Reading about Touring, Looking for info on trailers,

I'm reading The Essential Touring Cyclist by Richard A Lovett.

He describes touring and the special needs of a bicycle tourist. He has a pretty good overview of things so far though there are some things I wish he'd covered in more detail. I'm only about half way through the book so maybe he'll answer things in more detail later.

Things I'm interested in finding more about are.... trailers. BOB vs Burley. Why would one be better than the other? The prices are close. Most of the trailers I see in pictures on touring reports seem to be BOB trailers. The recumbent store I've been too carries Burley but can order BOB's. They didn't give me any really good reason why one is better than another and are happy to order BOB's if you like. Burley says they will carry more weight (100 lbs vs 70 lbs) but I'm not too sure I want to carry a lot more weight! The guy at the store said he has a BOB but it's not stable if you put more than 40 lbs in it. Another site I saw said 50 lbs was the magic number for stability at his height ans weight. I haven't seen any reports on the Burley. Does it matter if you use a recumbent trike? More stable closer to the ground? Less? And what about a tandem does the combined weight of the tandem and riders make it more or less stable? Lots to figure out. I guess not a big deal as I have lots of time.

Weigh-in tomorrow. I'm hoping for good news.

Am I Going about this the wrong way?

I do believe I'm going about this the wrong way. Yes the dieting is going well so far. I'm OK there. But the new bike/trike reward trip thing... Not so good.

First of all I don't have a clue where I want to go. Tons of places sound great. Many of the ones I've found that I would like are probably not what DH and DD would enjoy. That part is important to me too. That we all have fun. That's the whole idea, a vacation we all enjoy and no one gets left behind. So for now I'm going to concentrate less on where and more on getting there.

Second DH could well do any bike tour and rarely break a sweat. DD and I however just don't have bikers legs. And that is going to take some serious work. More than could be done during a few spring training rides. I don't think that summer 2010 sounds possible.

Third I still have almost 85 lbs to go. I theoretically could lose 85 lbs by then but it could also take me till winter 2010 too, or even longer. So if I don't get my bike/trike (still leaning towards trike but still not decided which I will get) till I lose the weight, and it takes me one riding season (or more) to get bike legs that would make it possible to ride and enjoy a tour. It could possibly take me till some time in 2012 before I was ready to take a tour. DD has to be ready too. So maybe sometimes 2011-2012 for a bike tour. The tour is sounding farther and farther away the more I think about it.

So lets forget about the tour for a while and just concentrate on the bike/trike aspect as a reward for losing the weight. The tour can be a reward for getting in shape for a tour. That would break the goals down to 2 distinct goals /rewards. Maybe that will make it easier to think about and not sound so far away, or quite so expensive.

So now to figure out just what I really want from a bike/trike... Lots to learn about there.