Surly will introduce a cargo trailer at Interbike 2010 in a couple of weeks.
Sneak peek photos of this cargo trailers have been floating around from Eurobike, and Surly let the cat out of the bag to let us know that this is, indeed, a real product to be available Spring 2011.
“It will fit in your apartment better than the Dummy and be removable for times you don’t need it,” says Surly. The trailer will come in two sizes — 32″ (shown above) and 64″ — and can carry up to 300 lbs / 135 kg. The entire trailer can be adjusted up/down to keep the load level while accommodating different bike tire sizes (from 26″ to 29″), and fore/aft to keep the load centered over the 16″ heavy duty tires.
The trailer attaches by sliding over BOB-compatible quick release skewers or BOB Nutz for solid axle wheels). The pivot near the axle reduces the chances of a trailer jackknife.
Surly says the trailer won’t fit on the Pugsley. It also won’t really fit on the Big Dummy, though they say it might be made to work by hooking the trailer mount over the Big Dummy’s rear horizontal rack tube with reduced weight capacity.
Now that looks like much more of a grocery getting item than those dopey old panniers!
A reason I don’t have a warehouse club membership is it’s difficult to haul a six month supply of TP by bike. Maybe a trailer like this can change that 🙂
Interesting that they chose not to support both sides of the axle with this frame design (as is done on Burley kid haulers and many other trailers). Definitely could support more weight that way. Not that 300lbs is anything to sneeze at 🙂
Based on some other comments I’ve ready on their site about reduced weight capacity when attached to a Surly big dummy, I think the weight restriction actually stems from where the trailer mounts onto the bike and not the structural integrity of the trailer frame itself.
As far as Big Dummy attachment goes, that’s why I had these made:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cold_iron/3424801582/