Trailer Hitch for hub gears, like Agattu

[kodokan]

Hi all

I'm just in the process of kitting out my lovely, lovely new electric bike ready for shopping, etc. My bike is a Raleigh Dover (Kalkhoff Agattu clone, but easier to buy in Switzerland where I live) and it has the 8-speed Nexus gear hub.

The trailer I have has the sort of hitch where you screw a plate onto the rear axle, between the nut and the anti-spinning thingummy - this is doable, but once I have some weight in the trailer (I experimented with my 30kg 9 yr old , the hitch plate is being pulled down at the back; I've reluctant to overtighten the nut holding it on as that's probably not terribly good for the gears.

Has anyone solved this problem? Is there a different hitch I could buy/ make, that comes off the frame or some such? REALLY don't want to have to buy a new trailer, as this one's perfect - really solid and virtually new. And I've just spent all the spare money on my lovely bike!

Thanks a lot.

kodokan

 

[mutmost]

Kodokan,
this is a link to a CTC article with various hitches in:

CTC Forum • View topic - Burley "New Standard" trailer hitch

and this takes you to a site of weber hitches

Weber Products Online. Fahrradanhänger | Kupplungen | Zubehör

The stand one looks useful.

Burley use to have a hitch which fitted in the rear triangle and clamped home, but sadly they are no longer in business.

HTH

Daryl.

 

[Footie]

What sort of weight are you intending to haul?
30kg is a lot of shopping
I have a Mule trailer that I believe uses the same sort of hitch.
I had to slightly modify mine as it was the power cable side of the bike, so I couldn't fix it to the wheel nut. I used a piece of steel channel (off cut from an old camping trailer), which I bolted to the frame (two small bolts). I then attached the hitch end to this with a large and very tight bolt.
I have carried five bags of shopping home from Tesco's (4 miles) and the hitch has not moved.

Mule Trailer on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

-----------------------------------------------
Cougar Mountain Electric Bike 36v 200w rear wheel Hub motor (Jul07)
fitted with 10 Ah LiFePo4 battery (Apr08)
Maximum range (road/hills - Cornwall) 18 miles
Maximum range (on flat) 25 miles
.

 

[kodokan]

Thanks very much for the suggestions so far; I'll point my more technical half at this thread.

My hitch is exactly the same as the one shown on this dog trailer; not sure if it has an official name or type:

BICYCLE DOG TRAILER DoggyRide Novel pet bike trailer

Don't know how much shopping I'll be hauling - this is my only means of bringing shopping home, so unless I online order it'll be milk, juice, tins, etc for a family of 4. I'll try to balance out each week's shop with loo rolls, etc!

kodokan

 

[mutmost]

It seems the Burley hitch which goes in the rear triangle space, so fixes to both the chain and seat stay is still avaliable example here:

Amazon.com: Burley Bicycle Trailer Hitch (Classic): Sports & Outdoors

It is called the Burley Classic Hitch, the picture does not do it justice as it is easyier to use than it looks!

Basically it is a plastic plate which goes in the rear triangle and has legs which go either side of the frame tubes and then a wing nut which is tightened to calmp it in place. (Based on that description maybe the picture is okay!)

 

[kodokan]

Thanks Mutmost, I'll see if I can find some better images of a Burley hitch actually on a bike - I'm not very visual.

I also found this one late last night, which might do the job:

Hitch Adapter

I can get one of these for £30 plus a few pounds postage, so I'll do a comparison of price/effectiveness and see what's going to work best. I must do something - my first big electric bike shop this morning included a few litres of milk and juice, some large tins of fruit, potatoes, carrots and a watermelon which I couldn't resist but was VERY heavy! On the plus side, whilst I was out shopping, the council apparently sent some men round to remove the large hill leading up to my village - so kind of them...

Thanks for your help - when I find something that works, I'll take some pics and post them up for future hub gear users!

kodokan

PS: This forum is SO great!

 

[mutmost]

found a picture in situ:

http://www.burley.com/support/documents/FlexConnectorreplacement.pdf

page 2. A plug bit goes in the triangle space and then the clamp is from the outside.

 

[kodokan]

That's a great pic, thanks a lot. I think this would work on my bike - will print the pic and hold it up against my frame! - so now I just need to find someone who sells these.

Any ideas, anyone? Has to be mail order as I'm in Switzerland, and amazon.com won't ship it here, bah. I've tried some Googling; so far only found one or two being sold but without pictures, and after reading that thread on CTC's forum I'm worried I'll order the wrong parts/ not enough parts/ too many parts/ etc.

kodokan

 

[mutmost]

It appears Burley are still operating.

One independant (USA)

http://www.burley.com/support/documents/FlexConnectorreplacement.pdf

Burley home page (hitch is towards the bottom)

Burley : Kits & Accessories

And a German site which might help.

Burley: Home [de]

(Slow work day)

 

[kodokan]

Bah - that Burley Classic Hitch looks perfect, but can I find ANYONE in Europe to buy it from..? I tried finding a dealer using the German site you helpfully sent, but entering the name of every German town I could think of produced nothing. As did searching for dealers in Switzerland or France (I'm in French-speaking Switzerland, so the language is easier that way). And the US dealers won't ship overseas unless you're buying an actual trailer.

Sigh... looks like we're back to rigging something off the frame using the two bolts where the stand screws on.

kodokan

 

[mutmost]

long shots

After this i am out of ideas!

It way be worth a look at the velovison web site as it has quite a large continental advertiser base of the different types of cycling.


Velo Vision Magazine - inspiring news of specialised cycles, bikes as transport and human power

One of the few companies without a website is D Tek who typically also have trailers and stuff (I haven't contacted him for a while but have visited his site and he is a good guy)

D. Tek HPVs: Tel 01353 648 177

One other link is for

Bikes and Trailers - bicycle trailers, bike trailers, folding bikes, electric bicycles and more!

not used but you never know.

No connection with any of the above (apart from a reader of velovision)

HTH

Daryl.

 

[kodokan]

Solved the Agattu trailer hitch problem!

Hi guys

Just wanted to follow up on this thread to show how hubby eventually solved the trailer hitch issue for me, in case anyone else needs to solve the same problem in the future.

Basically, we've now mounted the hitch directly onto the frame, using a little triangle-y shaped hole just above and to the left of the wheelnut. He had to pack this hole out with washers (he has a bottomless pit garage that contains things like weird-shaped washers, but assures me filing round ones would work just as well) and it now clamps on very securely.

I've had the trailer packed out with heavy shopping, and the hitch doesn't move a milimetre - I'm really happy all this weight is no longer anywhere near the gear mechanism.

Pics here:

Flickr: Foolishkodokan's Photostream

The first two are the hitch; the others show how we've also modified the bike to carry our 5 yr old daughter safely on the parcel rack - think 'pedel-less tandem' and you've basically got the idea! One is of my e-bike, the others show the same child system but on my 'oh so yesterday' standard bike.

Thanks for everyone's help with this.

kodokan