Dog - Trailer, Trike or Other?

mroli

Any tips would be gladly received.

We have a retriever pup and would like to get a trailer to take him up to the Park (about 5 miles away through London traffic), but were wondering if maybe a trike (Pashley trike with suitable cargo attachment), or even one of the Dutch load carriers would be better.

How do you get your dog about? I know we could make him run - but as a juvenile dog he's not meant to do that amount of exercise for hip reasons and we'd far rather cycle to the park rather than drive....

Tips and recs please. Thank you!

M

baudman

Think about what uses other than the dog you may have in mind. Think about ease of ride, and handling.

We had a trailer (for a kid) but used it quite a bit for cargo too. But since then, we got a cargobike, based on a dutch bakfiets. This is awesome, I reckon, as your precious cargo will be in front of you. (They also handle really well, and can be taken places that trikes can't).

mroli

Yeah - I think they look great - the problem is you can get a trailer for £100, and a bakfiets costs around £1k +! (unless you can rec a cheaper source!) Other potential uses would be shopping/load carrying. Maybe children in the future, but at the moment just getting our puppy around! That picture of your cargo bike is v sweet!

baudman

He he - you just need 'creative accounting'.

Think about the things a bak could replace, and what they cost. You may be able to substantiate the significant outlay quite quickly.

mroli

Mate - I've already got a time trial frame stashed at work that I don't dare take home yet....

I'm getting bits shipped back slowly to break her into the idea - "what are these? Oh, they are time trial brake levers. Yeah, got em second hand, dirt cheap. Thinking I might build myself a time trial bike if I can find a cheap frame"....

Really will have to get rid of a couple of bikes at some stage - have an old single speed that I could flog and possibly my comedy drop barred MTB invention (the "bee") - but I could make that into a cargo bike using the xtracycle free radical....

Keep on seeing Pashley Deli bikes and think they look great....