Bike hitch was installed St patties day test ride yesterday with eggbert.
straight on good road he tows great. Hit a pot hole and it's like a giant hand reached out and tries to drag the rear of the bike in the direction of the offending tire. While this occures the dreaded handlebar shimmy starts, it was controlable but somewhat unnerving and this was at 15 to 20 mph.
The first low speed turn I made I had myself convinced the rear tire on the bike was flat. It shook right and left like a dog shaking off bath water.
If you check my album you will see eggbert has a standard 40 x 48 hf frame but the tear if shoved forward. The tongue is short enough that the pannier box on the bike could make contact with the front of the tear in a tight turn. I know a longer tongue is a must. It tows nose down 3" +/- so the replacement must curve down to raise the tow height. There was a 75# fully equipted kamp kitchen loaded in the very front making tongue weight 35 - 40 lbs. On a second test run I moved it to the rear as far as I could but it was still in front of the axle and while all problems still existed the were very slightly less pronounced. My biggest question is will lengthing the tongue add more leverage and aggrivate the pot hole problem or deminish it. It is not road worthy with the present setup with the bike but it tows fine on the truck and van.