Hi,
My wife and I regularly move our children around by bicycle. As the children are all under four, that means bike trailers :)
Generally the youngest (six months) is in a single trailer behind my wife, and the two eldest in a double trailer behind me. That would be about 20-25kg behind my wife's bike, and 40-45kg behind mine.
Our rear wheel spokes keep snapping. I've had to have spokes repaired on my bike three times now. I've also had to replace the sprockets (which I understand are the teethy bits on the rear wheel that the chain goes on). And, the hub bearing on my rear wheel is nearly worn out apparently. This is on a bike that is 18 months old, ridden maybe 50kms a week.
My bike is a Cannondale Quick flat bar road bike. Skinny tyres, internal brake cables (rather than stuck to outside of frame), disc brakes. My wife's is the same but one model down, brake pads instead of discs. Mine RRP is (or was) about AU$1400, wife's AU$1100.
Is there anything I should do to tow trailers in a less wearing way? The bike shop mechanic said it wasn't the type of bike that mattered (mountain, road, etc.) but purely the quality of parts - so to have a harder wearing bike, I would require better quality (in particular a better rear wheel). Is this true? But, now that I have this bike, should I wait until it wears out and replace with better parts? Or would I be better selling this bike and buying a better bike, rather than expensive part replacements?
General advice would be very helpful :)
P.S. I am not very technical, please dumb it down for me, especially any jargon