We are so honored to have known D-Rock for the last 25 years. He was one of our earliest product testers and Ambassadors for Robert Axles. Watch him ride and you can see how he’s one of the reasons we build our axles to the most durable, strongest quality that we can. He shreds, without and without a B.O.B. Trailer and he is an inspiration to all trail builders. Proud to know you Derrick!
Planning a mini-bike tour is a little like planning dinner – you want it to be great, but you also don’t want to stress out and worry too much about it. Often times, like a good meal, you can pull something together in a fairly short amount of time, with little effort. And like anything, with practice comes perfection, or darn near close. We’re sharing a few things that we’ve learned from our own experiences as well as from others getting after it.
In our opinion, going light is good. Going so light that you are cold and starving is not so good. Seriously, do you want to eat energy bars for three days—breakfast, lunch and dinner—because you don’t want to bring a camp stove? If that’s your bag, then go for it, but consider bringing real food, real camp gear and real clothes. My weakness – UGG Boots. They’re lightweight and ultra-warm and perfect for dry, cold high desert nights in the backcountry when I’m sitting around camp.
Appetizers! Buy some and take them with you so when you get to camp or wherever you are laying your head to rest for the night, you’ve got a quick snack as soon as you stop. It also gives you a little sense of closure on the day. Our favorite appies include Sabritas Sal y Limon peanuts for the salt-lover (found at Mexican markets), peanut butter filled pretzels for the sweet AND salt lover (a.k.a. crack-in-a-bag) or beef jerky for the protein junky.
So you have the most kick-ass route planned, but maybe you get out there an realize that: a) this is harder than I thought b) the weather forecast said “chance of showers”, not “deluge” or c) I’m just feeling a little more lazy than I hoped to feel. Create your route so you have Plan A and Plan B. If you don’t make Plan A to that sweet camp spot next to the free hot springs and taco stand, then maybe settle for Plan B, that sweet camp spot next to the little creek that you’ve always wanted to check out.
No, really. What better thing to do with your kids than take them on an easy, close to home, mini-adventure on bikes? It can be done, you’ll just need to plan a little more and probably pack a little (or a lot) more. Maybe you don’t camp, but you stay in a cabin, B&B or even stay at your brother’s house in the next town over. The point is, bike touring with your kids can create lasting memories and inspire more adventures.
Don’t have the human variety of kids, but instead have the fur baby? We’re dog lovers, so we think life is pretty awesome with a dog. And our dog wants NOTHING more than to run around in the woods looking for sticks or swimming in a lake. There are several good blogs about bike touring with your pup, but our favorite is Long Haul Trekkers. Check them out!
Do you have any amazing or quirky tips for bike touring? We’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment below to share!
You’re a cyclist. You love your Wednesday evening rides with the buddies and you geek out on gear and maybe you’ve gone on a few bike tours in your lifetime. You’re also a Mom or a Dad, so you want to infect your kids with the joy of cycling that has made your life that much more wonderful.
The great thing is that it IS possible to take your toddler on a bike tour. It just takes a little planning and flexibility. Using a child specific trailer such as a Thule Chariot, Burley Bee or a Croozer allows you to bring your kiddo with you on the microadventure of your choice. We’ve pulled together 8 tips to successfully take your toddler with you on a bike touring adventure.
Need inspiration and additional tips?
Check out While Out Riding’s family outings. Cass Gilbert appears to be the master of bike touring with his son, both in the US and out of the country.
Traveling Two’s Friedel and Andrew are a Canadian couple who kept bike touring, even after the arrival of their two sons. Watch their video, 15 Ways to Entertain a Toddler on a Bike Tour.
Adventure Cycling ran a superb article in the May 2015 issue, Touring with A Toddler.
Have you bike toured with your little one? We’d love to hear your story and see photos! Share with us by sending photos to katy@robertaxleproject.com
The Kid Trailer Axles are easy to install and use, so you can bring your kids biking with you. Child carriers, such as Burley, Thule, Chariot, provide a great way to share your adventures with those you love. With our 12mm Thru Axles for Kid Trailers, you can attach “hitch style” trailer to any bike with a rear 12mm thru axle—mountain, road, fat, cross, e-bike and everything in between.
Our Kid Trailer Axles are designed for maximum strength and ease of use in attaching your trailer. The Robert Axle has a stainless steel 10x1mm threaded stud to attach the hitch supplied by your trailer manufacturer.
Sure, there’s lots of talk (babble?) about “Made in USA”. It’s a complicated thing, we know. Affordability, quality, customer service, and practicality all come into play. Making our thru axles here, instead of China or Taiwan, is important to us because we can employ local skilled people and support our local economy.
We also like to be hands on—we prefer to oversee production on an almost daily basis, which we think is the real value in creating quality bike parts. From raw material, to finished and packaged goods, we handle all processes.
It’s a job we take seriously. Stuff needs to not break, and stuff on your bike needs to REALLY not break, especially when you are using it. Breaking parts on a bike ride, whether you’re out shredding singletrack, or taking your kids to the park, is not what we would call a good time.
We machine and assemble all our thru axles in Bend, Oregon. And with access to testing facilities, we are able to test our axles for different types of strength and loads. We test all of our thru axles in two ways:
Torque strength. Over the years, we have been keeping tabs on how our customers are installing their Robert Axles. Installation requires the user to torque the axle to a specific spec, so we test all axles for torque strength to make sure they are strong enough during installation.
Shear strength. This is the stuff that goes BOOM, the fun part. By testing shear strength, we test for catastrophic failure, and we ask: How much force would it take to suddenly shear this axle? Our goal, which we consistently reach, is to far exceed the shear strength of stock axles that come with bikes.
Watch the video below of how we break axles!
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