IcySwan1 

My wife has a pretty 3 speed Electra cruiser. She wants to get a trailer to take her 2 fifteen pound dogs for rides. My bikes have QR skewers and plenty of room to mount the hitch. The cruiser has nuts that hold the rear wheel. Has anybody hooked up a trailer to a cruiser? What brand trailer and how did it work?

The puppies thank you.

Mike

rhenning

Looking for a good one my thought would be buy a used Burley trailer. Big enough for 2 small children and very well made. New or used would make no difference. The pictures are 2 of the 4 I have made. Roger

CliffordK

This is my CAT trailer.





Built using a Bike Friday trailer frame (similar to the Burley above, and potentially related).

It is probably too small for the two pooches, but one could build one with a larger hard case.

However, there are quite a few dog specific trailers available that should be fine.

Post some photos of the Electra rear-end (NDS where the hitch will attach).

IcySwan1 

Great trailers and ideas. I will try and upload a picture of the NDS of her bike, but that skill might be beyond my ken


Mike

IcySwan1 

I tried to post a picture of the NDS of the Electra. It went somewhere, but not here. I suspect it has joined the Mars Rover and will never be seen again. But after the advice above, I ordered a Burley Tail Wagon. They are out of stock at Burley but apparently REI can to an inter-store transfer and get one here in a week or so. There is a video showing it being attached to a similar NDS set up, so I think it will work. I hedged my bets and ordered another hitch to put on my bike if I end up being the cart horse.

Thanks to all, and sorry about not being able to post a picture. But it all worked out.

Mike

CliffordK

Here is @IcySwan1's Album:

https://www.bikeforums.net/g/user/539673
https://www.bikeforums.net/g/album/21594674



A lot of stuff going on back there. My chainstay clamps wouldn't work due to the coaster brakes (plus they are hard on paint).

You should be able to get an axle bolt type of trailer hitch, but the rack bolts on awfully low. Is there both a coaster brake and internal gearing? I'm not sure if the anti-rotation washer is absolutely needed, but one option would be to flip it to the inside (changing spacing slightly).

The Trail Wagon looks like it should be a good choice.



The hitch attachment looks fairly small. A little grinding or filing should get it around the rack, then with the anti-rotation washer on the inside, you should be fine.

IcySwan1 

Cliffordk, how in the world did you find that picture? If it the one I tried to post but couldn't figure out where it went.

Yes, there is both a coaster brake and internal gearing in the hub.

Mike

CliffordK

It was on MARS... of course!!!

I tend to do a lot "manually".

Look at the top of the page, just under "BIKE FORUMS", and you'll see "Gallery". Now, that brings up a bunch of pictures, but to the right, you'll see "My Pictures".

Now, that gives you all the albums (you can create more than one if you wish).

Keep clicking on the album/photos until you see your picture. When it gets as big as it will get, right click on it and choose "copy image link".

Then go into your message and insert [img]Your Image Link[/img]. You may get that by clicking on the upload picture button , but then you may get to copies of the photo.

...
Did you use the upload picture button: , or did you use the attachment button: ?

As far as picking up someone else's album. There has to be an easy way... I think. But I just find the user's user number and change the address to point to that.

IcySwan1 

Thanks for taking me to school, Cliffordk. I read the instructions but they didn't mean much. It makes more sense now. Thank you for the insight and the effort to bring the picture forward.

Mike

donna1996

Where can I buy a trailer? Need it for my cat.

rhenning

EBAY, bike shops, resale shops, Craig's List, Good Will and on and on. I think Burley even sells directley. Roger

IcySwan1 

I bought the trailer from REI. Although it looked like it would be tight fit to put on the hitch, it went on with no problem. My wife easily tows the trailer with 2 fifteen pound dogs. There is mehs on all 4 sides. The dogs are not stressed. We roll with a dog bed in the trailer, and water with a bowl for frequent stops. Although I usually bring up the rear, I did put a blinky on the trailer in the event somebody couldn't see a pink bike, a yellow trailer, and an orange flag.

Mike

CliffordK

The soft trailers are very common "Dog Trailers", and would probably work.

The hard cat trailer above was something I assembled.

Bike Friday sells trailer frames.
https://store.bikefriday.com/index.php?cPath=51

They are really a very simple frame.

The cat cage is something I had and is probably 30 years old.

3 holes must be drilled into the bottom of the cage which hold it onto the trailer with wing nuts, and the wing nuts hold the trailer together.

This was made from a Bike Friday cargo trailer that had a crate very similar to the second crate posted by @rhenning. At one time, Burley was a Eugene based co-op, and there likely was some collaboration between them and Bike Friday.

Bike Friday uses a unique air hose coupler which seems to last quite well. Many of their bikes have the bike end welded to the frame, but it looks like they've updated the universal hitch part.

https://store.bikefriday.com/product...ducts_id=20100

The cargo trailers are slightly narrower than their standard suitcase trailers, but could likely be easily modified. Or, it is quite likely the company would be able to cut to your dimensions (be aware of wheel clearances).

They have seen my trailer, and got a kick out of it.

https://m.facebook.com/bikefriday/photos/a.180836545204/10156737821700205/?type=3&locale2=sv_SE



You could probably build something similar out of any kid's trailer or cargo trailer by striping it down. But the frame would be much heavier.