Two weeks before - Welcome to "BOB"
Bicycle racks versus a “BOB” trailer -- I guess the decision had to be made!!
Bicycle Racks:
If I did racks, I have to either buy another bicycle or rebuild my old Klein due to its rather dilapidated (and abused) parts. I have a rear rack for the old Klein (creative frame mod to make work many years ago) and could yank the front suspension fork and substitute a normal fork that could be modified for a rack too. But let’s be realistic – it’s all too much work!! Also if I wanted to cruise off-road with the bike (I am bringing knobby tires with me as spares -- remember the "detours" aspect I alluded to earlier), I would have all these big racks and big pannier bags in the way. The other big negative is the space limitations imposed by all the bags. Plus I will admit it now – I LIKE my front suspension fork!
“BOB” YAK Trailer:
With the BOB (Beast Of Burden), I can either do the titanium road bike or my newer Klein mountain bike as the mount for this ride. I get to keep my front suspension if I ride the Klein. I can easily carry knobby tires to change to for detours. Plus I can ditch “BOB” at anytime and cruise and have fun in the evenings running to town, etc.
I still remember my brother heading out on his attempt years ago – he had 70 pounds of gear stuffed in all the racks and panniers on his Bridgestone mountain bike. It was so heavy that nobody could pick the thing up! It was dubbed the "tank" -- or at least that is what I thought personally. Unfortunately with all the weight on the frame itself, it was very unwieldy and not much fun to ride. (I tried it in the driveway at home!) Even with a super small 20-tooth front chainring and 32-tooth rear cog – it took effort to ride up the hills.
The Winner?:
The easiest solution of course -- its “BOB”.
Mark
