One of our Cargo models ended up in Canada. It’s in service every day and they’ve already loaded 50 kg on its back. How did it hold up?

One of our latest customers is a Canadian who lives in a remote part of Vancouver. He had already tried out several bike trailers and had a clear idea of what he wanted his new trailer to look and work like. He rides it daily, carrying mostly groceries, but also all sorts of equipment.

After a quarter of a year he sent us a brief review and we are really happy that he is satisfied with our trailer. He doesn’t spoil it in any way, and once he loaded it with 50 kg of cargo.

Here are his experiences and insights:

As far as the trailer’s road manners are concerned, I’m thrilled.  I was hoping the high stance of the trailer would be overcome by the hitch layout having the pivot point for left-right (horizontal) movement be directly around the seatpost.

In my previous trailer, a u-joint clamping to the seatpost for articulation meant that the horizontal pivot point was about 10cm behind the seatpost. This creates a little more instability than having the pivot at the seatpost, enough that this new trailer is more stable than my previous seatpost-attached single wheel model, even when loaded far above the older trailer’s capacity.  I have been very pleased with how little it fights me, even when heavily loaded.

Up until recently I did not go over about 20kg with it, with typical loads being in the 10kg range. 20kg was almost a nightmare with my previous, axle-attached single wheeler. 20kg on my custom seatpost attached one was OK but with some instability, 30kg being about the maximum the trailer could structurally handle, and 40kg being the limit of bike handling and breaking the trailer.

With 20kg the Kolofogo was not affecting the bike’s handling. We are in a deep freeze now, with low temperature records being set, down to 11c at night. The water supply to my house froze and/or the well pump failed, so I have to bring water from some where else for drinking and washing the dishes. For toilets I use water from a creek flowing at the back of our 2-acre property.  Anyway, I was carrying about 50kg of water in the trailer two days ago, amazed at how I was still able to drop in to the aero (TT) bars on my bike without much drama.

People are not aware of the capabilities of a bike with a trailer

I did not mean to put 50kg in there but my son, who was with me, could not fit as many containers in his bike panniers as we expected, so I carried more than I planned. But the trailer was great to ride home with, with the only sign of overload being the flexing of the tow bar.

The ride home was only 5km and I realize that it is not advisable to allow aluminum to flex like that, so I will be more careful to stay under the load limit (40kg) in the future. However, it is nice to know that the trailer will never fight against me within its structural capability.

The last two mornings I have brought home sale-priced case loads of canned goods to the tune of about 30kg each time.  As expected, the trailer handled fine. Aside from the one water haul, that was the most weight I have carried since getting the trailer, so I expect that to be highly unusual, and even rarer to go near the limit of 40kg. So it seems to suit my usage profile perfectly.

I might consider putting together a video of how to use a bike for getting groceries and other stuff.  It seems most people, at least in North America, are not aware of the capabilities of a bike with a trailer to break their dependency on motor vehicles. I would also highly recommend this trailer to anyone who wants to expand the utility of their bike. For me, I’m looking forward to the pleasure of summer bikepacking on the Gulf Islands here with this trailer.