this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2025
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utility cycling

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I had to temporarily move out. It took a few trips to move all my belongings.

No electric, so rather slow speed, but thankfully very little traffic here.

In front of a stone house with a blue door. The trailers hold bin bags and green crates with another bicycle laid on top

The bike train on a road, carrying rather tall stacks of green crates, as well as other miscellaneous items

2 trailers connected to the bike. The front trailer has a stack of bicycles on it, and the rear trailer has green crates on top of which sits a cat. Another cat walks towards the camera

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[โ€“] Poop@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I love the cat just chilling up there loving life!

How did you connect this train to your bike?

[โ€“] 56_@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The first one is more of a garden cart rather than a bike trailer. It's connected onto the side of the rear rack with some bits of driftwood screwed together :) The rest are just trailer connectors attached somewhere on the previous trailer.

[โ€“] Poop@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 month ago

That's perfect! I thought it was attached to the rack there, but I couldn't tell what the bracket part was. I love that it's driftwood, that is great.

Thanks for sharing, your bicycle cat train is bad ass!

[โ€“] heyWhatsay@slrpnk.net 7 points 1 month ago

Bet those calves are getting ripped, remember to stretch!

[โ€“] Five@slrpnk.net 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

No hills, also important :)

[โ€“] 56_@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 month ago

Yes, that's true... There's only one small hill I had to go up. With low enough gears though, much steeper hills should be possible.

[โ€“] Kolanaki@pawb.social 6 points 1 month ago

"Now I can be a train and I don't even need rails!"

[โ€“] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Perfectly suitable for that environment! Glad you can enjoy this lifestyle. My first thought was that many trailers on a bicycle, how would you go around street corners you'd have to make ridiculously wide turns which would interfere with traffic, but clearly out there in nature on gravel roads with no other humans or cars or infrastructure in sight, you don't have to deal with any street corners or traffic.

[โ€“] 56_@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 month ago

It's actually not bad at corners. You'd probably be fine cycling maybe a metre further out than usual.

You could probably move a similar amount on just one large trailer, which might be easier to manoeuvre round a city. Bikes at work has some cool examples:

This is really cool! A bike based road train

[โ€“] plactagonic@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 month ago

I towed with 2 other people bike trailer up to 2500m mountain pass few months ago. Basically the reverse of your carry shit Olympics.

So 3 trailers on flat is quite impressive achievement.

[โ€“] lgsp@social.tchncs.de 4 points 1 month ago
[โ€“] Five@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Any tips for how to collect trailers?

[โ€“] 56_@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 month ago

I find the best way to get free things is to let people know you're interested in those things. I recently took over the local bike hire, and now everyone knows I enjoy repairing bicycles. I've had multiple people approach me to get rid of their old bicycles. That's how I got 2 of the trailers. This presumably works best in places with stronger community.

Otherwise, I think keeping an eye on local buy/sell websites (eg facebook/gumtree/freecycle). I think you're likely to find an old child trailer, which you can remove the cover and sides from to get a trailer base. Maybe try putting "wanted" posts on these websites as well, as people might not realise a torn or rusty child trailer is worth anything.

Theoretically they should be rather easy to make from scratch, though I've not done this yet. They are really just a frame with small bike wheels and a hitch.

[โ€“] xavier_berthiaume@jlai.lu 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Dude this is so freaking cool. I love the setup! How difficult is it to make turns with the 3 trailers attached?

[โ€“] 56_@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 month ago

Thanks! Bike trailers are great at corners. You can easily do a u-turn with one. The way the second trailer is connected to the front hand cart though, limits it to about 45ยฐ. While cycling though, there are no issues, just cycle maybe a metre from the edge of the road.