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[caption id="attachment_8909" align="alignnone" width="497"] Close but no cigar. In fact I needed something the diameter of a cigar![/caption]

Christmas night at about 9 p.m. I was running my bike and trailer rig through the alleys of Fairview hunting returnable containers. I heard a loud, sharp sound, like a starter's pistol, and something between very fine rain and snow began to fall (Inuit mist?).

Coincidence right? I recognized the sound. I even knew which of three hose clamps on the hitch arm of my bicycle trailer had just snapped under pressure. It wasn't a life or death situation -- for me, but it was a suicide mission for the hose clamps -- that was the sixth clamp to break.

The 1980s-era Winchester Burley bicycle trailer I've been using for a few months finally packed it in today. A steel tube ripped. This steel tube was welded at a right-angle to both tube segments which held the wheel axles. It ripped just below the welded join with the axle tube for the left wheel. It took a good hour for the tube to rip all the way through. As the rip progressed there was less-and-less to hold the left wheel at a right-angle to the road surface; the loaded trailer box was pushing down, and the unbraced axle couldn't maintain a right-angle, and was hinging upwards, driving the top of the wheel towards the side of the trailer box.

I'm on my third second-hand cargo bike trailer, and my third bicycle, in three years, but still on my first Burley Classic Connector. Axles have broken; aluminum tubes have sheared, steel tubes have ripped; welds have broken; parts have been un-gettable. The twp parts which have outlasted everything else, were the ones supposed to break first -- the Classic Connector with it's Flexible Connector to the trailer arm, from my first Burley trailer, a 1990 Burley Roo. Both parts were original to the 20-year-old trailer when I got it in 2010. For one reason or another, I've used that same 1990 connectors on each subsequent trailer. I expect to soon ditch my current rusty steel Winchester trailer , for a slightly newer, less rusty Winchester -- which doesn't have a hitch connector, so I'll be using the 23-year-old connectors again.

[caption id="attachment_1695" align="alignnone" width="497"] "Who's this goober taking my picture?" wonders a visibly sceptical Zoey.[/caption]



What are the chances? While I beavered away over a McCoffee, writing the post about Mad Dog's bicycle side-car trailer, I look up to see another bicycle side-car trailer. I've previously only ever seen Mad Dog's custom-built side-car trailer. The idea has fascinated me for years, but I've never seen, or heard, or Googled, of a commercial product -- until now.

Zoey's father -- whose name escapes me but I remember it ends with an "O" -- told me he's been fascinated by the idea also. The one he has is made by Chariot; he bought it online. He's had it for under a year, I think, and likes it a lot. Zoey indicated that she likes it fine also. The operative, engineering ingredient is the way it attaches to the bottom bracket of the bike. Dad says it's easy to connect and disconnect. I noted that Zoey is remarkably close to the road, and must have an interesting view. Click the images to enlarge them.

The trailer is branded on the tube closest to the viewer with a sticker saying "SC Sidecarrier." Chariot made it, but they do not appear to sell it any more. So, I guess "dad" bought it online from Amazon, or ebay.

I'm tearing East on 7th Avenue, almost to the bottle depot. I pay attention to my surroundings, I'm a good cyclist -- there's a few cars behind me, some oncoming traffic. On the sidewalk, pacing me, there's a dog in a side-car, armed with a machine gun. ... Okay, I'm armed with a camera.

Gary is out for a ride with his dog Yoda, who has the look of a dog accustomed to travelling in style. Gary is better known a Mad Dog, a multimedia artist, with deep roots in the Vancouver arts and music scene going back to the late 1970s local Punk scene.

Mad Dog built this one-of-a-kind side-car, for his not-mad dog Yoda,  from an old tin baby buggy. You can see an earlier incarnation of it on his Facebook page. He makes this sort of stuff for both his living, and his art. The fit and finish of the work is impressive, and displays all kinds of serious know-how. It's so, uncompromisingly great, on so many levels: concept, engineering, workmanship, steampunk, badass-attitude, sense-of-humour, and don't the ladies just love it! Click the images to enlarge them.

An interview with Mad Dog from vice.com ►

Another side-car-style bicycle trailer ►

I hope this fix can hold the damaged trailer hitch arm for a while -- the real solution involves a new hitch arm, and some welding, or a different trailer. The short, T-joint tube seems indispensable to this design, so I've made two small, perpendicular hacksaw cuts in the tube, top and bottom, just wide enough to thread a hose clamp though; the hose clamp then, well, clamps the T-tube to the hitch arm. The pictures are better than words. Click the images to enlarge them.

The hitch arm fails completely! ►

I was warned about the new-old trailer -- Toad told me that the hitch arm would probably break before anything else. So it was, but perhaps not how either he or I expected. The break occurred where a short piece of tube, is welded perpendicular to the hitch arm. This forms a T-bar, which fits into a frame tube, so as to keep the hitch arm from being able to pitch or yaw. It was the weld that broke. A "field" repair using six hose clamps should, I hope, hold well enough until I can make a long-term fix. This tells me that all the welds on this rusty old trailer are potentially suspect. Click on the animated image above to see a larger still.

Update on fixing the hitch arm ►

[caption id="attachment_1271" align="alignnone" width="497"] At first glance it looks the same, because the box is the dominant feature. Oh, BTW, that's how to lock up a bike and trailer![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1272" align="alignright" width="251"] Little donuts of rust![/caption]

The soap opera of the broken bicycle trailer may be nearing an end. Here is the box from the old trailer on top of the "new" frame. I've done the bare minimum -- cut off four vertical corner struts, so the box would lie flat on the frame. The wheels should easily come off the frame with the release of a cotter pin; that's not happening -- they're probably rusted in. Hopefully lubricant and a hammer will fix that. Then I'll change the tires. I want to replace the wheels, but that will have to wait. I need the working trailer to earn money so I can work on the trailer.  Click the images to enlarge.

[caption id="attachment_677" align="alignnone" width="497"] That's a lot of stuff!. Click on the image to enlarge.[/caption]

This bike and double trailer rig belongs to a particularly tough, and self-reliant fellow who says he's been a homeless binner for 11 years now. He has a storage locker like I do, and, like mine, he says it's a bit of a mess right now. When I say this guy is self-reliant, I mean it. If it breaks -- and by it, I mean anything short of a bone -- a wheel-rim, a hub, axle -- anything mechanical, he will "MacGyver" it or "Mickey-Mouse" it. I've seen him making do without a tube and tire on one trailer wheel -- thick rope bound around the rim till he could do better -- not one word of complaint; just getting it done the best way he could.