On Sat, 09 Dec 2006 12:22:38 +0000, Phil Cook
wrote:

Tom Crispin wrote:

The problem of transporting children's bicycles from one school to
another is one which had vexed me for some time.

I have in the past bungeed bikes to my rear rack, but this has been
unstable and not really satisfactory.

A trailer would be a solution:

http://tinyurl.com/u3l2x from
http://www.islabikes.co.uk/images/ga...railer_480.jpg

But that has a total of eight wheels, four of which are redundant.

To reduce the redundancy as long as two bikes have the same size of
wheel you could use their front wheels for the trailer. Actually with
a little ingenuity you could use different sized wheels either side.

How viable would this low cost solution be?

http://www.johnballcycling.org.uk/photos/towing

How about fixing a set of QR fork holders for a car roof-rack at the
rear of the towing carrier. Take out the front wheel of the towed bike
and fasten bungee that to the carrier. You could probably tow two
bikes side-by-side behind your tractor with two sets of fork holders.

A neat practical idea, Phil.

http://www.johnballcycling.org.uk/photos/towing2

See amended diagram above: two side by side 24" bikes (shown as one
bike), towed by a 26" bike, and towing two side by side 20" bikes
(shown as one bike). Front wheels to be attached to front pannier
racks (not shown), leaving rear panniers free for hi-vis tabards,
tools and [spit] helmets.

Attaching a QR fork holder to the rear racks of the 24" bikes is
excellent. It will give the whole 'trailer' rigidity to stand on it's
own four wheels so the whole thing won't collapse at traffic lights.

My main concern is that the centre of gravity is so much higher,
especially on the 24" bikes.

Any thoughts, anyone?