A friend stopped by to drop off some DayGlo paint, tires, and other things, and he offered to take me to get the trailers in his truck. Given the likelihood of winds and storms later in the afternoon/eve when I'd probably still be on my way back with the stuff on the bike, I took him up on the offer.
Uneventful pick up of them, and they are in pretty good shape. Turns out that the hitches are complete (though the tires are all flat), but I would only have been able to use the Bell trailer to haul the pedal trailer if I rode The Velcro Eclipse, as it's clamp-on hitch requires using the left side chainstay, which is inaccessible due to the cargo pod. I suppose I could've clamped it to the U-fork I have as my hitch for the other trailer, but I'm not sure there'd be enough clearance at the rear of teh trailer to ground then.
It did end up raining cats and dogs for a short time, with very high winds (more than 45 degree angle rain, nearly horizontal at some points). So I'm glad I took him up on his offer.
Anyhow, here they are:
THe pedal trailer is foldable for storage, just between the seat and bars.
View attachment 12
Hitch clamps on seatpost or seattube.
Folding joint
View attachment 10
Clamp-on bars. I'm thinking that if I take the bars and the seat off, I can bolt a platform across there and over the rear wheel to give me cargo space, with something down the sides to tie things to and keep them clear of the rear wheel. I have two big computer-tower carrying cases from CompUSA's old training classes stuff that would probabably work fine; I considered using them on the bolt-together semi recumbent cargo bike originally and there are pics in that thread:
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=247481#p247481
Freewheel was rusted so much that it would not freewheel. A squirt of WD40 mixed with gearbox oil fixed that, though it's still very loud and probably needs scrubbing out. Chain is rusty but works at the links. I will almost certainly not be using either one on this trailer, and isntead will put a hubmotor wheel in it.
Also, there is a neat little flagpole holder already welded onto the rightside dropout area, with a couple feet of stub of the old pole still in it. I'll probably fix that up with a flag.
It is a 24" wheel, and I may have to cut the brake-crossmember and the "kickstand plate" (neither of which have holes in them to bolt those things to, but are present nevertheless) to allow tire clearance.
The Bell trailer definitely needs some new bits for the covering and stuff--all the straps have been chewed up by a dog, although oddly none of the plastic clips have been, just the cloth part. Good in that I can use those elsewhere. Most of the straps are belts to hold in kids, which I don't need.
All of the mechanisms in it seem intact, and there don't seem to be any problems with the frame.
View attachment 6
The hitch and it's safety strap are also intact.
It has reflective strips on it that cause the camera to shutter down on flashbounce, so some of the pics are pretty dark.
It also folds up, so I could use it as a flatbed even without removing any parts from it.
THe wheels are quickrelease pushbutton like my kennel trailer's, but much smaller, and I doubt their axles are titanium. :lol:
Folds up pretty compactly, including the hitch folding up underneath it.
View attachment 1
I wouldnt' have had any trouble carrying both of these in the kennel trailer, folded up with wheels off.
I'm not sure if I can easily make a pusher trailer with the Bell, but definitely easy with the other one. So easy that I made a new thread
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21060&start=0
just for that and hope to start the conversion in the next week or two, whenever I have time.
My only question is whether I should lace up a 24" wheel with the 1000W GM/9C hybrid, or just use the FUsin or 9C hub in their existing 26" wheel.
After I verify that it will safely work as a pusher using a hub, I'll see about converting it to use a chain-driven wheel from a motor like a treadmill motor or something, just to see if it'll work, and to get back into making my crazy drivetrains that I have not been doing for nearly a year now.