We took our first 2UP ride yesterday with wardrobe in tow
knocked out 240k's of various roads and rode into silly places to put us and the setup to the test......driveways, roadside rest areas with heavy gravel, even thick mowed grass.....all this to see if we could cope with a variety of terrain. The thick grass was very uphill in one spot and nearly needed Pockey to get off to put the hubs in
So we were for the most part happy with handling and re-educating the way I rode, gearing down earlier, braking earlier being more proactive with riding lines and were the trailer wheels are.
But it is rear tyre pressure/temp/wear on the bike that is my greatest concern now.....I'm some what anal about tyre pressures on our vehicles and have had good results with the "4 psi rule" on bikes, cars, 4x4's.
Our normal 2UP touring cold pressure in the rear is 48psi.....yesterday towing the trailer that was 50kg off its touring weight (icebox contents, clothing, food) and bike that was less 20kg of its touring weight (pannier contents) had a hot rear tyre presume of 59psi and a tyre that just felt excessively hot. This was on a 24 degree day.
IMHO this heat and temp rise is from the friction created on a smaller tyre surface patch of the rear tyre pulling the extra weight of the camper (200kg) so while the towball weight of the camper (20-22kg) is crucial to how the trailer tows its virtuality irrelevant adding this little extra down on the bikes rear tyre.
So first plan is to increase rear tyre pressure a little to see if I can combat the dramatic pressure/heat rise to increase tyre life....will go to 50psi cold and don't really want to go any higher
And now the next step.....something I never thought I would consider
Darkside
I need to find/borrow/buy a ST1300 rear wheel
205/50R17 passenger car tyres are easily purchased and made by a variety of manufacturers.
There is loads of info out there about the pros and cons of Darkside tyres......but I think I need to try for myself
most of the time STig will have his bike shoes on but swapping out to a Darkside might be the answer for long distance towing like the trip to Perth in March