This trailer looks pretty cool. It’s the Bikelug collapsible trailer. It’s fully collapsible and will carry a motorcycle weighing up to 1000 pounds. Trailer your bike to the shop then toss the trailer in your trunk. Or maybe you just bought a bike somewhere far away and don’t want to drag an empty trailer all the way there. This would work. Just pull it out when you get there and take your prize home.
Cliff Hilgendorf says
Being an engineer I was impressed with the Bikelug trailer I saw at a show in the UK last year, I haven’t had the chance to use one but the engineering and quality were excellent. I’d cetainly consider one if I didn’t have a trailer already.
Bart Van Winkel says
Wow, just looked at the http://www.bikelug.com bike trailer, that is one cool product. I just have to have one and git rid of that crappy old trailer I have. And the wife will be please, that hunk of trash old trailer has is been parked in the yard for ages.
Dave says
I bought a Bike Lug trailer in Sept of 07, I did not get a chance to use it until spring 08.
My first trip was to Lake of the Ozarks, from St Louis Mo. About 200 miles.
Upon arrival to my destination, I was unloading my 2001 Honda Shadow Sabre 1100 & noticed that one of the spring loaded pull pins that allow the trailer tong to pivot [for loading & unloading] was snapped off. This is because the main pins that take the punishment of the road are a very sloppy fit & allow the little pull pins to take the brunt of the load. And when you hit bumps or go over overpasses they took the load instead of the big pins & snapped right off.
I thought that was that was BAD engineering on the manufacturers part. But wait it gets better!
When I arrived at home, I was getting ready to unload my bike when I noticed antifreeze all over the trailer rail.
What happened was, when the bike is tied down securely the trailer rail came into contact with the water pump.
The rail is too narrow at the juncture where the rail folds for storage. When I hit bumps on the way home, it beat the water pump & cracked the housing. On the Honda Shadow in order to replace the water pump, one must remove the engine from the frame. This coasted me $700 to get fixed.
Now I paid $1200 for this trailer, plus I bought the big wheels & a spare, & fenders. The total was almost $1500. It’s more money than I should have spent, but for me, I live in an area where you can not park a vehicle or a trailer on the side of your house, I have a fence and can not get a trailer in my back yard, so I needed something that I could take apart & store in my shed for the winter, so the Bike Lug seemed like a great solution.
I contacted the company via email, because you can’t reach them on the phone, & told them of the flaws with this thing. The person there told me it was already several months old & there is nothing he could do about it. Very bad customer service.
Summery: What I see here is three engineering flaws:
1. The spring loaded pull pins can not support the weight & punishment of the road, they will snap right off, then you have to install bolts to secure it for loading & unloading.
2. The trailer rail that holds the bike is two pieces that pivot & fold in half for storage. So one piece fits inside the other like a swing arm. If they would have reversed the rail so the wide part is underneath the engine, it would have had enough clearance to not damage the machine.
3. The trailer rail when in towing position opens too far, there are little “stop” pieces that only allow it to open so far, they are nothing but some kind of cheap rubber, they wore out on the way home, caused the rail to open too far, thus make the bike closer to the rail @ the center, in turn destroying my water pump.
The guy @ Bike Lug said there were no design flaws, ….IT’S TOTAL BULL, THIS THING HAS ENGINEERING FLAWS THAT WERE OVER LOOKED DURING TESTING. THEY CLAIM YOU CAN TOW ANY BIKE THAT IS UNDER 900LB, MINE WEIGHS 575.
Recommendation: WARNING! DO NOT BUY THIS TRAILER, IT WILL DAMAGE YOUR BIKE.
DO NOT PURCHASE THIS FLAWED PIECE OF EQUIPMENT TO HALL YOUR BELOVED SCOOTER ON, IF YOU HAVE A HONDA SHADOW, IT WILL WRECK THE WATER PUMP & IT WILL COST YOU A FORTUNE TO GET IT REPAIRED.
DO NOT BUY THIS TRAILER UNTIL BIKE LUG HAS ADDRESSED THEIR OVERSIGHT!!!
THE COST OF THE TRAILER & THE REPAIR WAS $2200.00..AND I STILL HAVE A TRAILER THAT HAS TO BE MODIFIED BY ME SO I CAN TOW MY BIKE SAFELY!
Thanks for listening.