Single-wheel trailer

Hey Wobbly, good for you. I take my hat off to anyone prepared to do the unconventional. Firstly let me say that I have never ridden with a trailer, but I was involved in the original legislation in the 1980s that made it possible and I have spoken to many who have and they are universally happy with their purchases. I was interested to see that at the Bike Show the 'wide white' (as I call it) is still for sale, from Squire, as it has been continuously since the start. To me it still looks just as ugly, but it clearly has a good following, proving that the product is well tried, tested and it works.

Leaning trailers clearly look a million times better and I have seen colour matched ones on sports bikes, one even stacked out in wine rack format for the Beaujolais Run! When talking to the owners, they claim that it makes very little difference to the handling and even the performance. The balance is of course critical, but with a single wheel trailer, even acceleration does not seem to be noticeably affected because it is totally in the slipstream of the bike. Apparently the only real worry is hard deceleration into corners, when it tries to push you straight on more that you expect, when your aspect changes as you are hard on the brakes. Obviously this would only apply when really wringing it anyway.

In respect of balance, I gather that the trim makes a huge difference, so loading is a skilled art to ensure that just the right amount of weight is bearing on the tow bar. Clearly also the position of the tow bar is critical and this is in my view the main disadvantage, i.e. the tow bar and how you mount it. I have not yet seen a mounting system that does not involve vast amounts of angle iron coming down at a strange angle backwards. On a Gold Wing it doesn't matter because you just add it to all the other angle iron (Sorry to any wingers, but it has to be said), but on a normal bike it does spoil the appearance and look strange.

So if you can find the right technical solution that does not make the bike look awful, then go for it.

Sorry that this is such a long post, but just to end with a nice trailer story. One of the original motorcyclists who worked on the legislation had a prototype of the wide white out on test about a week after it became legal. He was doing 90 mph on the M6 and was stopped by the police. The officer started on at him about how using a trailer was illegal and thought he was being cheeky when he started quoting the construction and use regs, so issued a notice of prosecution for using a trailer. He never did get done for speeding and of course the notice that was issued was invalid!

Wobbly - sorry can't bring myself to call you Mr Wobbly as that just throws up all sorts of mental images that I really don't want!

I think that my experiences will be fairly irrelevant to what you are considering, so I added them only as a point of reference. The PAV is actually quite useful and on the upside when it is loaded the bike struggles to reach 60km/h a fair amount of the time.

At the Prague show last year there was firm displaying some very smart looking trailers hooked up to the likes of GSX-R's etc with flowing body work etc that kind of followed the lines of the bike. They were pretty long items if my memory serves me well and I did wonder if you would need to pay extra for it on the ferry.

If you take a look at this link then you can see some pictures of the PAV in various guises

http://www.singlewheel.com/Scoots/PAVFR.htm