) I call "entropy". The main idea with this bike is that I park it outside to promote interesting tones of rust. This is what it looked like without groceries, I seem to have lost that archival image captured after the Safeway run. I had plastic bags strapped and hanging on the front rack, which is loosy-goosy anyway, so the handling was kind of like a greased snake. You know what? I really like this old bike, it squeaks, rattles and clanks its way down the street. It tells me its glad to be alive and not dead beneath that old Victorian where I found it two years ago.

Entropy happens

Top heavy?...oh, just a tad. The next small run to the market, I put rear panniers on my Dutch bike, and rode it back from the mall with $40 worth of groceries....I just barely stuffed everything into the bags and the rear box. That was too hard packing everything in just so, and some items like bread and soft fruits got smashed. I really wanted some elbow room to pack things easily. But the center of gravity was better weight-wise with panniers. I think that really stoked the coals on this project's birth.

One afternoon recently I sketched out the trailer details at cafe 504 in oakland, one large cup of Blue Bottle French roast and two hours was all it took. I guess the time had come as it all flowed out of the pencil onto paper that day. Yes! I had my concept and design, all I had to do was build it...the fun part!

cafe 504

click to enlarge pics

So I present to you the concept brought to reality, my built-from-found-parts Army bike with my built-from-what-I-had in the garage 12 cubic foot trailer... I give you The Woodie. There is room and potential to carry a Taurusload of stuff now.

Will get a light and reflectors and maybe future fenders.

Here's a sample Trader Joe grocery sack for scale comparison. It can carry 12 of these.

The hitch took the most thought and labor. I re-purposed the fork from a Motobeccane Mirage frame I had taking up garage space. I cut the steering tube off, used the fork touring eyelets as mounts to the matching frame eyelets on the Army bike. An aluminum rack also mounts at this point as well. I had to cut, bend, and hammer the fork to get enough tire clearance for the 2.3" balloon tire. The eye bolt on the fork mounts in the front brake stud hole... using what was already there. Note the heavy steel wire diagonal brace through the fork to the top of the rack to support the fork hitch from falling down under the weight of the trailer.

The hitch itself was inspired by a talk I had with the esteemed Prof. Nideker of Team Alameda. He was suggesting some kind of military hitch, he described it, and I came up with this simple hitch that uses a smaller and larger eye bolt, the larger slips over the smaller, and a padlock holds them together and prevents opportunistic theft of the trailer. Two birds with one stone if I have to say so myself. The big advantage of this design is that the bike can lean over in kickstand mode and the trailer stays level. Also, the turning radius is quite good, almost 90 degrees between bike and trailer can be obtained.

The flatbed of the trailer is one sheet of 4'x 3' oak 3/4" inch plywood left over from a kitchen project. The trailer hitch arm is a section of broken lawn chair I re-purposed, it is tubular steel and quite sturdy. Four bolts hold it in place.
The germination of this project was the wheels, which came off my son Max's big scooter from 10 years ago. Nice plastic rims, ball bearings, pneumatic tires. I've wanted to put them to use. The seminal idea was mounting them using drilled pieces of oak to simply hold the ends of the axles. 8 wood screws per wheel secure them to the flatbed, and they are removable for servicing. Once I had this problem solved the rest of the plan just happened...I cut out slots in the plywood for the wheels to protrude, shaped the trailer overall, mounted the wheels, then constructed the removable stakebox.

The fork hitch and rack mount to through the bike's rack eyelets using a single machine bolt on either side with lock washers and nuts. I had to trim the freewheel side very close as it is 5th gear is unavailable as the chain hits the nut. I may reverse the bolt to clear the chain but really, I won't be using high gear on this rig as the operating speed loaded is something like 5 or 6 mph.

Detail of the bracing wire which runs through and around the top post of the bike rack, the wire is swaged with a soft aluminum collar at both ends. I was going to buy some cable, but I had this wire so used it.
A sample load showing how two airport sized suitcases, a Ryobi tool box, a small cooler, and the TJ grocery bag can all co-exist inside the trailer. I mentioned the removable stakebox. I made this from one piece of 12' wide pine board. I made many lengthwise rip cuts of the board to produce 5' long three quarters square posts which were then cut to shape, glued and nailed to form the box. I need to glue 45 degree gussets in the important corners as the box is a little creaky as is and these will stiffen it up. So if I need flatbed hauling capability I can remove the 6 screws securing the box and it lifts off.

So how does it handle? Very nicely unloaded, it is almost not noticed despite its 20 lbs or so. It follows along without wandering. Put groceries in it, and it becomes quite heavy, the ride slows to 5 mph as the trailer tires bulge, but so what. Speed is not even an issue here. Self sufficiency is. Getting back at Big Oil is another issue here. Showing frustrated motorists at the mall fighting for parking spaces that there is another way is also the issue.

It may be a small gesture, but I feel like I have some power not to pay the Oil Cartels their blood money for the gallon of gas a month I will save. I am not polluting the air for my own convenience.

I'm saying I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore.

I'm happy to have scratched this item off my to-do list. It's been a long time coming. For me, living a cycling lifestyle is not just about having the lightest, fastest bike, achieving personal bests, group rides or endless training for its own sake. I want to imbed cycling in as many aspects of my life as possible. I hope I can inspire others to take a first step in this direction.

Ride On My Friends

Flash