Remember those chicane fences on the Stevens Creek trail I wrote about a few months ago? I got a comment from Andrew who didn’t agree with my assessment that the fences were wide enough apart: “Try getting through these easily on a cargo bike,” he said. He has a point. I don’t have a cargo bike so I can’t say it works.
But I DO have a bike trailer, so I decided to test the trailhead fences on the way home from a Costco trip.
It was my first cargo grocery trip and I didn’t hold back at Costco, buying big and heavy items like toilet paper, dishwashing soap and bulk food items. Everything I would never dream of buying with just panniers.
I learned a lot more than whether the trailer could navigate the chicanes. I learned that an empty trailer is an unstable beast, that typical bike parking doesn’t work for trailers, that the angle of a curb cut can make or break you, and how hard it is to accelerate when you’re dragging 70 pounds of cargo. It was eight miles of hard work.
Did the trailer work on the chicane fences? Yes, much better than much of the ride.
To all you parents out there who haul kids and gear like this every day: you are truly amazing! Those eight short miles and four overpasses were more tiring than 40 miles of rolling terrain on my road bike.
Have you ever ridden a cargo bike or a bike with a trailer? What did you notice that was different?
