Posted: 7/6/2010 1:15:16 AM EDT
| I was in Mexico recently and saw many workers utilizing a three wheeled bike that had a large cage with wheels attached to the neck. The top rear bar of the cage was used as the handle bar for steering. I though for preps this could be a handy local transporter vs. a Mtn bike with trailer... |
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I was in Mexico recently and saw many workers utilizing a three wheeled bike that had a large cage with wheels attached to the neck. The top rear bar of the cage was used as the handle bar for steering. I though for preps this could be a handy local transporter vs. a Mtn bike with trailer... Until you hit the first hill a MTB w/Trailer offer a lot more: braking gearing lighter weight (by about half) removable trailer vs fixed handling is MUCH better MUCH more portable as trailers usually fold The utility bikes are nice for heavy loads on relatively flat surfaces, but they only come in two flavors(at least in the US): cheap cobbled junk, and stupidly expensive |
I have used one of these at a jobsite.....for what they are they work well......but as stated above.....even slight hills suck.....much less a loading dock ramp... .....if you have primarly flat areas to run them.....a used one wouldn't be bad. The one I was on was geared like a single speed beach crusier.....but in a concrete floor warehouse setting.
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Heavy means hard to pedal uphill. Simple fact of physics. Put a big, honkin' basket on a bike, fill it with stuff, and it gets heavy. ipso facto.
To the best of my knowledge (I've done some studying on these things for a project I was working on awhile back) nobody's making anything like this for anything but flat surfaces. Which doesn't mean that some ingenuity couldn't convert one into something vaguely useful. Motorization springs right to mind. A relatively small motor would move one along. Gearing works wonders. Multiplication of power. Keeping in mind that every gained power advantage comes as a tradeoff for speed, and you'd be going up those hills mighty slow. But, I think, faster than if you were carrying all that junk on your back. I'd think having the basket in back, though, with a standard steering arrangement would suit rough terrain much, much better. |