Towing a kayak wouldl be a way for me to take the bike fishing, but I would have to tow quite a few road miles, and this idea wouldn't work for that. Like N5tbu, I'm concerned that having the hitch point so high, and coupliing that with a 3 dimensional pivot point, is not going to work very well under breaking. Framing down toward the swingarm of the bike is a real easy fix, though.
Also, is the bow eye is just plastic? I've seen the roads you ride on, and it doesn't seem like that will last long. I suppose with a PVC axle (
), you aren't planning to go very far?
The limiting factor on speed is the wheels/tires and a little extra strength and reinforcement to the front in the form of a more traditional type trailer concept. Taking this to 55mph wouldn't take much extra reinforcement or design change beyond a rigid physical connection to the front and a decent hitch. (I actually sat on the boat directly above the carrier for about two minutes to check it's load bearing capability and I weight about 155lbs)
The high up 3D pivot point hitch is trivia. It was something I considered however the first time I hit the brakes and made turns, that concern dropped off the bottom of the caution list. The reality is much less concern than the theory. I know it's back there and I can feel it's weight and forces however it's nothing to be concerned about. It is possible to get yourself in trouble with this hitch setup however you'll have to work at it to get into a mess. The boat weighs 45lbs empty and I have yet to ever carry 50lbs of gear for camping so total weight is 100 lbs maximum if that. The typical passenger weighs much more than that and is loaded much higher. The behavior under maximum braking (both brakes) on hard pack dirt from 35mph to a full stop is a total non event even with everything bouncing around. I'll give it a good run on pavement in a few months including hard braking however I'm not concerned with it's stability or how it pushes against the motorcycle.
The pvc axle has a 9/16" steel bar inside and is loaded near the axles so it's very safe. I don't like the forward attach point for strength though. It will be replaced with a metal through deck connection with a backplate as soon as I can get the hardware and time to do so. In the meantime the bungee and being careful will keep the stresses down.
I'm not intending this to be used for highways or 40mph on the dirt roads that I normally ride on. This is intended to be used near lakes or the ocean where I have to go 1-5 miles from camp to get to the water where the speed limit or reasonable speeds is typically 10-30mph. Any off road type stuff would be done at slow speed.
This is design #1 to do the majority of what I need. The eventual plan is to have something I can pull at 55mph for 100 miles for side trips. This design will show me what changes to make for the next design.
Who knew that BB started this thread by just reading the title?
Are you implying that I'm the kind of crackpot that would come up with an off the wall functional and practical solution to a problem like this?
<--- Caractacus Potts
