Customer Reviews

Burley Nomad Bike Trailer

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought a Nomad two years ago. Love it. I decided to ride my bike to destinations within a couple miles of my home that I normally drive to. Why waste gas and wear on the car when I can get off my lazy rear, ride the bike, and get some needed exercise in the process of doing errands I need to get done?

The Nomad made my bike practical. I can ride to the grocery store, wally world, pet store, etc, all of which are 1-5 miles from my house. If the weather is decent, I take the bike and Burley. I got a 25 pound bag of cat food home the other day, works perfectly. When the wife and I ride the bikes, we can throw a snack, drinks, extra sweatshirt, whatever in the Nomad just in case. Cell phone, wallet, etc can go in one of the little interior pockets. Super. The material is rugged. Of course, if you go offroad with it, over sharp rocks, etc, you can damage it I suppose. Not meant for that.

When the trailer is unloaded you barely notice it back there. It pulls super easy. With a 30-40 pound load, you have to work harder. Not rocket science. You slow down a little. No biggie. You can haul a lot of stuff in one of these guys. I leave the Nomad attached to my bike all the time now, just in case. You go for a ride, remember you need a gallon of milk, and just swing by the store. No problem.

I can't think of the last time I spent this amount of money on something I use this much, derive this much benefit from ( gets me exercising instead of being sedentary ), and enjoy as much.

I get a lot of positive feedback everywhere I go. Never fails to get a positive comment at the grocery store. One day a lady in a pickup truck drove beside me, rolled her window down, and was asking me about the trailer. Got a thumbs up from another driver one day. I think the trailer, in yellow, enhances my visibility and therefore safety on my bike. It is such an oddball thing to see on the road around here, it catches people'e eye, and that is never a bad thing on a bike.

One small flaw keeps it from 5 stars. The wheels are quick release style, and if you are not vigilant and check them for tightness a couple times a season, eventually they loosen and pop off. I rode a whole summer with no issues, then this year the first time I rode it, lost a wheel. I quickly found it, undamaged, and put it back on. The trailer frame got scratched a little. I really attribute this to my lack of attention to detail as much as design. I should have not been as complacent, and should have checked my equipment better and more often. Lesson learned. I wish the wheels were not quick release, though. Anyway, no biggie, I only mention this to alert you that if you buy one, check your wheels for tightness occasionally.

Order one today and get off your butt. You'll love it. I've since ordered my dad a Burley Flatbed. If you're within a 5 mile radius of where you do a lot of shopping, post office, et cetera, perfect. If you are like me, live in the suburbs, and are 1-3 miles from many things you need to do, this is the ultimate rig. You could tour on it longer distance, too.

We've been using this trailer for over a year now. I pull it, my husband pulls it, and my 8 and 9 year olds pull it; it is lightweight and a dream to tow. My 9 year old can hitch it correctly by himself. We've had no wear issues or fabric ripping, and it is used at least twice a week. I feel comfortable with it even on narrow roads; it isn't that wide and it is stable, with a nice tall flag. My husband goes up and down curbs with it, and we've taken it on dirt roads (not single track mountain biking, but not just pavement either). It carries a considerable load; we easily get groceries for the week, or carry everything we need for a picnic play date at the park. It also folds up very small so we take it with us on vacation (along with our bicycles). We'll be adding the cargo rack soon so we can carry even more!

I've had few problems with the trailer. The frame is solid. It is stable behind the bike and can haul a fair load. I would not take it out on rocky trails but it is good for hauling groceries, recyclables, a backpack or other small load (under 100# and not too large) on the road or shoulder. I've experienced no problems with tipping but I corner at reasonable speed and am not riding trails with it. My wheels do not come in contact with the fabric as reported in another review and the bottom has not contacted the ground. The fabric is quite tough and should hold up for most users. Empty it is hard to know that it is even there. Loaded going up hill takes some effort, but thats just physics.
The Nomad came standard with a hitch for quick release axles, so I had to order an alternate for my Dahon. The stitching to hold the flag in place was missing, but that was easy to fix.
Would I purchase it again? Yes, because it does the job it was designed to do. It is compact and light weight. It quickly disassembles flat and can be reassembled in about 3 minutes.

I purchased this product 2 years ago as a Christmas present for my husband - he was not overly thrilled. HOWEVER after many trips to the beach with the trailer packed with chairs, rafts, picnic gear and umbrellas, he is now one of its biggest fans. On a recent vacation to Chincoteague, Va., he insisted we leave the car we usually tow behind our RV home and just take the bike trailer. We went back and forth to the beach, to dinner, shopping etc. with the trailer in tow. Had a great time. I would like to see someone take away his bike trailer now. The only problem we have with the design were with the reflectors -we lost most of them. We travel in an RV and the trailer is easy to pack, as well as pedal around. we are both in our 70's, and would recommend this product to anyone for exercise and enjoyment.

I have owned the Burley Nomad since the early winter of 2008. I decided to get this trailer do to it's cargo capacity and stability. The trailer has performed almost flawlessly for about 8,000 miles delivering pizza for Domino's pizza and other daily needs in my personal life. I added some aluminium angle material to the frame to support the upper rack from swaying side to side, which makes the over all trailer more stable in bumps and turns. This improvement cost me about $12 and my time, but well worth it! Now I feel I have the ultimate little cargo bicycle trailer. I sprayed it with some silicone water proofing spray from Wal-Mart. I did once have one of the wheels fall off, but that was because I did not put it on tight enough. That has only happened one time. I have only had one flat on this trailer with stock tires. I now run Slime tubes and Tuffy liners which prevents the flats. I plan to soon upgrade to the Schwalbe Big Apple trailer tires which are Kevlar belted and have a wider profile. All in all the Burley Nomad has exceeded my expectations. I will add a video review soon to show the condition of the Burley I own today with the structural improvements I have made. Stay tuned!

Purchased this for Touring but I am not sure it will keep the rain out, by the way the cover goes on it leaves lots of room for rain to get in. I called and they said if I was worried about moisture I should buy a dry sack. I thought this was for Touring and would keep my stuff dry I was wrong. Other than that it will work very well.

I have only had this trailer for a couple weeks. I bought it so I could use my bike for running errands. So far it has worked out great. The only problem is every time I ride my bike, my 4 year old son wants to ride with me. He has a tag-a-long bike so he can keep up with dad. I had to put the hitch on his bike. Now we have our own little train when we go somewhere. The capacity of this trailer is very good. The divider is very handy. We keep our locks and stuff in the front and use the larger rear area for the stuff we pick up or drop off. The inside pockets are great for holding small items like keys, phone, wallet etc. It comes with a lot of reflectors and reflective material, a tail light and a loop for a second tail light. Since we have used it after dark this is a great plus. Assembly is easy but the instructions leave a bit to be desired. I ended up tossing them and it went together easier. Overall, I am very happy to have made this purchase and wish I'd have done it sooner.

I've had a Burley Nomad for several years now and it's probably the best piece of bike equipment I've ever purchased. I really wanted to see how it shaped up after a couple of years of heavy use and finally I can report the verdict. While not literally perfect in every way, it's has enabled me to take 3-4 day long self-contained extended bike trips on the C&O Trail in Washington, DC with a full set of camping gear under every possible condition (snow, wind, offroad, rain, sun, as well as extreme heat and cold). The Nomad has taken everything I've thrown at it and gone over a 1000+ miles of unpaved road so far with only minor nicks and scratches.

Here's how the Nomad shapes up:

Pros:

* Lightweight and easy to breakdown if you need it. Much lighter than it looks.
* Strong yet resilient. My Burley has flipped, crashed, gotten rained on for days, and been way overloaded with no problems.
* Easy to attach and remove, though I'd buy a hitch for each bike that you'll use it on for convenience.
* Good (though small by design) side pocket organization internally so it's easy to sort through and find what you need.
* Very good placement of cargo rope loops.
* Hitch folds up so it will easily fit, fully loaded, in the back of the average SUV.
* Waterproof completely if properly closed (more on this later), and believe me, I've tested this many times.
* Easy to remove and fix tires.
* Can easily take more than the 100 lbs rating limit, but tires bow in past 110 lbs (outperforms its specifications in other words).
* Easily obtained replacement parts that cover the whole range of components, though I've only now after several years had to purchase a couple of small pieces.
* Does not significantly increase peddling effort, even when fully loaded. As in, it's definitely harder, but only in minor proportion to load increase.

While the Nomad is as close to perfect a bike trailer as one could wish, there are a few minor imperfections that maybe Burley could consider addressing in the next version:

Cons:

* Front and rear closure system is not ideal and uses two straps that just don't stay very secure. I've had items fall out occasionally (including a much missed bottle of wine), so beware.
* The top cross bar is held on by two external black knobs that can come loose. Check them every time you pack it up.
* The tires start to pop out under heavy load and rough terrain. Seems to happen only under extreme load (100+ lbs) and grueling road conditions but there's no way to absolutely secure the tire and you have to tighten in periodically (every 10-30 minutes). Please keep in mind that in normal use this just WON'T happen, but it would be nice to have a 100% securely locking tire.
* Swing arm hitch makes it easy to clip your right foot as you push a bike towing the trailer, especially up a hill. Not sure what they could do about this design-wise, but it happens to me all the time.

Highly recommended. Just bought a second one for longer trips with multiple people.

Last year 2009, several of us did a bicycle tour of the San Juan Islands in Washington State. I used my Burley Tail Wagon trailer, a friend use the Burley Flatbed trailer and another friend used the Burley Nomad Trailer. He was so impressed with the trailer; how little it weighted, easy to assemble and break down, that he wanted one for our up and coming tour this year. I ordered it for him from Amazon.com because they were the cheapist I could find and free shipping.

The Burley Nomad Bike Trailer was easy to assemble. I use it with a Greenspeed GTO trike to pick up groceries and run other errands. I hardly notice any difference in the handling of the trike with the trailer attached. It is a quick and easy task to attach and remove the trailer.