Carrying a surveying tripod on a bike?

[ChrisA]

Has anyone managed to do that, or seen something that’ll hold a 1.2 metre tripod?

I only ask, because one of the things I do is measure houses and a certain amount of landscape, sometimes I could do with more accurate outdoor surveys including levels, so I thought about getting something that would need a tripod.

Should I just accept the restriction and get a cheap car for these odd jobs, or do you know of a method of carrying the tripod? The other bits should fit in a large topbox.

Thanks!

[tchizek]

I used to have a bike trailer that would have carried this - trailer that connects to a bike not a trailer that connects to a car to carry a bike. Unfortunately I got rid of it at a barn sale when we moved into our current house, and I haven’t had the need to look for this type of thing recently. I got mine at a high end bike shop when I was using my bike to commute about 10 miles to work back in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, so I don’t know if such a thing still exists.

[KleerKut]

I used to have a PVC pipe fitting attached to my bike that I could stuff my fishing rod in so I could ride around and go fishing. It made it a bit harder to get on to the bike, but otherwise worked quite well. I currently have a piece of 3/4" plywood with a couple pieces of aluminum angle stock attached next to the rear wheel mounting point to make a sort of shelf over the rear wheel that I can strap things down on. The trailer idea is another option if you have a lot of stuff to haul around.

I see people mounting bars with foam padding to mount surf boards on their bike, so with some creativity you can mount all sorts of things. My guess would be that the number of surveyors doing this is very low, so you may want to look at what photographers are doing:

How can I carry a tripod on my bike?

You can also do an image search for a couple ideas, but it is mostly clamps to mount cameras to a bike as a makeshift tripod.

[ChrisA]

bike trailer

Thanks for this , I have thought about a trailer, but it would knacker my bike and the mod’s would be quite extensive! Here’s my moped just so’s you know:

I used to have a PVC pipe fitting attached to my bike that I could stuff my fishing rod in so I could ride around and go fishing. It made it a bit harder to get on to the bike, but otherwise worked quite well. I currently have a piece of 3/4" plywood with a couple pieces of aluminum angle stock attached next to the rear wheel mounting point to make a sort of shelf over the rear wheel that I can strap things down on. The trailer idea is another option if you have a lot of stuff to haul around.

I see people mounting bars with foam padding to mount surf boards on their bike, so with some creativity you can mount all sorts of things. My guess would be that the number of surveyors doing this is very low, so you may want to look at what photographers are doing:

Thanks for this and the link , out of interest, what side of the bike did you mount the Pipe?

I just really wish compact tripods existed! I’m now thinking of a different solution which doesn’t require a tripod…just money…lots and lots of money

[tchizek]

Actually that makes it easier not harder. There are actual motorcycle trailers sold by I think Kawasaki or one of the Camper trailer companies. One of my friends had one about 5 years ago, but his wife made him get rid of both his bike and his trailer - he used it for hunting/fishing/camping trips and I know it was long enough to completely enclose his rifle case and the rest of his gear for a 1 week trip. Plus it didn’t slow his bike much - he still got a ticket for going 120 Km/Hr in a 50 Km/Hr zone while in Canada…