{"id":1600,"date":"2013-02-15T20:52:05","date_gmt":"2013-02-16T01:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/?p=1600"},"modified":"2013-02-15T21:06:10","modified_gmt":"2013-02-16T02:06:10","slug":"sidekick-trailer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/sidekick-trailer\/","title":{"rendered":"Sidekick Trailer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/sidecar-detail-xtracycle.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/sidecar-detail-xtracycle-300x151.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"sidecar-detail-xtracycle\" width=\"300\" height=\"151\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1606\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/sidecar-detail-xtracycle-300x151.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/sidecar-detail-xtracycle.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>A few weeks ago I have seen a picture of the sidecar for a longtail bicycle, which is called Xtracycle. Xtracycle is a cargo bicycle, the earliest of the longtail type, and is famous for the very flexible platform and large amount of accessories. This sidecar is one of them. As you can see from the picture, it has only one wheel, is positioned next to the bicycle, and can be folded up.<\/p>\n<p>I thought it was a marvelous idea. So I started to think in what form could it be replicated so it attaches to a regular bike &#8211; just for smaller loads. The main complication is, that a regular bike doesn&#8217;t have a lot of space on the back to have a sidecar be hooked up. And even most of the little space it does have on the frame to get something mounted on, is overlapped by the foot of the pedaler, so if anything sticks out to the side, it would get caught. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/P1010010.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/P1010010-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Loaded Sidekick\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1601\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/P1010010-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/P1010010-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/P1010010.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><It took me days to figure out how to overcome that challenge, before I started to work on a prototype. I ended up using a door hinge that allows me to attach the trainer to the rear axle of the bike, and the frame of the trailer does have a pipe going a bit ahead along the bike frame, when attached, so the front of it can be attached as well, stabilizing the sidecar this way. I left an area for the pedaling foot free, so my sidekick platform has an odd shape, as if it was missing a corner. Because it indeed is.\n\nI didn't have time to try it out after I finished it, but the very next weekend I needed to get a case of chicken bedding from the farmer's supply store. In spite of a big snowstorm that we just got the previous day, I hooked up the Sidekick to my winter commuter, folded it up, and headed to Amherst Farmers Supply. The whole town was shut down due to the twoo feet of snow we got during the night, and Govenor Patrick's curfew was still in effect (for motor vehicles). The store was open, but people took the stay-home order seriously, because at noon I was the first customer that day, although the store did open at 7:30.\n\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/P1010016.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/P1010016-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Folded trailer\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1602\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/P1010016-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/P1010016-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/P1010016.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Well, I did dare to buy the 40 pound load, and mounted it onto the sidekick all right. The roads were mostly cleared by that time, so I got home mostly unscathed. The only thing that happened was that the arm, which was mounted to the chain-stay part of the bicycle frame did get loose, so I had to stop on the way home to put a rope around both and fasten them to each other. And in case you were wondering, here is a picture of the trailer when I folded it up after the trip. Still a little bit askew, due to the loose arm. And, of course, not as quick to get folded up as the Xtracycle sidecar; it takes a bungee cord to hold it in place.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/P1010019.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/P1010019-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Lined-up Chickens\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1603\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/P1010019-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/P1010019-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/P1010019.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a>And to better show the amount of snow we got, here is a picture of the chickens trying to find something edible in the narrow path I dug in the snow to be able to get to their coop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few weeks ago I have seen a picture of the sidecar for a longtail bicycle, which is called Xtracycle. Xtracycle is a cargo bicycle, the earliest of the longtail type, and is famous for the very flexible platform and &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/sidekick-trailer\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cargobicycling"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1600"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1613,"href":"https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1600\/revisions\/1613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transitionamherst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}