UKC

Do any of you do bike joring? Which arms work for a chunky bike? I ride an orange 5, so chunky head set and chunky joint between top tube and down tube. I'm struggling to get something to fit!

What on earth is bike joring ? 

Which arms work for a chunky bike?

The ones that are attached to your shoulders ?

I understand is akin to dog sledding with just one dog pulling a bicycle rather than a team of dogs pulling a sledge.

Ah, you learn something new every day

Don't think I'll be trying this with our Norfolk Terrier

Big fat tires are essential. Otherwise, the poor guy on the bike pulling me on my skis will sink into the snow....

CB

It's a rather silly game where you attach a REALLY excited dog to the front of you bike and let him pull you as fast as he can, basically! Great for dogs that really need to run but are not safe off lead. Same principle can apply on skis or running (canicross). My dog thinks it's the best game ever, and as I am rehabing a leg injury, it works well for me at the moment!

Sounds really great fun! I love the enthusiasm of dogs. They just love running and working, unlike humans! (workwise I mean)

It is great. We did it for the first time today. I decided not to take him too far while we both got used to it, so we just did 6km by a reservoir. We already do quite a lot of canicross so 6km of pulling didn't seem like much to me. Turns out the extra speed made it both much more exciting for him but also more exhausting. He came home and curled up in his crate and hasn't moved since! I think I might have over done it! He was the happiest dog on the planet though while we were running!!

Errmm..... you might sustain other injuries, unintentionally, if your mutt has different ideas to you ?

I’m sure you know this but be careful running a dog with the bike (not sure what breed you have) but the pace can be too much for them and dogs being dogs will just keep going until they drop if you are with them, we inadvertently broke our working English Cocker years ago in a ride, he basically knackered his pads on the rough surfaces, felt terrible for him and was annoyed with myself.

I do it with my Siberian Husky Savi, our usual run is Irvine, south along the beach past Barassie and onto Troon for a quick coffee at Costa and back again, a rough guess at about fifteen miles all in, the run time being just over one and a half hours. Its barely an effort on the bike, save for the headwind and soft sand, Savi does all the work and never ever ceases to amaze me how powerfully athletic and efficient that wee twenty five kilogram bundle of fluff is. 

The manufacture bike joring brackets are rubbish. And way too expensive. Buy a metre of 10mm threaded rod. Cut to between 500 - 600mm just enough to clear the lead from the front wheel.  2 rubber lined steel pipe clips 32-36mm. Screw pipe clips to each end. One for fixing to your head tube, the other to pass the the lead through. Then get three or four bungee cords, one doubled at each side  of the handlebars to the outer pipe clip, then one doubled below the down tube and gripped midway along the threaded rod to give a little resistance for when your dog decides to run off at a tangent ! Shouldn't cost more than £6. Have fun. 

Iain

My experience too. Be very mindful of the paws and joints, even when the dog isn't. 

Thankfully this mutt is pretty good at ignoring all other distractions if his instruction is to run very fast along this path!! (Whole other story if that is not his instruction, then distractions are high on the agenda! Lol)

Indeed, if you read above you will see I did misjudge it today. He is fine, but very tired! I made the mistake in thinking that the same distance that I run with him would be fine on the bike too, but the extra speed and excitement seems to have exhausted him. I will be more cautious next time

My in-laws live in Irvine, Benji loves an offlead run along that beach when we visit. I probably wouldn't take my bike on it though!

How do you convince Savi to pace him/ her self over that distance and not just run like a mad thing. Benji seems to get it ok on canicross, but on the bike today he just got so excited that he ran faster than he could handle. We only did about 6km and he slept for the rest of the day. He regularly does that or more when we canicross.

Thanks for the diy suggestion, something worth considering.

Savi {she} pretty much paces herself now, it's just down to her knowledge and experience, pretty much how she's feeling on the day, I don't allow her to take the full load through her harness and always leave a little slack in the line, with that in mind she'll pretty much go full canter about two miles along the beach till she's warmed up then will settle back into an efficient smooth canter till the grass shore at Barassie where she'll explode again into an all out gallop, I'll be onto the mtn bike big ring to keep up. 

Her familiarisation took six or more months, when she started she did a funny fast trot, reluctant to canter, only breaking into canter for short periods, but soon that lengthened till it was canter all the way.  

The sand and salt water wreck the bikes drivetrain and brakes, but the sand and grassy route is the best I have for her paws and joints, except on hot sunny days when the sand can burn also be aware these energetic, athletic working type dogs will sooner or later over do it, stain a tendon, tear a paw, or twist a wrist, the only thing we can do is be wary of the occurrence, and cease exercise immediately.  

I gave you a bum steer. the pipe clip and the lead both secure around the steerer tube spacers, I have three of them just below the stem mounting.

There was no way I could keep any slack in the line, I had to brake much of the time to slow him a bit! He doesn't seem to have a canter, he gallops or gallops fast!! Maybe after a few shorter runs he will learn to pace it (I'm not so sure though!! Lol)

I only have one spacer on my steer tube, might have to look around for clamp ideas. I'm amazed no one makes them with standard quick release clamps, surely this is the obvious bike attachment??

Practice in an open area, away from tight turns, obstacles, bends etc. Bike joring doesn't lend itself to mtn bike red routes too well, flat open areas or predictable long distance tracks are best, for the dog and you. Remember that as a search dog Spaniels are inclined to move in circles, and your asking him to move in a straight line. Some patience while he learns. Take it slow, remove stimulus and make it easy on him. 

Ha ha, I wasn't daft enough to try the mountain bike trails, I used forestry roads!

He's fine with the whole straight lines etc, he can already do all of that from canicross, and he knows his left, right, on by etc. He just gets too excited by speed! He's a mongrel, so no specific breed traits in him, but if he's offlead playing with other dogs it's only really whippets and the fastest collies that can outrun him. The minute his running harness goes on he is super excited, he yips and whines and bounces until we start,  and then yips for the first bit of the run too!!