Viernes 07 Diciembre / Friday 7th December 2007, Hotel Pamplona Plaza, Pamplona, Navarra, SPAIN
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Quentin A J Ford, Bicycle Road Trip, Autumn & Winter 2007 - SPAIN
The ´´RoadWolf´´ Bike & Bike Trailer project, 2007
Introduction, Development & Design, Where I am right now, the journey so far.
PART 1, 07/12/2007.
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Hi folks,
Well, I am currently in Pamplona, Navarra, north east Spain (home of the World famous bull run, although not in December - it is a summer thing !) (also the first big city for pilgrims en route to Santiago de Compostela from St.Jean Pied de Port just over the border from here in France).
I have cycled all the way here from Ibiza (yep, my bike & trailer goes on water too.....I wish !). Wow, what an unbelievable trip so far !!
A quick summary of things so far :
I left my campsite (Camping La Playa, Punta Arabi, Ibiza) in early November with about 125 kg of equipment on board my custom built bike trailer. I cycled to Ibiza Town (aka Eivissa) and caught the Iscomar slow ferry (Carmen del Mar !!) to Denia. I prefer Iscomar, nice slow boat, also the cheapest ! Good seaworthy vessel.
Not too bad a boat trip, although I seemed to have gotten bitten by roaches on route while I slept on the floor (so much for Iscomar cleaning up their ferry when it was taken out of service for 4 weeks in the summer due to sub standard conditions....! )
It took me approx. 2,000 hours (plus or minus) to build the special equipment needed to make a bike expedition. Industrial strength custom built aluminium, stainless steel & wood trailer and strengthened mountain bike with custom mods everywhere.....(painted all white for road safety reasons !).
The reason it took so long is that the first series of prototypes were not up to scratch. The absolute very first trailer.....the trailer buckled after only 50 metres ! This first prototype was built in Alfafar (commercial area, large shopping malls etc.), Valencia, during the very hot summer of 2007 (some days were over 35c, one day was 42c in the shade !!)
Also the weather and Spain itself delayed the whole project. The equipment was built 100% on the street, by this I mean it was built on common land in Alfafar, some work was done on the equipment at my storage depot in Alfafar, being Trasteros Publico (gracias Julio 
!!)
However, most of the work was done on a campsite in Ibiza, being Camping La Playa (Felippe, desculpe por las molestias !!).
The many days of above 30c.....well, this made the work slow and tedious. On most days it was physically impossible to work between 11 am and 3pm, it was simply too hot or the sun was too strong, even under the shade of pine trees or tarps (or both !!)
Also, doing the work mostly on campsites, I had to be careful not to disturb other campers. The campsite ´´Coll Vert´´ was useful in Valencia (El Saler) because there was a dual carriageway next to it and the noise I made could not be heard, or at least, it was somewhat muffled.
The ´´insects´´ also delayed things. The bugs were a real nuisance. Awful mosquitoes in Valencia, biting DAY and NIGHT. Ibiza had some really weird almost invisible bugs (´´no seem ums´´ as they say in the outdoor world !).
Anyway, building this equipment would normally I suppose be done in a workshop. However, I did not have one of these ! Anyway, I prefer the outdoors and what better way to make a dream bike and trailer than in the outdoors itself !!
Encountering the correct materials was always a problem. Spain is not really the ideal country for anything to do with bicycles, as most people drive cars (France and more notably Germany and especially Holland are more bike countries). However, eventually, with enough ´´local´´ knowledge and much improved Spanish, I was able to get the correct materials from places like ´´Leroy Merlin´´ in Valencia (Spanish version of B & Q) or various ´´Bricos´´ or ´´Ferreterias´´ (smaller versions of same). The best ever place I came across was ´´Bauhaus´´ in Barcelona. This is a German place, the best stocked place I ever saw. They had the perfect alloy box tube sections not available elsewhere, I just could not transport them back to Ibiza !
Sometimes, I had to make longer trips to get materials (e.g. flying to Germany to get some special bike parts.....however, I did mix this up with visiting the famous music festival ´´Love Parade´´ in Essen !!).
Many many hundreds of hours were spent gluing (always Araldite industrial epoxy : this takes 3 days to set properly, although is workable after 12 hours, this was another reason for the huge timescale in the whole project !), sanding (manual sanding in 90f heat is TIRING !!), cutting (wood and aluminium), designing on paper (many many prototype drawings.
Also, the daily ´´siesta´´ (or lunch closing period) of anywhere from 2 to 5 hours) (can you imagine U.K. office workers taking a 5 hour lunch break ?!!!?) seriously delayed things. And even here, right here, right now, mid winter, Pamplona, NE Spain, things are still the same. Daily 3 hour lunch breaks, some days whole city or country just STOPS and CLOSES. Shops closing halfway through Saturdays. Others NOT opening on Mondays.
The other day, it was national day, tomorrow, it is some patron saint or other. No doubt, next week, it will be some other buttmunchs´´day !! Frankly (hey dude !!), Spain must have the greatest number of (what we call in the U.K.) ´´bank holidays´´ in the whole World. I reckon, if you add up regular work leave and all these others days off, the average individual perhaps has 6 or 8 weeks holiday a year !! What a life ! 2 - 5 hour lunch breaks.
SIESTA. FIESTA. BEACH. BAR. DISCO. Oh, here in PAMPLONA, today, the weather is very English. However, if you go to the coast, it is just like the best day of an English summer : 20 - 25c, people are sunbathing today, mid winter, swimming on the beach, from Barcelona to Malaga, the coast is having a late Indian summer (´´Poniente´´ wind) (in early December : INCREDULOUS !!!!) AND, if you want to go SKIING, not a problem : there is fresh snow not only in the Pyrenees, but also some (less) in Sierra Nevada.
And, in Sierra Nevada, if you want to, you can ski in the morning on the (mostly always) sunny slopes above beautiful Granada with its´ World heritage ´´Alhambra´´, and sunbathe on the coast (Costa Tropical !!) in the afternoon. Then party at night ! Yes, Spain has it all !! It is said that, if you want to party, Spain is the place ! There is literally a festival or carnival or some such other insalubrious activity EVERY SINGLE MONTH of the year. Makes England look somewhat staid, rusty and frozen. Stiff upper lip and all that. I guess it is the weather ?? Perhaps Norway or Finland is even worse for partying ??!!! (worse weather !).
And what about Iceland or Greenland ? North Pole ??!!! (Actually, they do party in Reyjkavik I here.....but it is super expensive up there. I here Christmas is REALLY nice in this Icelandic city : people have an ´´open house´´ policy which means that anyone is welcome to visit and make a little party (perhaps eat a mince pie or two and sip a brandy/whisky/´´glühwein´´/tequila ??!!!?? (hee hee).....the local folks have their houses beautifully decorated with candles and all. Perhaps the most awesome place to visit up north at this time of year would be the famous ´´ice hotel´´ in Sweden. Best time would be the opening party, when an ensemble of Swedish singers (a choir) carrying candles and all dressed in white sing and guests drink vodka (no doubt out of glasses made from river ice). Guests then sleep on solid ice beds covered in some kind of fur (moose, deer or such other).
Decor is awesome : ice sculptures. Artists, travellers etc come from all corners to decorate the joint. In the ´´hotel rooms´´ (ice caves...!!), wall artwork is....you guessed it.....ice art work !!
Back to the bike :-
I had to completely "re-invent the wheel on this project". Never in my life have I built anything like this. When I was younger, I used to build model boats, cars and planes, however, these were mostly from kit form.
For the "RoadWolf" project, I initially viewed other trailers on the market. In fact, perhaps the real reason I made RoadWolf was that in Spain, I found it so jolly difficult to buy a bike trailer (or at least a very good one) that I decided to make one myself, and improve upon what is available in the World wide market place. Also, it would give me something to do during my year off !!
The biggest headache during the whole project was :-
1) How to mount the wheels
2) How to connect the trailer to the bike so that, no matter what the bike did, the trailer would follow along in a well behaved, controller manner !
Regarding the first point, I initially thought of using standard front forks, but never found any (most bikes, at least in Spain, use suspension on the front forks nowadays).
What I did was ´´sandwich´´ the wheels between a central ´´base´´ platform (of wood and alloy) and an outer section of mostly (angle section) alloy.
This worked OK with light loads., however when a really heavy load was applied (and I mean heavy, ie above 50 kg !!), the outer angled alloy sides bent up.
The solution was to completely re-design the outer wheel supports. This I did, and quite frankly, as usual, I went way overboard, by using quadruply re-inforced box section alloy tubing filled with liquid foam (which expands and solidifies after a few hours.....).
The stop any bending of the whole platform (and to actually connect the outer wheel supports to the main base), I used 4 doubly re-inforced alloy box sections mounted 2 at the rear, 2 up front.
Wheels were originally 26" mtbs, however, after an accident on a motorway hard shoulder in Valencia (OK, I should not have been on the motorway......it was a navigational error), whereby the whole trailer overturned (due too high a centre of gravity), I thought that the solution to the instability would be to lower the centre of gravity (C of G).
This was done by using smaller wheels (20"). The actual main base of the trailer is quite narrow at 40 cm wide, however, it is long at 100cm. The gap between the main base and the outer wheel supports is 10cm. The total trailer width is c. 75cm
So, with 20 inch wheels, for the same base width, the C of G is now much lower. I also mounted an 80 litre ´´underbox´´ underneath the main wooden base to get the C of G even lower still (and to provide additional load carrying capability).
To reduce the weight of the trailer, and to provide access to the ´´underbox´´, I had to remove wood from the base by cutting in rectangular access hatches. These had to be massively reinforced later..... (50 hours of work alone, gluiing, sanding, painting etc.)
The central section between where the wheels are mounted had to have MASSIVE reinforcement. This was done by using aluminium & epoxy.
Regarding wheel mounting, the original method was to have the 26" mtb wheels mounted in holes drilled in the outer angled supports and holes on the angled outer section of the central main base. However, after much testing (and after that accident), I stopped using the larger wheel size in favor of the lowered C of G provided by the smaller 20 inch wheel. Also, there was wear and tear in the holes used by the 26" wheel, and no guarantees that these holes could withstand the abuse of the road, hundreds of miles with 100 kg weight.
I chose the 20 inch BMX wheel, as it is far stronger than any conventional bike wheel and has a very thick axle with large nuts. The dilemma for me was how to mounts these wheels on the trailer.
After many many visits to various ´´Bricos´´ and much thinking and designing on paper, by accident, I came across just the right thing. ´´Angle brackets´´. These are galvanised metal 90 degree brackets with pre driller holes.
Upon buying some of these, they did indeed have the correct size hole to accommodate the BMX wheels. Wow, happy days !!
The angle brackets were quadruply attached (bolts and screws, always stainless steel) to the outer supports and the main base.
THE CONNECTION TO THE BIKE
The second headache was how to connect the trailer to the bike. Well, I originally used a central ´´tow bar´´, basically a very simple solution whereby a small stainless steel eyelet is mounted inside a tube which in turn is mounted inside another tide, whole lot attached to underside of trailer using brackets, and a custom tow bar on back of bike was made. A simply vertical pin keeps bike & trailer together.
This system proved OK.....until one day when the tow bar on the bike came apart (wood proved to be the wrong material !).
So, I spent a good solid 100 hours developing a much stronger, really industrial strength version for bike and trailer.
So, what I have now is a triangular towbar on the trailer (think of the letter A......the trailer is connected to the bike at the top of the A.....the A is also a triangle !
The towbar on the bike is all alloy, stainless steel bolts etc., wood insides where bolts are used to stop the allow deforming. Also, epoxy strengthening. It took me ages to think up a system of how the trailer would ´´couple´´ with the bike so as to allow movement as follows :-
vertical movement (to allow for movement in the vertical plane, this is where the bike goes up and down, or the trailer, or both at the same time. This allow the ´´system´´ to cope with any and all hills/potholes/uneven roads).
horizontal movement (going around corners !!)
movement rotationally in the horizontal plane (to allow the bike to lean over or bank, ie during normal riding or while going around corners).
In fact, the system I ended up using allowed perfectly all 3 movements (or 3D). This is normally best seen in the ´´ball and socket´´ joint used on cars etc.. for towing trailers. However, apart from some tiny ball and socket items I saw in Germany, there was nothing available to buy on the marketplace.
My system is a vertically mounted stainless steel karabiner on the trailer coupled to a stainless steel D shaped shank or clip (both items from the World of yachting).
The problem with the latter is that you cannot detach the trailer quickly, you need a pair of pliers to undo the pin to remove the clip from the karabiner. Good for theft prevention, bad for a quick trailer detach.
Anyway, to summarise, an awful lot of hard work (physically, this is the hardest work I have ever done in my life.....), it is obvious I have a lot of engineering skills (thanks to my Father, I have inherited some rather incredible engineering talent !!!!!)
AND the RoadWolf bike and bike trailer system WORKS. Yes, I have proved how incredible it is. I have cycled all the way to PAMPLONA from IBIZA, via Denia, Valencia, Castellon, Tortosa, Fraga, across the Monegros Desert to Huesca, and over some serious mountain passes to Pamplona.
Always, the system was reliable. I always kept the equipment clean and in good working order. Always perfect condition brakes, derailleur etc. Maintenance every 3 days or so. Always checking for cracks or loose nuts everywhere (there are over 25 nuts and bolts on the trailer alone !). As the trailer is heavy (c. 100 kg, mainly food, tools & clothing and also camping gear), the bike brakes MUST be at 100% capacity : this means brake blocks excellent, clean , dry rims. I prefer old fashioned rubber brake blocks. The old style equipment is more easily field repairable and maintainable than the new (disc brakes etc) gear.
I must say, I am proud of RoadWolf. One time, after ascending to the top of an 800 metre (2,700 foot high) mountain pass, I had to descend the other side (in the dark !!). By then I was confident enough with the equipment to really let her ´´fly´´. So, coming down the steep descent, I let her take off and do her own thing. I think I registered a maximum speed on this descent approaching 70 km/h. This is well over 40 mph. This is IMPRESSIVE towing a 100 KILO bike trailer !!!!!!!!!! All the while, the system felt STABLE while also feeling AGILE.
I think the trailers stability is due to the very low C of G. Also, 100 KG keeps her on the ground ! The bike I use is a modified MTB, using the standard 2.1 26" mtb wheels that she came with.
Some people might think that mtb wheels are slow........Well, the reason that I use 2.1 wheels (trailer also) is for stability, but mainly for security. The roads in Spain are generally pretty rough. The minor roads (camis) are AWFUL. I mean, frankly, the camis are like trying to ride over the granite foothills of the Lake District or Snowdonia !!). So, 2.1 wheels it is, and they GRIP really well .......I have even achieved above 50 km/h on this system downhill, in the rain, boy, do they grip.....and then some !! I have considered trying to get some really good 2.0 Schwalbes......however, as they say "don´t fix it if it ain´t broken" meaning why change them if they are working ? So, I am still using orig. 26" wheels and orig. 2.1 tyres. What is special on my bike is the extra reinforcement to the main frame. I applied a bamboo support to the main triangle. Araldited in place. Painted. Added a triathlon type handle bar extension ; added extra sets of handle bars. Best to the look at the pics elsewhere here, as a photo speaks 1,000 (or more !!) words.
I am using a 10 function bike computer. Frankly, the bike computer is a must (and could be a lifesaver). It is of utmost importance to know how many kms I have done. To know my max speed and average speed. It allows me to pace myself, also to know how far to the next village etc.
I keep an eye of temperatures as well. I am aware of my physical state. I keep well fuelled up (pasta, oats, fruit, veg, chocs etc), well watered (water, oranges, tea, coffee (and by night, beer, wine, gluhwein and now Baileys with Coffee in the cold weather !!!!!). The latter night time ´´fuel´´ is always appreciated alongside a nice fire. Fire is a friend (one of the 5 elements !!). So, a cool beer, a glass of freshly made gluhwein (basically warmed red wine with apple and orange pieces and spices, eg cinnamon, and if possible, fresh ginger) I make a fire when I can (saves on gas and keeps me warm !!) (controlled fire in a small ´´stove´´).
Sleeping system : I use a small mountaineering tent, duck down sleeping bag, goretex overbag (when it is deemed necessary, ie damp, or damp with cold). I have 2 tarps with me. One is a 4.5 m x 3 m one. Large by any standard. Good material, many tie down points. The 2nd tarp is a 3 m x 3 m one. To the underside of this 2nd tarp I have taped 2 space blankets. This tarp, when it is used over the tent, reflects heat back to the tent. Also, when I sit underneath it, my body heat is sent back to me. Result, I stay warmer !!!!! However, the downside of the taped space blankets to the tarp is that, if there is any movement of the tarp, the space blankets make a noise. This is quite annoying if there is a strong wind......However, like all noise, one tends to tune out this ´´white noise´´ eventually.
Navigational system (forget GPS - no good when the battery is kaput). I have been using the sun as a navigational aid. Sure, some people use compasses......however, I am a simple fellow, rather old fashioned, I wish to use really OLD techniques. So, it is really simple to use the sun to navigate by. You just have to know your ´´compass´´ pretty well. You also to take into account the seasons. It is now almost mid winter, the sun is quite low here in NE Spain. Sometimes, the sun is not visible due to cloud. One can also navigate using the shadows created by the sun.
I saw a really old fashioned clock some 50 or 100 km back - it was simply a vertical granite stone with a metal rod (angled I think) protruding, with inscriptions on the granite.
Simply, you can tell what time it is by the shadow cast over a fixed object, whereby the shadow is narrow over a vertical flat surface. This is what that old clock was. Similarly, you can tell in which direction you are going by the direction or angle of shadows. This does take some fluency in compass boxing, but this was what we learnt at boarding school in ´´seamanship´´ classes (as well as all sorts of knots....., however, the most used knot I use is the ´´bowline´´ - simple, strong, safe, easy to undo, the best knot that I know of !!).
Mostly however, there are ROAD SIGNS everywhere. This makes navigation easy. Also maps make navigation easy.
There are some funny stories about people using GPS devices in England. The computer tells the driver (who has NOT been paying attention to the ´´real world´´ outside his or her car or cab window) to go down this or that lane......More often than not, the driver soon encounters some problem or other. Perhaps there is not actually a bridge over that river. The computer directs the articulated lorry driver to take a narrow road that is just wide enough for a motorbike and side car but BUT an Australian style road train !!!!!
There is also the safety issue : any driver of any vehicle that is driving while looking at GPS or Computer screens (or on board DVD players) or while talking on (even hands free) mobile phones is not as well in control of the vehicle as someone who has their mind 100% on the task of driving.
When I am on my bicycle, I must have this 100% concentration. I could not cycle at high speed with a trailer while talking on a mobile phone or while watching a movie on a portable dvd player. The number of times that I have almost had an accident with a PEDESTRIAN in Spanish towns and cities.....I have lost count. Frankly and simply, people using these devices are NOT aware of their surroundings. Pedestrians walking down sidewalks/pavements are not aware of what is going on around them. They cross roads, they do not see me, they do not see cars, they have their minds on their conversations. This is DANGEROUS. OK, you cannot really ban pedestrians talking on mobiles while they move around towns and cities (although I would love this to happen, to make the roads and pavements safer), but any use of these devices while driving really ought to be banner in every country.
Spain is somewhat behind in many respects (quite 2nd or 3rd World still in some parts of the country). Only now, Dec. 2007, are they starting to penalise people for driving too fast. So many people drink and drive and drive too fast here in Spain, the stats are scary. Only today, right here in rainy, grey, overcast Pamplona, I saw some idiot careering down a steep hill, on the wrong side of the road, at high speed, enter a roundabout on the wrong side..........I can only assume that he was either drunk or asleep, or that the car brakes had failed, or some mixture of these (or scarily, all 3 !!). Eventually this moron came to a stop at a bus stop. Then there was the clown who (in Alfafar, Valencia, this mid summer) managed to drive his car actually over the vertical central concrete road dividers (like 6" high vertical paving stones), causing no doubt untold damage to his underpan, and then same monkey ´´bounced´´ back to correct side of road and came to a quick stop curbside while narrowly missing taking out a concrete lampost ! And this all happened 20 metres in front of my eyes while I was repairing my 1st prototype trailer curbside on the other side of the road !! (someone was looking after me ´´up there´´ !!!!! )
That´s all for now folks. More later....It is now really late., 02.46 am on this (free) hotel internet computer....., my bed is calling me !! Tomorrow night, it will be back on the road, and in my nice (little !!) tent. Let´s hope for a rain and wind free day and night, to make some decent progress up towards Irun on my way up north towards BORDEAUX (France). Another day, hopefully the weather will be fair to me, we shall see !!
Good night, Bonsoir, Buenos noches, Boa Noite (como a gente falam no Brasil e Portugal .....com saudades !!)