About to start building, please help before it's too late ;)

[sjacobso76]

The idea of putting the bike inside is because some of us own really expensive mountain bikes that we don't want to leave out where people can get at them, and they are injured by travel. We take a trip every year to the Southwest and I do a lot of hiking and mountain biking. While I am hiking my bike ends up staying either on the back of my jeep or in my tent; having it inside a teardrop would be highly superior.

[Shadow Catcher]

I assure you I do understand expensive, remember tandems start at a thousand and go up very rapidly and ours has only the original frame remaing, everything else has been replaced including Rino 48 spoke four cross wheels made for extreme down hill.
I also realize that locking them up is an art and that ultimately with enough determination they can be stolen no matter what you do.
Kryptonite offers a 2000$US theft guarantee if you use their lock. the Evolution lock is even guaranteed in NY city (notorious for innovation in defeating locks).
Since you are designing the trailer you can add a door big enough to get the bike in and it can be vertical. I used to carry my single MTB in my old go to work car (Subaru 2WD sedan).I took out one of the seats and the rear wheel was next to me (seatbelted in) with the fork resting on the back seat. You can pad/protect purity near everything on a bike frame with pipe insulation.
If it were me and and I wanted the bike in out of sight I would put it inside against one wall vertically with supports from the roof and walls immobilizing it. remove the front wheel rest the front fork on a pad (I don't like fork mounts either) turn the fork handle bars 90 degrees and if you really want to reduce the width remove one or both pedals, and it would keep you from bumping into it in the night:)

[kennyrayandersen]

I guess it depends on where you are at. Leaving it unattended could be a problem. Still when the front wheel is removed (and back wheel if necessary), a standard MTB gets pretty small. A tandem (I can’t imagine riding a tandem where I ride – that would be a trick!) is another story. It’s kind of hard to make one of those small. I’ve seen some of them with couplers that allow breaking them down, but I’m not sure what they do with the cables (quick disconnect?). As stated, if someone wants your stuff, a trailer door isn’t much of a deterrent.

You could do what we do in Korea – it’s called hike-biking or hike-a-bike. It can be up to about 50% hiking with your bike either pushing or slung on your shoulder, or riding – you could satisfy both urges at the same time They got steep mountains here!

You might just be as well off if you stowed the easily removed items like lights, seat, wheels on the inside of the trailer and then used a really good lock to secure the frame the trailer. The bigger the hassle of stealing it (the more time it takes) the less likely someone is going to do it as it increases their exposure time. Having split up like that would make it be a bigger hassle, and they may also think you’ve already been burgled!

[mikeschn]

Do I understand this correctly? You want to put your bikes inside the same teardrop at night that you want to sleep in?

Mike...

[kennyrayandersen]

Do I understand this correctly? You want to put your bikes inside the same teardrop at night that you want to sleep in?

Mike...

Mike, Mike Mike – some people are married to their bikes!

Though I got to wonder about stowing an MTB as they can get pretty dirty…

[mikeschn]

Sounds like a double decker teardrop to me.

A standard lower level, and a shelf for 1 bike above...

So the real question becomes, what goes in the overhead shelf, the Bianchi, or the Specialized???

Mike...

[sjacobso76]

The Bianchi and the Specialized stay at home. The true choice is the Titus or the Moots!

[oldtamiyaphile]

When I said remove the handlebar, I meant just undoing the stem bolts, covering it in a towel then strapping it to the top tube or mounting it to some hooks inside the trailer. Simply turning it 90 degrees probably achieves much the same thing.

Imagine what a bike mounted externally would look like after 8000 miles of this (and worse)?:



I can imagine needing a $2000 overhaul if I tried that. Riding a bike doesn't get it anywhere near as dirty by comparison. Now of course, you could use a motorcycle cover, but that's not much fun when it's covered in mud. It's also difficult to lock a bike that's well covered, and vice versa.

I did consider the mounting a rail across the A frame for the wheels to sit on, then a hefty post to mount it too. Press studs and a heavy duty cover could seal it all in, and it wouldn't be immediately obvious what's underneath.

I've got a couple of nice locks, one can lock the frame and both wheels, but they're not much use if the post you lock them to is easily cut with a hacksaw in a couple of minutes. Unfortunately, that's one of the downsides of alloy construction, it's fairly easy to cut. I could run some steel cable through the section as an anti cutting measure.

For internal storage, I'm thinking of adding channels over my chassis cross beams for the bike wheels to run in. In section the floor would look like this:

-u--u--u--u-

Since that places my wheels below the floor, I might not need any extra high over the standard 4'.

Overhead storage is a pretty good option, but only practical if you want to build a roof top clam shell arrangement that can be accessed from outside. Since the trailer will end up quite tall it might make loading a bit awkward (esp. at off road height). I did think about a double deck solution where the bike lays down on the floor, and the bed hinges up to allow access. If we fold the bar and remove the pedals, we don't need a lot of space.

Downside is that hydraulic brakes might have to be bled if transported horizontally for longer distances.

I currently use a van for bike transport and using the side door for loading is very awkward compared to rear loading. Since this is going to be a toy hauler most of the time the rear load option makes the most sense.

I think that covers all the options, but if you have more, let's hear them

[oldtamiyaphile]

Do I understand this correctly? You want to put your bikes inside the same teardrop at night that you want to sleep in?

Mike...

Mike, Mike Mike – some people are married to their bikes!

Though I got to wonder about stowing an MTB as they can get pretty dirty…

It's called a grease and mud fetish

All it takes is a bit of canvas to separate the two compartments. You won't even know it's there.

My favorite is the front hatch idea, but I think I'll save that for my second build, otherwise the first might never be finished.