Paul J

I thought I had asked this before but in a search couldn't find it. So maybe just in my head. :-)

We are planning to retire this coming December and our dream has been to ride the west coast. My wife and I ride a tandem and are looking for a way to reduce the weight on the rear wheel as we are a larger team. Using a trailer seems like a great solution and we have followed a couple of tandem teams using the Burley Nomad which looks like a good option. Living in Lancaster County I've also seen some of the plain folk using the Burley Cargo trailer which is cheaper. In some of the review people talk about water getting into the trailer and one thought was if you used the Cargo version you could get two larger Dry Bags that would fit into the Cargo and would keep everything dry or drier. Love to heard thoughts from those who have had experience using trailers and any thoughts about the Nomad vs the Cargo trailer. Our current thinking is to fly or drive a one-way rental into Seattle and start there riding south and connect with the west coast Adventure Cycling route in Oregon. We've been reading CGOB and other blogs and travel logs. thanks!

indyfabz

One consideration with a two-wheeled trailer these days is poor rumble strip placement. It's conceivable that you could find yourself having to ride left to keep the left wheel of the trailer off the strips.

HobbesOnTour

Another one to consider is the ExtraWheel. However, when I was researching I did come across one couple who could not make it work on their tandem - there was a constant wobble. My understanding is that they were the only ones to have an issue.
customer service is excellent.

Tandem Tom

Though we now tour on singles we have ridden around Lake Erie and Lake Champlain with our Co-Motion Tandem using a BOB trailer. It worked quite well.

djb

Re West coast, I've been revisiting my trip memories giving recommendations to some Aussies, and want to bring up these important topics.
-as mentioned, a two wheel trailer will bring lots of potential dangers as often the road can be narrow and you're on a tandem already. Don't forget, tourists and retired folks drive this route in cars and RVs so you gotta be on the ball. Some sections have logging trucks, or used to.

-it's not flat and there are many short challenging climbs, and a few long challenging climbs. So be aware of this and be realistic about your tandem climbing abilities and your fitness for climbs. My take on tandems is that they may be harder on hills? You certainly know better than I do...

It's not to be a downer , but just so you are aware.
Look at thread for the Aussies, USA trip suggestions, for more West coast comments.

seeker333

I owned/used a BoB Yak for years. I believe a Burley Nomad would be ideal for your purpose! Good luck.

Regarding width of two wheel trailer/rumble strip avoidance, I think this may serve as a safety feature, forcing drivers to take a slightly wider line in passing. Also, a Nomad is not significantly wider (22") than the average rear rack plus two affixed loaded panniers.

Paul J

Thank you so much for the feedback. The hill challenge is still something we need to be prepared for. We live in Pennsylvania which is fairly hilly with some steep grades but not typically not more then one-mile. Extended climbing will be a new challenge for us. We've been following tandem teams who are using the Nomad trailers with good success. This summer, one of the folks on our Tandem Facebook group did the majority this ride, riding down to Santa Barbara, with three tandems all pulling the Nomad. So I think it will work OK, but I would love to know if anyone has used the Cargo Burley trailer which looks to be the same foot print but not enclosed. The Cargo is $100 cheaper and if you add back in the Burley Dry Bag which is 75 liters and $90 it's a bit cheaper. I'm guessing you can get a very nice large Dry Bag even cheaper then that. Using the Dry Bag would eliminate some of the issues of leaking with the Nomad. Thanks again and I'd love to know if anyone has used the Cargo trailer rather then the Nomad?

seeker333

If you don't mind the extra 8-9" width of the Flatbed (also a bit larger broken down for transport) then, yes, go for it. There are a lot of vendors of dry bags, including Ortlieb, REI, Cabelas, backpacking and rafting shops, etc, so you should research these a bit before giving all your money to Burley.

I long ago had the same thoughts as you on Nomad vs Flatbed WRT size, weight and volume capacity, cost etc. Nomad is not waterproof and if you're going to bag everything anyway then the Flatbed looks like a good alternative. Also Flatbed would make a pretty handy grocery/utility hauler.

Tourist in MSN

I have never pulled a trailer or ridden a tandem, so maybe my comments are not pertinent. But I have ridden Pacific Coast from Astoria to San Francisco.

Oregon published a very good cycling map for the Oregon portion of the coast ride. They had several short segments where they suggested you get off of the main road onto some quieter roads. But those quieter roads often had hills up to 12 percent grade, the main road was usually no steeper than 8 percent. Main road on that route in Oregon had a nice wide shoulder. But, bridges often had no shoulder. There were times that I looked in my mirror and decided to stop and wait for the traffic to disappear before I crossed a bridge. I think a trailer with one or with two wheels would work fine in Oregon.

California, the roads were less likely to have a good shoulder. It has been over five years since I was there, I can't really make any comments on that, but I do remember at times being quite unimpressed with California infrastructure.

The others that commented on one vs two wheel trailers, as I said I have not pulled a trailer but if I thought about pulling one I would pick a single wheel trailer. If I see some debris on the side of the side of the road or a pothole, I often will try to miss it with at least 8 inches to spare. If I had a two wheel trailer behind me, that would complicate things and i would probably hit things or potholes.

Some of my comments on that trip are at this link, but those comments are five years old.
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/9...l#post16933424

Paul J

Thanks on that! I totally missed that it is wider. That is something I would prefer not having. The Nomad with really tucks in which would be great. I think you answered my question.:-)

Paul J

Thanks for sharing this, this is helpful yo get others perspectives on the route. I've enjoyed following some of your rides the past few years. A couple we've been following on CGOB have done this ride twice on their Co-Motion Speedster which has been great information to get a feel of the ride. We have been riding pretty much all of our lives, and off and on with the tandem for 35 years so have a good idea of traffic and road riding. The touring part is where we are novices as we've only done one of two night out rides. We are hoping to get a multi-night tour in the summer to get some better feel for the riding, sleeping, riding, sleeping routine under our belts. We've pulled kids and grand-kids in two-wheel trailers so are pretty confident in that. I hear you on the climbs and we might be walking a few though I'm taking the gearing from 53/39/28 on the front to 48/36/24 coupled to a 34 tooth large rear cog. We've not walked many hills but we have stopped to catch our breath mid clime a time or two. :-)

Tourist in MSN

My derailleur touring bikes have a granny chainring of 24, cassette big sprocket of 32, so that is slightly higher gear than the lowest gear you plan to have. But when the hills get steeper than about 9 percent grade I am happy to walk the hills to keep my heart rate better under control. I need to maintain a speed of about 3.5 mph to maintain vertical and directional stability on the bike, trying to pedal a heavy bike up a steep hill at that speed is more wattage than I am comfortable doing. Walking, i can go slower and use some different muscle groups. I have a lower gear on my Roholff touring bike, but that does not make the steep hills less steep, it just means I can spin faster on the hills that are shallow enough that I can still pedal up, thus on that bike I am just as likely to get off and push.

You said this coming Dec is when you retire, should I assume the Pacific Coast trip is for summer 2021? If so, you could try a one or two week long tour this year to get more into the mind set of multi-day touring. Being in Pennsylvania, maybe do GAP/C&O the full length out and back, or maybe just part of it. Or, take a week long trip with ACA somewhere, either one that is van supported so they haul your gear or one that is self supported so you haul your own gear. Then let them take care of the planning and logistics. If you did a van supported trip with them, make sure that they know you have a tandem in case that would complicate things, as they hauled our bikes a couple times on the roof of the van.

This past summer I pushed my bike up a 13 percent grade hill that was over 1,300 feet high, not fun but if I tried to pedal it, it would have killed me.

Paul J

Yes, we are thinking sometime in the summer 2021 hopefully in the driest time. The GAP is one of the options we were thinking about as it is fairly close, a good distance and has a good surface, C&O is pretty sketchy, especially on a tandem where the stoker has no view of the upcoming hazards. Don't tick-off your stoker:-) We are also thinking of a loop route out our front door. We will need to ride loaded to get a feel for that difference. We are thinking of shorter daily mileage keeping it in the 40 to 50 mile range which would give us better recovery.

djb

certainly from your riding and road experience experience, it sounds like it will be fine trying out touring. I guess the only thing I would add is the importance of a good camp mat that you are each comfortable on. As I've gotten older, getting a good sleep is way up there in importance. The rest tends to get sorted out and managed with using reasonable distances, especially at the start of a trip, where some short days are nice to get used to everything and get into the groove.
And as you say, setting distances that make for less "oh am I stiff !! " next mornings....

re a wider, two wheeled trailer vs a one wheel, I know the times I've thought of the issues with a two wheel one is when Ive personally followed the route of someone on crazy guy who pulled a two wheeled trailer (for his folding bike) through parts of Latin America. There were a few times where the roads were really potholey, and I clearly remember that it must have been a bear for him avoiding holes with his bike tires, dealing with passing trucks (it was a particularly busy section with quarry trucks going past a lot) but running the risk of one of his trailer wheels hitting a hole or whatever that you quickly avoided with your bike tires.....
I'm pretty averse to stuff like traffic etc, but I would always want a one wheel trailer always, just for this type of real world potential scenario--especially with any sort of downhill where more than typical speed was involved.

dwmckee

We are tandem riders too an sometimes struggle with the size of the bike in tighter turns. I would think a single wheel trailer would be a better answer. Extrawheel, Bob or the one made in US by Frances Cycles has great reviews. We have a cargo bike made by Frances and it is of outstanding construction quality, not an offshore mass-produced thing. Anyway, I think a single wheel trailer would be the best solution...

stardognine

Interesting thread. This reinforces what I’ve been thinking, that a single-wheeled trailer should be easier to steer & ride with, especially for missing potholes & such. 🙂

I’m waiting on replies from a couple of local ads, for Yaks, and will most likely own one very soon. 😎

I figure one should be enough, lol, and don’t imagine you could hook two together, like a train. 🤔😁😉

Paul J

Update. I had pretty much decided that I was going to purchase the Burley Nomad when low and behold, a B.O.B. Yak showed up on Facebook 10 minutes from my house, oh, and for $75. Purchased it and now need to get the Tandem specific Skewer. Now I need to start reading up on BOB's to see what I need to know. I really enjoyed your feedback from earlier this year.