DIY Solar-Powered Bike Camper Has Unlimited Range, Drop-Down Tent

The conversation around vanlife and all possible variations of it has been ongoing these past few years. It's not difficult to see why: modern man is feeling stressed out, overwhelmed, unhappy, burdened, and stuck in a rut, and vanlife is proposed as a kind of miraculous escape from all that while still retaining livelihood.

In an ideal world and on social media, the modern nomad lifestyle is a sum of solutions for most modern problems and ills, providing meaningful experiences, affordable housing, reduced costs, a reduced carbon footprint, and even monetizing opportunities to all those who dare give it a try. Even if we're all grownups who know better than to believe everything we see on the 'Gram, the lure of this dream is irresistible, made slightly less so by prohibitive pricing.

There's always the DIY (do it yourself) route, of course. Today's example is a very good one in this sense, providing an alternative to all those super-expensive e-bike campers and trailers that have started popping up.

At the basis of this project is a motor-assisted recumbent tricycle, also built from the ground up. Dan from Far Beyond Ordinary describes himself as a modern nomad with a fixed base in Wisconsin and an inventor who believes electric vehicles to be the future. He usually travels in a self-converted van, but for shorter trips, he favors smaller vehicles like the one we're looking at today.

Inspired by Europe's velomobiles, which are essentially enclosed trikes with or without motor assistance, this bike camper was more than a year in the making. Dan started building it in late 2021 and was done with it in the fall of 2022. He continued tinkering while he took it out before settling on the most suitable configuration.

In the summer of 2023, Dan took the solar-powered bike camper on a 400-mile (644-km), 6-day adventure that confirmed that it was the ideal small-scale EV for adventurers looking to sample some of that wanderlust on a budget, with some degree of comfort, and unlimited range.

This was actually Dan's fourth build of the kind, and he would later say that it was neither the lightest nor the fastest of the bunch. That would be his second velomobile, which turned out so lightweight it could hit 20 mph (32 kph) without motor assistance and no effort, but which sadly had a range of just 30 miles (48 km) per charge.

This one doesn't know this kind of limitation, though it's much slower. That's because it's longer, more angular, and heavier than its predecessor and also because it has four flexible solar panels on the roof. They total 600W and power the mid-mounted motor with help from a 30ah 24V battery mounted inside, on the rear wall of the camper section of the build. On completely overcast days, on battery alone, the bike has a range of 25 to 30 miles (40 to 48 km).

To assist the motor, Dan opted for a two-speed sprocket on the front wheels and a six-speed derailleur in the back. The vehicle comes with a taillight with braking lights, a front headlight, strobe lights up on the panels (front and back), a loud horn, and a windshield to protect Dan from the elements.

With the issue of range anxiety more or less sorted out, this bike camper also takes care of other needs of digital nomads. It offers USB ports for the devices, a phone mount, and, most importantly, comfortable sleeping quarters by means of a drop-down tent hidden on one side of the lightweight shell.

Dan shows the set-up in the video tour below: once the camper is parked and the cover goes up on the cabin to protect from the elements and prying eyes, you lift up the side with the integrated tent and get to work on it. More like a regular tent, you have poles and ropes you have to secure to make the structure stable. Since the build is coroplast, you need all the securing you can get to keep the shelter from coming apart in the wind.

You might argue that the difference between this camper and bikepacking is not significant since you're still sleeping on the ground. You're right, you're still sleeping on the ground, but the rear camper section offers enough storage space to haul all gear and provisions, an air mattress, and more comfort than you could get with whatever you could pack in your bag for overnight accommodation.

As a mobile shelter or a mobile home, this bike camper pales in comparison to larger builds or even products designed specifically for e-bikes. But it's cheaper than all these, and it virtually costs nothing to run while also covering the basic needs of an adventurer, provided he or she isn't too picky about accommodation.

More importantly, taking out a bike camper like this comes with a sense of pride you'd probably not get with something you buy from an established company: the pride and joy of knowing this is something you made. Dan's smile when talking about it really speaks louder than all the words coming out of his mouth.