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Outdoors

Lightweight caravan sleeps two adults, is towed by bicycle

By Adam Williams
November 07, 2014
Lightweight caravan sleeps two adults, is towed by bicycle
The Wide Path Camper should be available for purchase in early 2015 and set you back around US$2,500 (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
The Wide Path Camper should be available for purchase in early 2015 and set you back around US$2,500 (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
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The Wide Path Camper looks relatively roomy, and has enough space inside for a couple of adults and their kid or dog (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
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The Wide Path Camper looks relatively roomy, and has enough space inside for a couple of adults and their kid or dog (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
Inside, the Wide Path Camper has over 300 liters (79 US gallon) of storage space (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
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Inside, the Wide Path Camper has over 300 liters (79 US gallon) of storage space (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
When being towed, the camper folds into a more compact shape to make pulling it easier (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
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When being towed, the camper folds into a more compact shape to make pulling it easier (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
The Wide Path Camper should be available for purchase in early 2015 and set you back around US$2,500 (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
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The Wide Path Camper should be available for purchase in early 2015 and set you back around US$2,500 (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
A small outside kitchen area and an additional awning can also be attached (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
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A small outside kitchen area and an additional awning can also be attached (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
Solar panels can also optionally be added to the roof to enable the charging of low-power devices like smartphone (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
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Solar panels can also optionally be added to the roof to enable the charging of low-power devices like smartphone (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
The caravans pictured are all early prototypes and thus subject to change (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
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The caravans pictured are all early prototypes and thus subject to change (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
Johansen expects the finished model to be available for purchase in early 2015 (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
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Johansen expects the finished model to be available for purchase in early 2015 (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
It should set you back around US$2,500 (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
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It should set you back around US$2,500 (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
It has enough space inside for a couple of adults and their kid or dog (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
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It has enough space inside for a couple of adults and their kid or dog (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
It's also relatively light, weighing in at 40 kg (88 lb) unloaded (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
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It's also relatively light, weighing in at 40 kg (88 lb) unloaded (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
View gallery - 11 images

Denmark's Mads Johansen has designed a charming bike-towable caravan prototype that could – providing you're fit enough of course – prove handy for some long distance bicycle touring. Though still in the prototype stage, the Wide Path Camper should be up for sale early next year.

Compared to the Bushtrekka, the Wide Path Camper looks relatively roomy, and sleeps up to two adults and a child. It's also relatively light, weighing in at 40 kg (88 lb) unloaded – which compares favorably to the bike-towable Yurt we recently reported on that weighs a thigh-busting 110 kg (242 lb). Still, you'd probably want to take your vacation somewhere nice and flat like Holland with this thing.

Inside, the Wide Path Camper has over 300 liters (79 US gallon) of storage space (Photo: Wide Path Camper)
Inside, the Wide Path Camper has over 300 liters (79 US gallon) of storage space (Photo: Wide Path Camper)

The camper sports over 300 liters (79 US gallons) of storage space, plus a couple of seating areas and a fold-up table. The seating folds into a bed when required, and there are a couple of windows with curtains for privacy.

A small outside kitchen area and an additional awning can also be attached, and solar panels can be added to the roof to enable the charging of low-power devices like smartphones. The camper folds into a compact shape when being towed.

The caravans pictured are all early prototypes and thus subject to change, but Johansen expects the finished model to be available for purchase in the second quarter of 2015. Once complete, it should set you back around US$2,500.

Source: Wide Path Camper

View gallery - 11 images

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OutdoorsCaravanPrototypeBikes
11 comments
Adam Williams
Adam Williams
Adam scours the globe from his home in Spain in order to bring the best of innovative architecture and sustainable design to the pages of New Atlas. Most of his spare time is spent dabbling in music, tinkering with old Macintosh computers and trying to keep his even older VW bus on the road.

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11 comments
JeJe
Doesn't look a match for Kevin Cyr's Camper Bike or his Little Tag Along or Barry Howard's Micro Gypsy Wagon.
But 40 kg leaves weight for increasing the height for something you might be able to stand up in...
Les LaZar
It would seem that if the Caravan is light, it would be subject to wind loading, but if it is heavy enough to resist a cross wind, it will be too heavy to tow easily with a bike, particularly uphill.
grtbluyonder
I bike, canoe, sail, and fly. I have a rule of thumb which is "even if your trajectory is a circle, 80% of the time the wind will be on your nose".
In practice it's more like 90% of the time or perhaps it just feels that way.
Therefore, the last thing I would want behind my bicycle in a wind, is this thing. I can barely breathe just thinking about its aerodynamic drag. For those with massive thighs, this would be great exercise.
bergamot69
I think this would be highly dangerous- especially in a country with a lot of hills and fairly narrow roads such as the UK. You'd be blown about not just by the wind but by the backdraft of passing trucks. If you've ever had a car trailer start to snake on a downhill stretch of road you'll know how scary and how difficult to bring under control it can be. And a car trailer is much lighter in relation to the car towing it- which also has the advantage of a wide 4 wheel track.
Attached to a lightweight pushbike, with two very narrow wheels and a high centre of gravity- and where leaning the vehicle (or having something force you to lean, such as said caravan) would cause a catastrophic loss of control.
Idiotic and dangerous. Stick to a small bike trailer and a tent.
Daishi
I had an idea for something like this using a rail system for trailers to quickly attach/detach the contents within the trailer based on what you are using it for. It would allow trailers to be quickly reconfigurable based on need. Campling? Bolt in beds and kitchen stuff. Work? Bolt in toolboxes. Need to move an ATV or stuff? Remove toolboxes and ratchet down the ATV.
It wouldn't be hard to build a standard rail system to fill this role and you could always retrofit a trailer you own with the items you need for it after the fact.
Where it applies to something like this is that you could bolt in a battery pack that would hold a large amount of energy for an e-bike or even work as a range extender for a car on a long road trip. If you think about it people tend to buy automobiles with more space and range than they need 95% or more of the time so something like this could provide utility to smaller vehicles, motorcycles, and e-bikes.
Instead of a backup battery you could snap in a generator and use that to extend range if you want to use fuel instead of electric as a power source.
You could pretty much do grocery shopping with a motorcycle with a small trailer like this one: http://i.imgur.com/mU6wJEM.jpg
By using small trailers to meet the occasional need for utility people could start moving away from ~$40k 20 MPG SUV's used mostly for daily commuting. People sometimes have trouble backing up small trailers but I thought about that too. You could steer a trailer while in reverse by independently controlling the brakes on the left and right. There is at least one patent from 2006 on it (US20070228814A1) but there is probably prior art too.
Tom Lee Mullins
I wonder if the could be increased in size just enough for it to be stable enough for a small car or motorcycle to tow?
Perhaps add a wind deflector to the front so it would be more wind resistance and add more usable space inside?
I think this design has potential. It does indicate it is a prototype and might be changed. Prototypes usually are.
Slowburn
A tent is not that hard to put up.
Mel Tisdale
Instead of making a caravan for bikes, make it a trailer-tent. No cross wind problems worth worrying over, no wet ground problems and it could possibly be made capable of having adjustable width so that it is narrow on the road and wide at the campsite. But as is, forget it!
kiwi_daz
I agree with slowburn - this is design gone mad - ridiculous.
Michiel Mitchell
it can sleep two, so the other one will take the SUV... rite????
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