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I've been thing about towbar bike racks and the like and it got me to thinking - why cant I just fasten a fork mount diectly to my towball or flange and secure the front of the bike to that? 20mm and 15mm forks shoud be more than capable of keepingt the bike upright.
Basically what's the matter with your back wheel running along the tarmac? Cant see it being too hard to make into a 2 bike rack either...
What will the bike do when you brake?
APF
a pig to reverse two bikes attached like that 😉
Good way to wear out your tyres.
Way back in the day I saw Trials motorbikes being towed like that,it never caught on.
If you'd ever towed a particularly light trailer you would know why this is such a bad idea.
Imagine what it will do if it hits a pothole at 60. If you're lucky the forks would still be attached when you eventually got to where you were going. They would still be wrecked mind.
Tyres don't have a speed or load rating on them. So it'll probably be illegal.
TJ often discussed this as a means of transporting a tandem - an issue due to the overall length, especially on a small car. All of the above disadvantages were pointed out to him; speed rating, hub life, undamped pothole impact etc. He's certainly never taken it any further though IIRC he did manage to find links to other folk who'd done it.
If you do, make sure you have a rear mounted go pro or similar to catch what happens...
And Strava it obvs
I've seen them towed by motorbikes. Components on them not much bigger than bicycles. I reckon any problems could be solved. Design the damping into the hitch and you are sorted. Hub will be fine and better designed than any trailer hub. Tandems do 50 mph downhill and so do roadies. Haven't seen any fires. Another 30 mph will make no difference.
Any pot hole that will break a bike will have broken the car first anyway. Where are these centre line potholes? Dont often see them even on motorbike.
Even so no point in doing it with a normal bike, but a tandem with more length could be justified.
Where are these centre line potholes? Dont often see them even on motorbike.
You're lucky then, round here it's like a slalom course.
It's not the pothole impact itself that is the problem though, it's what the bike subsequently does as it flies through the air around the pivot point.
It would have to meet the normal regs of a trailer . . . off the top of my head, it would have to have its normal coupling method plus a breakaway cable . It would be under 750kg so would not need to be braked. And it would likely need to have mudguards fitted in the same way trailers have, along with lights and a plate.
I.e. the bike would look crap!
I reckon the headset would snap, the rear free hub get wrecked and the tyre would scrub so hard from bouncing about that it would shred in no time.
It'd also bounce around like crazy without damping.
Just buy a rear rack, as it would save cost overall compared to wear/tear/breakage.