Bicycle Teardrop

Teardrop shaped bicycle travel trailers & related information

Re: Kamp_rite follow-up

Postby jimqpublic » Fri Jun 18, 2004 9:47 pm

Mike Viger wrote:Does anyone know a Canadian supplier? If the cot is made in the US there will not be any import duty.


Just pop Paha Que an email at the address on their page. They are very responsive to inquirys.
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Postby tdthinker » Wed Jun 30, 2004 12:02 am

I would like a tear for my bike but I dont know how much I would use it? Plus all of are paths are quite hilly.
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Postby angib » Tue Jul 13, 2004 4:02 pm

I do hope no-one finds this message in poor taste - it is not intended to be.

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This photo made me think of Brian's desire for a bicycle camping trailer.

It is actually the funeral of a prominent British Green Party member and Oxford city councillor - he was cycled to the funeral by a former colleague (the coffin is cardboard).

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Postby jay » Wed Jul 14, 2004 4:56 am

i would hope everyone would think it's in poor taste. i mean, spending eternity in a cardboard box with pink guitars....? who in the world would think it was "good taste"?
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Postby tdthinker » Wed Jul 14, 2004 12:17 pm

We may finde it in poor taste but they may think it is one of the prettiest things to be barried in.
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Postby Grant » Wed Jul 14, 2004 10:25 pm

Oooo, Jay - please don't go there!

I would hope that everyone had the decency to respect a person's last wishes, whether we agreed (or even understood) with them or not ...
"Life Moves a Little Slower When You're on Teardrop Time" ... so kick back and focus on the Good Stuff!
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Postby jay » Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:12 am

point(s) taken
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small teardrops

Postby darockrider » Fri Jul 16, 2004 9:51 pm

mike,
I have built a small motorcycle tear which is 37" wide inside and mattress is 72long. It is full 1.5 sq tube frame-torsion suspension. 3/4" floor - 1/2" sides and 1/8" on rounded edge. .032 Aluminium all over. Has a opening door with slider window and a crank out window on oppsite site. Full 2" square drawbar. Even all of this only weighs about 275lbs. With a liteweight ALuminium frame and very thin plywoods the bed on wheels could be made very lite indeed. I would suggest an experiment using measured weight and a small trailer to see what the max you can pull and still paddle and control at your max speeds. Once you have a design weight you can build a structure to that weight limit. I would suggest a laminated type floor. Maybe 1/8" plywood on both sides of a sheet of strofoam. Check out the weight on a hollow core door for your house and see if it is strong enough to support your weight. It is basically 1/8" ply with a cardboard honeycomb.. For walls I would do a direct aluminmium sheet onto Styrofoam board. Warm and lightweight. I venture to say with a little experimenting on these principles a trailer under 60~70lbs is possible maybe even less depending on desired overall size.

If you go to my photo album on this site I have posted photos of both sides. This trailer has been coast to coast in Canada in 2002 and 2003. I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba

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Postby jay » Sat Jul 17, 2004 11:49 am

"gator foam" may be of some help. it comes in different thicknesses, can be cut with a utility knife with several passes, and is incredibly strong for it's thickness: weight ratio.

just requires a fertile imagination to use it....
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Postby tdthinker » Sat Jul 17, 2004 1:15 pm

Darockrider you sed build to your maximum cupassity. If you can handel alot you might want to make shure your brakes can too. Some bikes only have one brake for the rear wheel wich might not work well for a quiker stop and may give out. Now if you have a front and rear wheel brake than you should be fine since you have twice the stopping power. This may not sound like something you need but there is a good chance that someday some @$$ hole will pull out in front of you and that might be the day your backes let out and you know what happens after that. So I am telling all who may have over ooked the problem to check your brakes reg. just like your car.
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Postby jay » Sat Jul 17, 2004 7:11 pm

some of the bike technos might be able to shed light on a hydraulic brake - i think the extreme mountain bikers use 'em
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Postby Laredo » Sun Aug 22, 2004 10:07 pm

here is one source for a design ...
http://www.motherearthnews.com/index.ph ... rc&id=6552
Mopar's what my busted knuckles bleed, working on my 318s...
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Postby markapp » Thu Apr 07, 2005 11:01 am

If you are still working on this idea or even for other lightweight applications just a couple ideas on composite panels. Have you ever sledgehammered a hollow core interior door to shreds? It is typicly 2 skins less than 1/8 inch with a honeycomb of cardboard between. Very light worthless for impact yet capable of suporting a couple hundred pounds with just 2 sawhoarses. Small aircraft 15 years ago was using a honeycomb of some type fiberglass with 2 thin skins of sheet aluminum and spanned up to about 18inches solid as a rock yet very light. prior to that balsa core with aluminum skins was used. You can do much better than 3/4 ply if you do nothing more than start with an old hollow core door and cut off the solid edges or determine where they are and cut them down to 1/2 inch or so solid material around the hollow portion. you may also be able to lighten up and reduce towing problems by doing a single trail wheel outback and using say 2-3 drop down jacks for sleeping. 3 points will level easily on irregular surface. yet another possibility would be no sloid floor at all just a cot with drop down legs with something like a sheet of plastic or tyvec under to keep the fabic clean and dry as wel l as add dead air or bubble wrap for insulation. The top and sides could even be lightweight solid construction to give a better feel in wind rain etc. !/8 inch luan door skins with a layer of fiberglass should be plenty for sides and roof. I think with aluminum tube for frame and jacks salvage aluminum fork and mtbike tire fabric bottom and doorskin fiber glass sides you should be able to get the whole thing in at under the weight of a single sheet of 3/4 pine ply.
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Bike Trailer with the teardrop mentality.

Postby Tim Greiner » Sat May 07, 2005 4:01 am

Markapp- I think you are very close here, at least with the trailer part. Essentially make a bathtub out of foam insulation (the type that goes on the outside of houses) and cover it with 4 oz. fiberglass and epoxy. Attach the single rear wheel, it's the lightest and also the best for boondocking. Attach a "bob" type hitch. I think a "conestoga wagon" tent would work best for the top, leave it snapped to the tub while traveling and insert the poles in camp. Your pad and sleeping bag stay in the bottom, and you pile gear on top of the deflated tent when traveling.
As for the galley, I would hybrid between the backpacker and the car camp portable kitchen. Make a chest of drawer about 2' w x 1' h x 1 1/2' d and put your stove, fuel, cooking utencils, eating utencils, cleanup supplies, and breakfast & dinner food supply in it. This keeps all of them in one place, no digging into the panniers in three places. Add a coroplast windscreen with a top (for more counter space) around the top of the chest, this allows you to cook on the top of the chest. Some aluminum legs could be added if you want to save your back. There are too many disadvantages to having the galley attached to the trailer- it makes it too long or top-heavy, and you have to rotate your bed to cook downwind.
All this should reduce camp set-up time considerably- your bed could be ready in 5 minutes, dinner cooking in 10. Compared to at least 40 minutes to drag out a tent, clear a site, set it up, get out the pad & bag, and gather cooking stuff. More comfort than uneven ground. In the morning, breakfast is fast, and packing up is much faster than backpack style. With a minimum weight gain, you could cover 10 more miles in a day or see more sights or have time to sit down and enjoy a brew, by shortening camp set-up and breakdown. Isn't that the cornerstone of the teardrop philosophy, convenient and simple?

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Postby Miriam C. » Mon Oct 02, 2006 10:57 pm

Resurection Monday
Anyone ever build a full camper for a bicycle. My grandson is seriously working on a plan.

He believes Mad Jack's partner's bedroll will work. He is needing ideas for hooking it to the bike and axles. He is really excited about this and really short of money so Ideas would help a lot. 8)

Thanks
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