Surly Bill & Ted Trailers

There are quite a few options these days for trailers that carry kids, dogs, luggage, groceries, and other small loads. Trailers are nice, they can be detached when not in use, but most trailers can’t haul much weight and the ones that do suffer some design drawbacks such as incompatibility with many bikes. Conversely, there are quite a few cargo bikes that can haul bigger loads, but cargo bikes meant for a lot of weight can be difficult to load, are sometimes difficult to ride, and require a lot of space to store. To bridge the gap, we designed two trailers meant to haul a lot, to be easy to use, and which would work with a bike you have already.

Bill is 63” long and 24” wide. It’s made out of TIG-welded 4130 Cro-moly steel for strength and long life, with stainless steel hardware for corrosion resistance. The beds have threaded eyelets for bolting down decking, corner posts, or creating other custom accessories using readily-accessible materials from your local hardware store, lumberyard or home improvement store.

The wheels are 16", keeping cargo low to the ground. 16" wheels are also stronger than larger diameter wheels favored by many trailers. We designed our own hubs to meet the requirements of this frame. The rims are double-wall with stainless eyelets. The spokes are stainless steel, radially laced.

Our hitch system is designed to be as universal as possible. This hitch will likely fit your bike. It works with full-suspension frames, disc brakes, rear racks and fenders. It adjusts to accommodate hub widths from 120 – 145mm and allows you to align the centerline of the trailer on the centerline of the bike. It will work with bikes that have wheels as small as 20" and as large as 29" while keeping the bed level with the ground. This is especially important when you are hauling long items that hang off the back of the trailer (lumber, tubing, ladders, etc.). Our hitch will attach to your bicycle one of two ways: our direct mount Hitch Nuts or our Trailer Skewer. Our Hitch Nuts are 10 x 1mm threaded inserts that thread directly into any of our frames that come with our touring dropouts ala the ECR, Ogre and Troll. If you're using a QR rear hub, we also have a skewer mounting system available. If you're using a hub with a 3/8" threaded, solid axle... yeah we don't have that. 

NOTE: the Bill and Ted hitch is sold separately.

Tubing - Surly Custom drawn 4130 CroMoly steel. TIG-welded
Hitch-to-frame compatibility - Surly trailers connect to your frame via Surly mounting hardware. The hitch is width adjustable to fit most frames from 120–145mm O.L.D. (rear hub) spacing
Bicycle wheel compatibility - The hitch will fit a wide variety of wheel diameters, from 20? up to 29?, accommodating up to a 29 x 3? tire. That’s right, even our 3? Knards on 50mm Rabbit Holes will fit. Sorry, it won’t work with fatbike rims and tires.
Platform dimensions - Bill (long bed) = 63 x 24? (1608 x 610mm)
Maximum tongue load - 50 lb (22.7kg)
Maximum total load - 300 lb (136kg)
Braze-ons - 5 x 1mm threaded barrels for securing a platform; corner stake eyelets
Trailer tire clearance - Our trailers come with 16 x 1.95? tires. There is clearance for 16 x 2.5? tires
Color - Silver with black hitch
Weight (includes hitch & wheels): - Bill (long bed) = 37 lb (16.8kg)
 

• Surly Bikes
• Surly Trailer Instructions
• Stub Axle Bolt Instructions