CapsulBike: The e-Bike Trailer That Has Everything, Including Kitchen and Bathroom

We're talking about e-bike trailers, tiny towables you can haul with your electric bicycle that offer the basics in terms of creature comforts and off-grid capabilities for one. To be sure, these small RVs are nothing compared to the towables designed to be towed by cars or trucks, but they're a definite upgrade over bikepacking or regular camping, if only on the consideration that you're not sleeping on the ground, exposed to the elements.

With the boom on the e-bike market came a boom in such bike trailers, as was to be expected. When you add motor assistance to make rides more effortless and longer, you can also increase payload, which, in turn, means you can add a towable to maximize comfort on the road. It all ties up nicely if you think about it.

This is perhaps the most complete bike trailer we've covered so far. It's called the CapsulBike, and it's a product from French company Tiny Vroum, which, as you might have inferred, specializes in pint-sized towables. Christophe La Cancellera is the inventor of the CapsulBike and the founder of the company. A carpenter by profession, he was always obsessed with travel trailers and was looking to build one for himself, which he could tow with his daily driver.

The prototype for the CapsulBike was actually a one-person trailer La Cancellera designed to be towed by the smallest passenger car. After shaving off more weight, reducing the footprint, and opting for a more aerodynamic shape, he ended up with the CapsulBike, a trailer designed for e-bikes. His invention was recognized with the Gold Medal at the 2023 Lépine Competition and the Leonardo da Vinci Prize.

The CapsulBike shown in the video below and some photos in the gallery is an earlier version, not the production model. The series production model features two side doors instead of the rear hatch access and appears slightly taller and shorter. Other than that, the features list is the same, so you get a very, very compact towable with basically everything you might need on the road for a few days.

That includes a kitchen setup, a bathroom, sleeping quarters, storage, rainwater collection, a solar system to run the lights and charge your e-bike's battery, and even safety elements like carbon monoxide detector and fire extinguisher. If your budget allows it, you can also add optionals like a rooftop tent for a kid, a projector for movie nights, or extra width on the trailer for even more comfort.

In standard spec, the CapsulBike measures 1.10 meters in width, 2.80 meters in length, and 1.40 meters in height (43.3 x 110 x 55.2 inches) and tips the scales at 69 kg (152 lbs). The basic package includes a 200 x 70 cm (78.7 x 27.5 inches) comfort memory foam mattress, the rainwater recovery and filtration system, and the solar package with a 140W solar panel and a 50-ah lithium battery.

The trailer comes with mandatory traffic lights, exterior spotlights, interior lighting, including an adjustable reading light, and a pair of USB outlets. There's even a cigarette lighter inside. The kitchen setup includes a 12-liter (0.4 cu-ft) thermo-electric cooler, a one-burner cooking stove, a folding table, a small cutting surface, and wall-mounted storage for cutlery, plates, and provisions.

Because of the compact dimensions of the trailer, the bathroom is just as compact. It's actually a folding cubicle with an integrated solar shower hooked up to a 10-liter (2.6-gallon) solar water tank, and a foldable WC with biodegradable bags, mounted neatly at the front of the trailer.

On top of the memory foam mattress, you get a heated sleeping bag and two recessed shelves at the head of the bed for storage. At camp, the CapsulBike sits on four stabilizing jacks, one on each corner. In the model with the rear hatch entry, the hatch extended living space outside, offering protection from the elements and allowing to set up the kitchen and dining area there.

The CapsulBike starts at €3,900, approximately $4,300 at the current exchange rate, not including shipping or optionals like the rooftop tent for the kids or the projector and screen. Deliveries are limited to just France and Belgium for now, but let's look at the full half of the glass here: this is the most complete e-bike trailer solution we've seen so far, and it's not priced in the $10K region like others before it.

This niche segment of the market is making considerable progress, and that can only be good news for cyclists looking to hit the road for extended periods.