re: brakes on the trailer

I agree that putting brakes on the trailer is not neccessary (and unnessarily complicated). I've pulled a BOB trailer loaded with its maximum capacity of 70 lbs behind my mountain bike. The trailer will travel at the same speed as the bike. Slow the bike, and the trailer will slow down, too. If you brake too hard, you might fishtail or jacknife, but the solution to that is less brake, not more. If you've got good brakes on your bicycle, you should be fine.

> For longer braking impulses, like
> LIMITING of speed on a long descent, you want a DRUM brake, such as those
> made by Huigi for touring tandems. These are designed to take the
> tremendous stress and heat generated by keeping a bike at a safe speed -
> normal caliper breaks would melt and fail really quickly.

Um, not quite. The problem isn't that the brake pads will "melt"; it's that the heat generated by the braking force against the wheel rim could cause a tire blowout. A drum brake (which operates from the hub, not the rim) prevents this. (as does proper technique, which means not riding the brakes going downhill.) Having gone down a few mountain passes on a bicycle (both with and without a cargo trailer) I'd worry more about the trailer fishtailing rather than whether my brakes will fail. I've hit 54 mph on a descent on my road touring bike. There's no way that I'd get even close to that speed pulling a trailer, because a trailer will start fishtailing well before that.

Julie Kanarr Wilsall, MT