Handy Tricks 7: Bike Mods and Projects

Step 4 Stretch Cargo Bike

Here's Matt Ritter with his "Longfellow" cargo bike.
He's carried a lot of gear and a couple of passengers with it.
He says that with a chain this long you can make it derail if you shake the bike hard while riding it.

Comments

[BottomlessPizzaPit]

Like everyone else has said, there are plenty of chain tensioner devices. The idler gear thing seems like it works fairly well, as I own an old Schwinn Twinn tandem and that's what it uses -just a cog on a bearing with a bolt holding it to a slotted bracket- and it moves on a vertical axis where you can tension it to the desired level.

[sarliaee]

a little more expensive but plenty of companies make chain tension devices.
loving the cheap bike mods anyway.

[Tavor]

I think I have a possible solution to the chain derailing problem. Add some 'idler' gears in the middle to prevent the chain from bouncing or swaying. In an ideal world, they'd be mounted in the center of that LONG chain run, but anywhere between the front of the cargo section and the front of the back tire should be sufficient.