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Dog Walking Leash For Bicycles
After buying a chocolate Labrador puppy, avid bicycle rider Dean Keyek-Franssen of Lafayette, Colorado, started looking for a way to take his dog along while he rode.
He found an attachment that clipped to the dog's leash and used a spring as a shock absorber, but it wasn't long before the spring broke.
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Dog Walking Leash For Bicycles FARM HOME recreation 26-4-31 After buying a chocolate Labrador puppy, avid bicycle rider Dean Keyek-Franssen of Lafayette, Colorado, started looking for a way to take his dog along while he rode.
He found an attachment that clipped to the dog's leash and used a spring as a shock absorber, but it wasn't long before the spring broke.
Keyek-Franssen soon came up with his own design, using a molded flexible urethane rod that mounts into a bone-shaped plastic bracket attached to the bike's rear triangle.
"The rod is rigid enough to hold the lead, but can bend 90 degrees in any direction without breaking to absorb jolts and bumps that might be transferred from the bike to the dog, or from the dog to the bike," he says.
He designed a special harness for the dog that attaches to a 13 to 15-in. cord. "It's long enough to keep the dog away from the pedal, but short enough to keep him from getting in front of or behind the bicycle," he explains. The urethane rod fastens to a bracket on the bicycle with a single pin. "If you want to get off the bicycle and take your dog walking, you just pull the pin and you have an instant leash."
Keyek-Franssen calls his patented invention BikerDog. It's been available for a few months in areas around Boulder, Colorado, and he's negotiating with a national pet supply retail chain to make it more widely available.
He's also developed a version that allows people who use wheel chairs to take their dogs with them. BikerDog allows the user to keep both hands on the wheelchair or bicycle for safety.
He notes that BikerDog should be used with a certain amount of common sense. "You can bicycle faster than a dog can run," he says. "It's not meant to be used at top speed. That wouldn't be safe for the dog or the rider. Rather, you need to ride more leisurely, at a speed that allows the dog to trot or run comfortably alongside."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dean Keyek-Franssen, BikerDog, 2015 Stonehenge Circle, Lafayette, Colo. 80026 (ph 303 665-0607; E-mail: info@bikerdog.com; Website: www.bikerdog.com).
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