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.
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
But 40 kg leaves weight for increasing the height for something you might be able to stand up in...
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.
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.
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.
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.