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Bob yak

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hephzibar hunt:
Looking to use a suspension Yak cycling across France in the spring. Anyone got experience of Yaks vs panniers? Anyone had sickly Yaks?
Ta
HH

Chris Land:
In my experience a yak is awful if you have long chain-stays and is more suited to being towed by an MTB than a tourer.  Other people disagree of course, but I have used one for fairly long rides (100 miles+) on an MTB with no troubles or complaints, whilst 10 miles on my tourer left me tired from struggling with unpleasant handling.  Wife had the same problem and is back on panniers after trying it.

Haven't tried the suspension version though.

Istanbul_Tea:
Their milk is supposedly quite good in tea and coffee.

hoogie:
quote:Originally posted by Chris Land

In my experience a yak is awful if you have long chain-stays and is more suited to being towed by an MTB than a tourer.  Other people disagree of course, but I have used one for fairly long rides (100 miles+) on an MTB with no troubles or complaints, whilst 10 miles on my tourer left me tired from struggling with unpleasant handling.  Wife had the same problem and is back on panniers after trying it.

Haven't tried the suspension version though.


That is an interesting comment Chris ... I have towed a BOB Yak for many many miles, but only behind my MTB ...t he handling does take a bit of getting used to ... I have never tried it behind any of my long chainstay bikes [Trek 520, Thorn Nomad, Giant Yukon].
When I was towing my daughter in a child trailer, it worked perfectly well behind a MTB, but it was a real handful behind a racing bike. The racing bike was an older model with longer chainstays than the current crop of racing bikes ... I put it down to the racing bikes 700C wheels and skinnier tyres [25mm] and didn't try it again.
I might test your theory on my long chainstayed bikes and report back ... if I don't report back, then you may assume that your commetns were correct and I am laid up in a ditch somewhere [B)][xx(][:(][:I]

cheers hoogie
timaru/oamaru, new zealand
http://cycletouring.iscool.net

Chris Land:
On my Nomad it was less than perfect, whilst a 2 wheeled child-trailer is perfect for that bike.  I think it is something to do with having the weight balanced between the trailer's wheel and the bike's rear wheel (Yak) instead of having the C.O.G. over the trailer's wheels (kiddy-trailer).  

With my wife's bike (a custom tourer with fairly similar geometry to a Nomad) there was no weight on the front with a loaded yak, so no steering [:0].  The only way to solve the problem was to stick our really heavy kit in a pair of front-panniers to keep the front on the road and the load balanced, but even that wasn't perfect.

Hoogie - Let us all know how your experiments go!

HH - what did you decide?  Still going to France?

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