Wreck with trailer?

[spartanstork]

I bought a trailer recently.  Upon loading it up, on the first downhill I crashed breaking 4 ribs and collar bone.
Has this happened to anyone else?

[JimF]

Was this a Bob? If so, you learned the hard way the warnings with the Bob regarding practice must be heeded. I, too, had a crash at the bottom of a hill; a severe wheel wobble caused loss of control and a hard meeting with the asphalt. Luckily, no cars directly behind as I fell into the roadway. Anyhow, I started progressively to increase weight (up to about 35 pounds) over a series of rides. Everything appeared fine. The crash day I got cocky. I loaded two loose 25-pound weights into a tote container and placed that in the Bob. At the first downhill, crash. Most damage was skin, but my confidence was severly shaken. If Bob reads these, I'd recommend they make the warnings much more pronounced, as others have had similar crashes. Good luck.

[spartanstork]

Hi JimF,

The trailer was not a Bob, but a Bob clone.  It is made by Yakama and is the one currently on sale for $139 at Performance and Nashbar.

I loaded it pretty good.  All seemed to be fine.  I went down a hill that I take every day.  Usually I just let the bike go down the hill and go about 25 miles per hour top.  This day I picked up speed like crazy.  I hit about 25 in the first third of the downhill.  The bike started  to lean to the left at about 10mph.  The a right lean but larger.  Then a still larger left lean, followed by a still larger right lean of perhaps  25 degrees.  Then a very big left lean where I thought you are in big trouble.  This was followed by a right lean into the pavement at 25 miles per hour with a direct hit on the right shoulder and 4 right ribs.

I called Yakama and they said they had never heard of such an occurance.  The way they made the assembly booklet with all the jokes I thought riding it was no big deal.  My shoulder will be permanently screwed up.
Thanks for the info and any more you may know of.

Lee Stork      

[burleyrider]

I have seen people wreck on a downhill with the single wheeled trailers.
On my Nomad I have been up to 46mph on a downhill with no ill
effects.

Derek

[spartanstork]

Hi burley rider,

How many wheels are on your trailer?

spartanstork

[Peaks]

Burley Nomad is a 2 wheel trailer.  My daughter used on, and on occassion, got well into the 30's with out incidents.  I used a BOB, and braked to limit myself to the low 30's.  Guess she has more guts than I do.