Bob Yak or Bob Ibex for touring?

noccer

Howdy,

This morning i received my long-awaited bob trailer. I ordered the Bob Yak but when i opened the box, it turns out that they have sent me an Ibex instead. i have been trying to contact the bike shop that i ordered it off (they are in a different county to me) but cant get through.

anyways, should the option arise, should i stick with the Bob Ibex, is this suitable for touring?

i have 2 concerns about it:

1: its 1.5kg heavier than the Yak, though in all honsety, this is not too much worry to me. sure i will probably lose that in body weight in the space of a fortnight on my tour of australia anways.

2: my main worry is that given a bounce on the road, it may oscillate at higher speeds when fully loaded.


Has anyone experience of a Bob Ibex on the road fully loaded? Will it be suitable for my needs?

Thanks!

noccer

Just an update:

I got in touch with the shop and the mixup has been sorted. For an additional small price in order to cover the shops cost price of the ibex, they have allowed me to keep the Ibex and not get a Yak. a huge thanks to the Cloughjordan Cycle Co-op, Tipperary. http://www.cloughjordancyclecoop.com/index.php
it appears it has worked out for the best. The spring helps absorb the massive road craters we have here in Dublin, and im sure the roadsides in australia wont be glassy smooth either.

I havent loaded the trailer up that much yet, only had 2 test runs so far with a light load. from what i see though it looks like its good for road use, though it does tend to bounce about a little. when it lands off-centre and off the tracking of the 2 bike wheels, there is a slight wobble for a split second while it hops back in line. its a little disconcerting at high speed, but once you stick to the 40km/hr limit its grand!

Straightline speed is fine, its easy to forget its there behind you. there is no need to turn around and check though, i can simply glance at the inquisitive looks i get from all sorts of passer-by! I find that motorists seem to give me far more room than usual which is a big plus.

Steering is not bad, a little sluggish but you adapt very quickly. One thing to be careful of is avoiding bumps at the last second. Before, i would avoid as many potholes as
possible as long as its safe to do so, even if it was at the last second. now i have 3 wheels to avoid, so even if the bike wheels clear it, sometimes the trailer does not and it hops out as described above. nothing major, again controllable once doing 40km/hr or less.

The DrySak is great, absolutely huge and looks to be very waterproof.

So first impressions are very very good, i feel very comfortable using it and it bodes well for the future. I might buy a new tyre for it though, something with a tread more suited for roads. Hopefully it will be a good choice for my tour in Australia, i am trying to avoid having panniers at all.

cruisin

The only problem I have seen with the Ibex is that the mud guard works loose on rough dirt roads.
Just a tip on loading, keep the centre of gravity as low as possible for stability and avoid packing too much above the dry sack, even light stuff.