Cycling UK Forum

hubgearfreak wrote:

Kevin K wrote:How about a Paper Bike

no ta, i've ridden it at the york show. because 1st is direct drive and the 7 other gears are up from there, it's horrendously over-geared. Sadly the frame design precludes the usual fix of fitting a larger rear sprocket

The Paper Bicycle at the York Cycle rally was a pre production prototype. The lowest gear was 43", with a chain ring of 33 teeth. For production I am making a crank with a chain ring of 22 teeth giving a low gear of 29" and a high of 93".

The prototype also had wrong brake lever ratios, wrong brake cables, wrong inner tubes, wrong seatpost, wrong kickstand bracket, wrong bottom bracket,....
Thats is the nature of prototypes.

The idea with the Paper Bikes unusual frame is to create something that is inherently nice to ride.
The very oversize down tube gives a very stiff pedaling platform, but the long seatmast gives a springy and comfortable seat. The very low center of gravity on the frame makes the bike nimble to ride despite being heavy.


Nick

t: 01560 600 369

http://www.Simple-City.com
http://www.paper-bicycle.com
http://www.CarryFreedom.com

Simple City, High Clunch Farm, Stewarton, Ayrshire, KA3 5JT, UK.

Checking axles
Checking quick release axles for loose buttons is relatively straight forward.
There are about 4,000 Y-Frames out there, this problem was specific to about 100 trailers, of which about 90 are accounted for.
1) Remove the axles from the trailer.
2) Hold the axle in one hand and with your finger press on the central pin at the ball end as hard as possible.
3) With your other hand try and twist the chrome cap anticlockwise.
If the cap is tight you should be able to feel the central pin twisting on your finger, if it is not then it will unscrew.
For a more reliable check you can depress the quick release button slightly, and pinch the protruding pin with a pair of plyers, this makes it clearer whether the push button is turning.
If you are in any doubt you can post the axles to me to check.

Braz
For reference I immediately offered to courier Micks trailer to me so I could fix it, for no charge. I am sending the spare axles and loctite down again for no charge. If Mick had got hold of me when the axles first came of I would have got spares to him the next day so he could continue his tour.

I am charging Mick for the new hitch design because it costs me money to manufacture them. Unless I charge for these I would quickly bankrupt myself and then be unable to offer anyone this improved hitch or anything else.

My customer service has been atrocious in the past, but in general I am a lot better at dealing quickly with peoples problems, and making sure there are less problems in the first place. I am slower than I would like, but that is simply because I have too much to do, and don't earn enough money for staff.

Fundamentally the Y-Frame and the Bob Yak are good at different things. The Yak is good off road, while the Y-Frame (or any two wheel trailer) is much more efficient on road and much better with heavy loads. If people are put of my trailers because of me I would rather they got a Radical Cyclone, or Burley flatbed. On road two wheel trailers are about 5% faster than panniers or a monowheel trailer carrying identical loads.

If I had been in Mick's situation I would have been livid. Fundamentally I am trying to sell things I would want to own, that I fall short of this is simply a measure of my limits.

Regards

Nick

http://www.Simple-City.com
http://www.paper-bicycle.com
http://www.CarryFreedom.com

Simple City, High Clunch Farm, Stewarton, Ayrshire, KA3 5JT, UK.

Firstly Carry Freedom is not a they, its just me.

Loctite is a perfectly valid method for holding two components together, if the correct grade is chosen for the application it is ideal. The whole Royal Mail fleet of Y-Frame trailers have all their axles secured only with loctite so they cannot quick release.

The fault in Mick's trailer related to one production three years ago, where loctite was omitted. Outside of this specific production I know of only one axle failure, and that was with a car reversing into the trailer. I should have caught Mick's trailer at the time but did not, when a fault like this shows there is a lot to do and its easy to miss the odd person.

I simply do not have a choice over how the quick release axles are made. All suppliers make them the same way, and I do not buy enough to be able to specify differently. After this incident I swapped suppliers and have had no axle problems since.

Nick

The Bob Yak's made in Taiwan, the same as the two knock offs available. The Edinburgh Bike Coop knock off is the cheapest, and I suspect both knock offs are from the same factory.

Have a look at http://www.carryfreedom.com/views.html
At the bottom of the page is a link to a review Cycling Plus did of the Bob Yak, Burley Nomad Y-Frame and Webber Monoporter. The Y-Frame gets the best buy, and also went on to get their silver luggage of the year awards that year (behind the tubus rack).

In general I would only suggest using a one wheel trailer if you are planning to do off road work, and then I would suggest the Extrawheel as being the best around.

I am utterly biased about this since I work for Carry Freedom, but the review should speak for itself.

Nick

Just to pick up on what third crank said

"I have never felt likely to fall off because of towing mine and I have never heard anyone else report this as a problem. If anything, because the single wheel follows your bike precisely, you are more stable than with a two wheeler."

In my opinion one wheel trailers are good of road and passable on road, while two wheel trailers good on road and passable off road. I work for Carry Freedom, so have a natural bias towards two wheel trailers, however.

I know directly of two RTA's due to shimmy using a Bob Yak, the tail does tend to wag the dog if cycling fast, going through sharp/sudden corners, or carrying too much. Tests done for us by the Royal Mail showed convincingly that two wheel trailers were more efficient than panniers or one wheel trailers.

If anyone is interested in the relevant extract from the Royal Mail report, then email me and I will send the pdf back to you. Our Info page explores the relative merits of all trailers and tries to explain why they behave as they do. http://www.carryfreedom.com/info.html

Hope this helps

Nick

There are a couple of makers of bicycle trailers specificaly for dogs. Croozer, who are distributed in the UK by Amba Marketing make a fabric tent style of dog trailer. See http://www.bikesandtrailers.com/dog-trailers/croozer_dog.html
for pics and spec, I cant find a reference to this trailer on Ambas web site but I know they can get it.

Carry Freedom make a dog trailer called the bArk, which is an airline dog kennel bolted to their Y-Large trailer chassis.
http://www.carryfreedom.com/bArk.html

I work for Carry Freedom so I leave it to you to decide if either of these interest you. Also at the bikes and trailers web site linked to above is a dog trailer for small dogs by Roland. To the best of my knowledge thats it as far as commercially available dog trailers go.

Hope this helps

Nick