Remember how I said I wouldn’t buy a Chariot bike trailer because they were too expensive? I take it back. Well, sort of. My friend who owns one recently got his 2nd child riding solo so I took the opportunity to purchase his in excellent used condition at half the cost.
My friend is right, Chariots are finely built. Even though Chariot was recently purchased by Thule, I believe they are still made in Canada. This probably contributes to both the high cost and quality of construction. If you have some extra disposable income, I highly recommend buying one. If you don’t, find one second hand, you won’t be disappointed.
Affixing the Chariot to my wife’s bike with quick-release skewer on the back wheel was easy. Adding it to my single speed was going to take some research.
Normally, you can just take off one wheel nut, add the hitch, and put the nut back on. I however, didn’t have enough axle threads to simply do this. I was left with two choices:
Buy a wider axle
Use an adapter
Axle
Getting a wider axle is (mostly) straightforward. I recommend visiting your favorite local bike shop to inquire about one. My Redline 29er’s hubs have sealed bearings and an odd axle, so something like this would have to be special ordered, but it does exist. Chances are your local bike shop will have a suitable axle in stock if your single speed doesn’t use any out-of-the-ordinary bearing system.
Adapter
Then there’s the adapter route. Chariot sells adapters for adding the hitch to an internally geared hub (IGH), where lengthening the axle isn’t an option. Unfortunately, Chariot doesn’t provide any information on what the thread size and pitch are for these adapters, they just offer two types: Shimano and SRAM.
After some sleuthing I found this post (comment #3) on a bike forum that indicated Shimano internally geared hubs use the old English Sturmey Archer axle size of 3/8″.
Chariot’s SRAM adapter indicated it’s for the InMotion9 hub which apparently has standard 10mm axles while the other SRAM IGHs don’t. I wound up going this route in order to put the thread pitch mystery to bed. The SRAM adapter indeed fits standard 10mm axles, so it worked fine on my normal-guy bike with a solid rear axle.
My friend poked fun at my bike saying it looks like a “cop bike.” I took stock and realized he had a point. From the cop bikes I’ve seen, I’d say mine fits most of these criteria, which is to say cop bikes are really just city-going mountain bikes:
Flat handlebars
Rack/trunk bag
Knobby tires sometimes replaced with semi-slick tires
Previously my bike also had a Greenfield rear-mount kickstand which are ubiquitous on cop bikes, but I had to forgo it because my trailer attaches in the same spot 🙁
Light Options
Let’s address the last part: useful lights. I’m going to just talk about the front since any old red LED will do for the back (I got mine at Ax-Man Surplus). There are two types of lights you can put on the front of your bike: to “see” or to “be seen.” If I’m riding at night, I want to see what I could potentially run over. Also, it doesn’t hurt if everyone else on the road can see me coming a mile away. To achieve this I could have gone one of two ways: I could get a NiteRider lithium rechargeable light for about $100 that’s bike-specific, or I could get creative with a “normal” flashlight, get similar light output and recharge-ability – and still have it be useful off the bike. Plus, a flashlight goes right along with the “cop” theme. Enter: the Maglite.
I will say that out of the box, the stock (incandescent) Maglites aren’t that great: light output is abysmal. However their construction is pretty darn good and you can get them just about anywhere. AND (can you believe it?) they’re actually one of the few products you can still buy that’s made in the USA. I bought a 2 C-cell Maglite ($20) at Beisswenger’s Do-it-Best hardware store.
To affix it to the bike, DKG makes a mount called the C-mount ($25). Sounds dirty, but it looks good and works well. Yes, the mount is more than the light at this point, but we’re about to replace all the guts of this flashlight anyway.
Maglite Upgrades
To really bump things up in the light department, I bought a Cree XP-G LED for my C-cell Maglite ($40). The product page carries this message:
WARNING: This light is capable of causing eye damage at close range. Please use the light responsibly!!!
You had me at eye damage. 260 measured lumens to be precise. And, you can still use the Maglite’s reflector to focus (or scatter) the light however you’d like.
Malkoff Maglite close-up
Anyway, some of you may have noticed that I purchased the wrong size(!) LED: 3 cell, but my flashlight is a 2 cell. Not to worry, this was intentional, because I equip the flashlight with two 25500 lithium-ion batteries rated at 3.7v each. Times two they equal 7.4-8.4v (depending on charge) – about that of 3 or 4 regular 1.5v alkaline batteries. The combination provides good light with recharge-ability in a smaller package.
Strange batteries like this are easy to find through electronic cigarette (vape/vapor) online shops such as Kalamazoo Vapor Shop. The cells run about $10-15 each – kind of expensive, but keep in mind they have a protective circuit board contained within.
Protected vs. Unprotected Cells
I used to have two normal (unprotected) cells. The unprotected cells posed two problems:
Second, unlike cell phones and computers, my flashlight doesn’t have a safety device to automagically turn off the light when the batteries are perilously low – the idiot behind the handlebars decides when they turn on/off. Long story short – I think I left the light on all night by accident one time and one of my unprotected cells dropped to 0.1 volts and can no longer be (safely) charged back up. Use protection! Isn’t that what they teach kids in school? Protected cells’ internal circuit boards prevent them from running too low. I also recommend getting an extra pair of batteries so you can swap out easily when the other needs a charge.
Long before I was into bikes I was into sports cars. Before all you vegan hippies vilify me, I’ve been working from home since 2008, significantly reducing my carbon footprint, plus I recycle like the dickens. However, my love of sports cars has ingrained some preconceived notions about what I consider convenient, functional, and stylish. Having been newly re-acclimated to the cycling “scene,” I’ve found there are aspects of the bike industry that I cannot (and will not) conform to. Instead, these are my workarounds.
Presta valves. I understand these things may be more advanced in technology than the lowly normal-guy Shrader valve found on everything else with pneumatic tires. But since it’s a numbers game, I’m going with Shrader. I already have several quality (read: accurate) tire gauges and an air compressor for Schrader valves. Also, forget about the valve adapters – they suck. Many standard air chucks require the center pin to be depressed in order to dispense air (like those found at gas stations). The adapter will not accommodate this. The Bike Snob would be disappointed in my approach, but as he knows AYHSMB (All You Haters Suck My Balls), plus I’ve bought both of hisbooks.
Drilling for a Schrader valve
I almost get a sadistic pleasure out of drilling a larger hole in a nice new set of rims, and I’ll tell you how to do it.
Get a 21/64″ drill bit from the hardware store
Drill the Presta hole into a larger Schrader hole
Ream the hole with a rat-tail file and/or sandpaper to remove any burrs
Profit
Am I worried about weakening the rim? No, today’s double (sometimes triple) wall rims are certainly up to the task.
Deep-V Schrader tubes
Some department store bikes now apparently have faux deep-V rims with Schrader tubes, which has led to the availability of long-stem Schrader tubes at your local bike shop as replacements. This was a great match for me to drill out a Shimano deep-V wheelset off of Craigslist – no regrets!
Clip-in Pedals
I use my bike for transportation and recreation. When I arrive at my destination I don’t want to be clip-clopping around like a horse on a city street. But I do like the feeling of being “strapped in” on my road-going bike. So I’m perfectly content to run a cheap set of rat-trap pedals with some leather straps, as it allows me to arrive wearing “normal” footwear:
I added the bash guard as an extra measure to keep my pant cuffs out of the chain (see cartoon below). If it happens to protect the chainring too – bonus.
Spandex Shorts
The final and most controversial aspect: cycling attire. My approach is generally as such:
Yehuda Moon by Rick Smith
However there was one point when I could be found in spandex shorts and a cycling cap ala Wes & Woody in White Men Can’t Jump. It was the early 90’s and cycling-wear as fashion had permeated enough to reach the Midwest – the final bastion of fashion trends. This was presumably fueled by American cyclist Greg LeMond‘s three Tour de France victories.
I don’t mind cycling jerseys, in fact I like them, but I tend to wear them one size too big. That is, I like the jersey to hang a little loose rather than being skin tight. I’m not riding in the Tour de France, nor do I have the body to prove it.
Cycling shorts on the other hand, cannot simply be purchased a size larger. I agree that the padded spandex serves a purpose, but cycling clothiers should take a hint from their running brethren: sew the spandex in as a liner, with a “regular guy” exterior. This does exist in fact, sometimes marketed as “mountain bike shorts” – probably because mountain bikers are more likely to be regular guys on bikes.
At my age, it’s not often that I get to say this anymore:
I’m too young to remember but… Bike shops back in the day had a mechanic who was also versed in welding and brazing. He may not have been a bike builder by trade, but knew how to add accoutrements to an average bicycle such as eyelets for racks, fenders, bottles, etc. Today that person doesn’t exist in the bike shop, but s/he does still exist, in the form of your local bicycle builder.
My need was for a bike which could tote a human child. While in Belgium, Jessi and I rode bikes with kid seats mounted over the back wheel, which my son and I had enjoyed:
A friend of mine recommended getting a Chariot Carrier – he said other trailers he tried were cheap (quality wise) – Chariot’s are definitely not cheap. But I quite enjoyed our Belgium ride set up, and I found the Topeak BabySeat which mounted atop a rack that could be used for other things, and it was 25% the cost of a Chariot without any fixin’s.
Unfortunately my bicycle did not have any provisions for a rack. I could have sold my bike or frame and got another with mounts pre-installed. Or I could have just got the Chariot Carrier. Both of those options were going to cost a pretty penny. My favorite local bike shop recommended me to Erik Noren at Peacock Groove, suggesting he could simply add some rack mounts to my frame. Having Erik add mounts was going to still keep it cheaper than the other options, plus I get to keep my bike which I’ve grown attached to. Erik’s bread and butter is building complete bikes, not doing bike mods, but if you can fit your modification needs into his busy schedule, he can surely do it – he can pretty much do anything with a bicycle.
Erik gave me the “star” treatment with these water bottle mounts acting as rack mounts on the seat stays:
Forgive my shoddy paintwork, it’s meant to be cheap and functional, not a show bike.
Then Erik added a super-beefy mount to the dropout for the rack to thread into:
Erik does amazing work and I would trust him with my son’s life.
