Not using a car presents simple challenges, that is fun to overcome and makes life more interesting. For me one of them has been how to transport bicycles in various working conditions, while on my bike (from the dump or tag-sale to home, from home to the bike-shop and back, even to do a favor to friends without a car-attachable bike-rack).
I have learned how to ghost-ride a bicycle, that is, to lead one with one hand by the handle bar, while handling my own bike with the other hand. Years ago, after some awkward attempts I finally was able to lead another bike if both wheels were able to turn freely. I use it frequently ever since, and luckily very rarely do I manage to mangle up the two bikes any more. For short distances it works best; I don’t even have to put my feet down when stopping at a red light, as I can balance as I am holding on to the ghost bicycle. But this approach has shortcomings: longer distances can get tiring quickly and uphills, downhills and braking are especially taxing on the holding arm, having to push the extra bike uphill, and having to hold it back on downhill stretches or while slowing down (and don’t ever use the brakes on the ghost bike no matter what, as that is a pretty good recipe for falling!)
Just a few weeks ago a situation came up where I had to transport a bike home from work. The distance is 3 miles, and quite hilly, and once I did do it years ago, when I had to take a small bike home – I still remember it was no fun, as I am tall and like to use upright bikes, but the handle bar of the gost bike was way down, so I had to reach deep down with my ghost-guiding hand, and hold my own bike’s handlebar (and the weight of my upper body) with an almost fully bent elbow.
Well, I read, that you can get a towing tray for the Yuba Mundo. However I didn’t want to wait for the part, because the prize for transporting the bike home was shower-accessibility for everyone at work, as the bike that I needed to remove was stored in the shower room, belonging to a person not working there any more, but living very close to me. So I tested if I can safely mount a bike onto the Yuba without a towing tray like the picture suggests on Yuba’s website with the tray. Surprise, surprise, for a bike with full-size wheels I don’t even need a towing tray, as the base attachment for the Mundo is already the right size. So, armed with a single bungie cord and the Mundo, I went to work.
It worked like a dream. After filling the tires of the extra bike with air and mounting the front to the back of my Mundo, I hardly felt the extra weight of the attachment: sometimes I needed to look back to see if the other bike is still in tow or not, it was so easy — quiet and effortless.
Unfortunately at that time I didn’t have easy access to someone making a picture of me while I rode home transporting that bike, but on the right is a picture after I arrived home unscathed and at ease.
While I was at it, I played around a bit to see how other bicycles handle when they are being towed. I selected a more complicated-to-hook-up bicycle, my regular commuter with a large front basket. The basket’s support studs made it harder to mount the bike, but by raising the front of the towed bike a bit with a piece of bent pipe that worked out fine as well, as you may be able to see from the picture. Okay, it did take two bungee cords, instead of one, to attach the second bike securely.
With this setup I really wanted to test the limits, so I rode up and down, on less smooth surfaces, I turned, I pushed the unit forward and back and turned around in small spaces while pushing, but the integrity of the connection held out. The only thing I noticed was, when I pushed the attached bikes backward to help turning around in a limited space, the back bike pulled out to the left, and I almost lost the balance of the front bike because of the resulting shift of the load. But the bungee cords didn’t get lose, so the setup survived, and after I pulled the front bike back, I could continue turning and riding again.
