I was looking to get a bike trailer for some time now. There are several options out there on the market. You will get none for small money and so it took some time to choose the perfect companion for my Brompton. It should be a folding bike trailer that fits to the Brompton and the 26” bike of my wife. And here he is: the Burley Travoy!
The Burley Travoy weighs 4.7kg including the standard bag. The trailer comes with air-filled tires and the included Tote bag. You can buy different bags to be attached to the trailer. The Market Bags seem to be a nice option when using the Travoy as a shopping cart. I think I will get one of those sooner or later. At the moment I use the bag that comes with the trailer. They all mount with tie-down buttons to the trailer.
With a twist of the two handles (the black ones) you can fold the Travoy in two steps. Burley calls it the “twist and fold system”. To suit my folding bike I need a folding trailer too. The Travoy solves this with ease and style.
The maximum capacity with 30kg of cargo when you need it is a nice option when commuting with the Brompton.
I added a light to the Travoy since it covers the rear light of the Brompton. Not a perfect solution so far – but it works.
It is very easy to add or remove the Travoy via the quick release lever mounted to the seat post. I bought a second trailer hitch for the bike of my wife. Works perfect and it is easy to swap the trailer between the bikes. No adjustment need. With this mounting system the Travoy is very stable and tracks perfectly behind the bike. You don’t feel it – loaded or unloaded.
The overall build quality is high. I found no problems so far. A dust cap on one of the wheels was missing when I got my Travoy. I got a new one free of charge from Burley – good service.
One of the best parts for me is that you can take the Travoy with you into the store and use it as a handy shopping cart. The second best thing is that I can transport bulky items too. I just remove the bag and use the included strips to fix those bulky items to the trailer.
The Travoy is a low-profile bicycle trailer and instead of being attached to the rear axle of the bike, the Burley will be attached to a hitch under the bicycle seat. This results in a much smaller turning radius. You even don’t feel that there is a trailer running behind your bike. At least as long as there are no step hills.
The hitch is a two piece metal clamp that bolts to the seat post. It adds 130g weight to your Brompton. The folding of the Brompton is not affected at all.
The standard bag that comes with the Travoy can touch the wheels of the trailer – this happens always if you don’t care. The sound reminds you to stop and rearrange the bag. Nothing critical, but annoying.
The Burley Travoy folds into a little package. You fold the top, the middle (with the “twist and fold” system) and with a pull of a rip cord the bottom of the trailer too. Then you press a button on the side of the wheels and each wheel pops off. Everything fits into the standard bag that comes with the Travoy. It’s fast and easy to do. No room for improvement here.
4 responses to “A Trailer for my Brompton”
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I’ve been eyeing this trailer for quite a while, too, and suspected that it would work really well with a Brompton. My only concern would be stress on the seatpost, though with a well-balanced load of 30 kg, maybe that’s not a reasonable concern.
I have two of this model and I love them too :)
For the tail light, I think you may consider to mount some light on seat post, right below your saddle but above the trailer hitch. Unless you carry a very tall item which will block the light, your tail light will be visible from the back. Or you may use things like Fiber Flare to attach to your bag on the trailer. 3M, Nite Ize and a lot of other brands have similar solutions.
As for the scratching issue, I saw people put plastic/paper box at the bottom of the tote bag to keep it from touching the wheels. Or use the tie-down strap or bungee straps to fasten the bag.
For my overseas trips with brompton, I even use this trailer to carry the B&W Foldon Case. I feel Burley tie down strap is too weak so I use Nite Ize CamJam Tie Down Strap, which is far better than the original one. Although adding some additional weight, it is ok for me.
My Travoy is coming as 2nd hand but looks pretty new at price of 300 dollars (in China a new one costs 500 dollars) with a rain cover and upper market bag. I can’t help waiting for it, and’m thinking about quick release of the hitch for my different bikes, right now one idea is to use the screw with handle for Gopro, to fix and release Burley hitch, by hand twisting screw.
For a regular seat post length 550mm, the hitch will definitely effect that the seat post not inserted completely. Seems you are using a 600mm long seatpost.
The perfect way should be some DIY hitch rod/stick fixed on the bottom of Brompton seat or Brooks. Hah!