How The Trapezoid Hinge Works
Video transcript of Rod Holmes’s explanation of the Pasq ADV1 Trapezoid Hinge
Rod Holmes, “We’d like to make a video of trying to explain our trapezoid hinge. And it’s really important because the trapezoid hinge, this little piece here, is the secret sauce to our trailer. It gives us high-speed stability meaning you can go at or above, if you so choose, above the speed limit and the trailer is completely, totally stable behind you. And it also goes with, when you’re doing slow speed maneuvering around obstacles or in a parking lot or whatever, it pivots just as you would expect.
“The trapezoid hinge is really really an important part of why the ADV-1 is such an amazing trailer. So how does it work? Well, as the name implies, it’s trapezoid hinge, the arms on this form a trapezoid. They are not parallel they kind of point a little ways in. And if you were to extend them out they would meet at the axle of the bike. Now for reasons I can’t fully explain of geometry and physics, what that does is it effectively, it moves the effective pivot point from where the actual physical hinge is. It moves the effective pivot point to the rear axle of the bike.
“What that means is when you are steering your bike with your handlebars – moving your handlebars, slow speed, again: parking lot going around something, it pivots as you would expect. And that’s because the axle of your bike is actually moving in relation to the trailer. So it just pivots. But when you are going straight and you are steering by leaning the bike more, you know, you can you’re moving your handlebars a little bit but most of it is your leaning – what happens is there’s no input from the rear axle and it locks lock okay it won’t move.
“What that means is you are now, when you’re going straight or you’re leaning through a curve, you are a three-wheeled vehicle: a three-wheel inline vehicle. You’re not a two-wheeled vehicle pulling a one-wheel trailer. You’re one, three-wheeled vehicle. And that makes it incredibly stable.
“What that means is, when you’re going through a curve you, the trailer does not impact the line that you’re taking through the curve it just follows you perfectly through the curve. It’s a lot like having a perfect passenger, perfect pillion because you feel the weight that the trailer is carrying, you feel that but it’s not jerking you around. It’s not impacting your ride.
“The trapezoid hinge is the absolute heart of our ADV-1 trailer. It makes it possible for you to have super stability at super high speeds and then maneuverability at low, low speed maneuvering of the bike.
“That’s it!”
