Dragged body weight on 13 mile ride back from grocery store

[johnny847]

Every so often I go to a Korean grocery store 13 miles away. This was the second time I did so on my bike. When I got home and measured my grocery load, it was 121 pounds (including the weight of the trailer). And I weigh 122 pounds (really skinny at 5'11").

And during this ride, I got two flats - pinch flats which I later realized were caused by me stupidly putting a lot of weight in the front of the trailer, which put a lot of weight on the rear axle of my bike (how I attach my trailer to my bike). I also managed to break my front gear shift lever about 5 miles away from home, so my front gear set was stuck in first gear. Thankfully it was stuck in first gear as opposed to any other, as some of those hills were killer while dragging my grocery load - I slowed to about 4 mph near the peak of my last big hill.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

Yowza! Good for you! Hope you figure out that shifter ASAP.

I weigh the same as you... but I am FOUR foot 11, not 5 :-). I pull a trailer loaded with toddlers and gear that probably gets close to that, but I've never done more than about 7 miles round trip. The children, of course, have to ride in the front part of the trailer (well, middle, I guess), but I have been fortunate enough not to get a flat. I'm with you--I love me some first gear when I'm pulling all that load :-).

[jamal utah]

Make sure to air up your tires before every ride.  It will help prevent flats particularly if you are going to be hauling that sort of weight.  Badass nonetheless!