No one would willingly sleep in a coffin unless it’s a dare of some sort or done for giggles. Then again, not many cyclists are open to the idea of backpacking, so this is one case in which sleeping in something that Dracula might fancy for a bed becomes slightly more appealing.
The options list for a recreational vehicle is short if you’re into exploring the great outdoors on your bike, and the most popular option remains bikepacking. For those cyclists for whom bikepacking is a big no for whatever reason, companies have started offering bike trailers: after all, if we’re all making the switch to pedal-assisted or fully electric bicycles, we might as well tow something since we’re not putting in as much effort as before.
Bike trailers are yet to become mainstream, and that could be because of prohibitive pricing, which works against a higher adoption rate. Even so, they’re starting to be seen more frequently in the city, where they’re used to transport kids and goods, especially with cargo e-bikes. This trailer did it before it was the cool thing to do: it’s called the Bike Camper, and it’s a room on wheels, towed with ease by a conventional bicycle.
That’s the more generous description. The less generous one would be that it’s a plain box on wheels, a coffin in which you, the adventuring Dracula on his shining bike, will retire at night to get some shut-eye. Developed in 2015, the Bike Camper enjoyed shortlived but very high popularity, for which reason you can still find it mentioned online, especially in conversations about bike trailers.
Photo: Bike Camper
The Bike Camper was different from other trailers, even those developed today, in that it offered a full-length bed. At camp, you propped it up with four legs on each corner and then, opening a rear hatch, you pulled a telescopic extension, and propped that one too with what looks like a regular dual bike kickstand. The whole process was done manually in a minute, converting the little towable box into a slightly longer but still small space to sleep for the night.
The original model – and the only one to have ever been built, from what we can tell – was empty inside. There was a window on each side and the plywood floor on which to rest your weary bones at night, but with some imagination, it could have been turned into a more welcoming place.
We’ve seen bike trailers before, and some of them were turned into very cozy spaces despite their size: a shelf here, a pocket or two there, a foldable mattress, and a sleeping bag, and you’re all set. It’s not a proper RV by the textbook definition of the term, but for many, it might beat sleeping in a tent, on the ground, or under the stars.
The telescopic Bike Camper was unveiled in 2015 by its builder in Lorrach, Germany. That same year, it went on several trips out and about, and a dedicated website was set up. That said, whether there were ever any plans to bring this trailer into production, and they just didn’t pan out, is uncertain. We’ve reached out to the builder on this aspect, and will update the story when and if we hear back.
In 2018, the Bike Camper was sold on an online auction site, for an unspecified amount. The Bike Camper website is still online, but no longer offering any kind of information on the project – just a note that says that the trailer shown is a prototype that’s not for sale. If you’re a glass-half-full kind of guy, there’s also a positive note saying that maybe a crowdfunding campaign will bring it back into the spotlight, which would probably be good news for its many supporters.
Photo: Bike Camper
And that’s perhaps the best takeaway from this experiment: more than a flopped bicycle accessory, the Bike Camper showed what many cyclists already knew, namely that there’s high interest in a product of this kind. Sure enough, a bike trailer will never have the creature comforts of a proper RV and you will always have to make do in a cramped space, but this could be a typical case of choosing the lesser of two evils. Sleeping in a box must top sleeping on the ground.
With its telescopic extension, the Bike Camper was more compact in terms of storage than other bike trailers we’ve seen, yet still allowed for a full-length bed. It was also pretty lightweight and, with e-bikes becoming the norm, could have been made heavier without putting too much of a strain on the rider’s calf muscles. The bottom line is that this idea had some potential, and it’s a shame it wasn’t developed further – or, if it was, that it didn’t work out.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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