Lauren an avid cyclist discovered this cool little shelter at Target and thought you might be interested in it. I think this fits in with the homeless shelter area of our discussions but could also be used in many other ways too. At $849 it is not the cheapest shelter out there but it is very unique and may be what you are looking for.
Innovative and unique, the Midget Bushtrekka Bicycle Camping Trailer is perfect for the cycling/camping enthusiast. With 120 liters of storage capacity, you can go days without having to resupply.
Constructed of high-strength aluminum and 600-denier ripstop nylon, the Bushtrekka is one rugged trailer. This one-of-a-kind pivoting wheel set and alloy wheels make for a comfortable ride over most terrain. The Bushtrekka is fitted with safety reflectors, safety tape and adjustable stands. When you are finished cycling for the day, settle in, make camp, unfold your oversize tent cot and have a great night’s sleep.
Visit the Outdoors Done Rite website to get more information.
Tent Cots are rather pricey on their own, but that is a bit too high. A similarly sized bivy tent is easy to find around $40, and really good ones can be had for twice that. The Tent Cot will run around $140 or so, if you look around so I do not see where the $700 is in that design. Even at the high full retail, it is $200 so your looking for $650 of cleverness, and it’s just not there. A good design though, just way over priced.
Very cool. Seems like a great setup for bike touring.
Pricey, but then most bike trailers are… and this one has a pop up too!
I like it. It is a bit pricey but what it can do for you, wow! I can tell you that having the ability to disconnect and go someplace for groceries, laundromat or sight-seeing is a big plus when bike touring. The storage is fantastic! If need be, you can still add paniers to the bike. The only thing I could see that would increase the value for very little if any increase in price would be a rain fly (tarp?) that is big enough to house your bike and keep it out of the rain as well as give you a place to set out a small camp chair instead of being couped up in the tent all day. This is something that I will certainly investigate more when the time comes for my long haul across America.
A 10×10 ft. nylon tarp with attached ties (such as a Campmor 22220) can be rigged to a tree, canoe paddles, ropes, the side of your tent, or anything else near your campsite. Just take some lightweight nylon rope to complete your porch/garage/fly. Takes almost no space, weighs almost nothing, and is totally useful every night.
“Constructed of high-strength aluminum and 600-denier ripstop nylon”
Overbuilt mountaineering tents are usually made out of 60 denier ripstop. The fabric they use for this thing is 10x the mass of that material. Seems more than a little overkill to me.
“Very unique” does not make any sense. This bicycle shelter is either unique or it isn’t. There are no degrees of uniqueness.
I think the argument could be made that the word “unique” is being used here, as it is often used in advertising, to mean “worthy of being in a class of its own.” If that is the intended meaning (as it often is, and appears to be here), then something could certainly be more or less unique, or more or less worthy of its own class.
That’s my pet peeve too. Unique is unique.
I would prefer a locking storage trailer with a generic camping tent simply stored in the trailer. Increases the flexibility for camping and hauling.
Thanks so much for the opinions. Much appreciated as I’m starting to think about bicycle touring!
I’m with JP on this … I like this more as inspiration on what could be done, and less as something to buy as a finished product.
A tent cot installed on a trailer could flip over to set up and underneath have as much or more storage for substantially less money. Generously $200 for the tent-cot and $100~$200 for the trailer and your still $400 or more ahead on the deal.
And, of course, if the tent-cot flips out to the back and expands crossways, then there’s ample room for a double tent-cot, where this approach of the tent cot set on top of the storage is pretty much restricted to one.
Two-wheel trailers with 20′ wheels do pretty well on very sketchy trails in the back of beyond in Africa, I expect one would go anywhere I’d want to be riding a bike.
How are these for long distance riding? This looks cool, but when cyclists spend big bucks to shave a few ounces off a water bottle cage or a set of pedals, I can’t imagine what adding 56 pounds with gear does.
Weight on a trailer is not exactly the same as weight on the frame … but one of the advantages of a trailer is the better aerodynamics than panniers, and this designed looks like it is sacrificing much of that as well.
A number of years ago I bike toured around the largest fresh water lake on the planet…In nearly 2500 miles of travel…the key is light weight. I carried every thing on the bike using panniers, a bivy bag provided small shelter.
If I were to do the trip again, and have 5 star accommodations a small Bob Trailer and 2 person lightweight backpacking tent would pass this rig in a heartbeat…at half the cost
I didn’t see any specifications for this trailer but I’m guessing that it is close to or over three feet wide. I think it would be difficult to claim enough of the road to be safe on two lane highways in a lot of places. I prefer the single track of the BOB over even a Burley or other two wheel cargo trailers which are much narrower than this.
Impressive but a rather overbuilt, overweight, overpriced solution to the simple need for a tent and extra luggage capacity. It looks good in a show room but I imagine would cause more worries in the field.
I’ve used the “Tent Cot”, before liked the idea, the comfort, just did not like the shower that I got every morning when getting up. I have limited touring under my belt and still prefer my Hammock and panniers as the lightest and most economical way to go. I do like all that cargo room.
They should make one for motorcycles, that’d make more sense
Ive been trying to contact them for about a month to see if it would hold up being pulled behind a Honda 700 Magna, i think i’m going to try it anyhow for a cross country trip, it has everything I need but im not sure about how it would do at high speeds.
Best solution every long distance cyclist prefere is top quality touring gear inside pannier just to save weight. I have to admit that sometimes circumstances force me to pull behind my modified MTB on my long birding trips my cargo Cruiser or Burley Nomad trailer just to accomondate my camping gear and all kind bulky ornithologist equipment. Bushtrekka is to heavy and absolutely useless for long distances bicycle tours even on asphhalt. Who want to pull this heavy bath on 4 wheels up to steep hills. I ride mostly fully loaded bicycle about 9000 miles every year , 1/2 this distances in Rockies …..
The ‘Midget Bushtreka’ is not good for any long distance touring. I could not go very fast and the wheels broke…it is really strong on the top but weak on the bottom. This would be good as an emergency shelter but no long distances. (I don’t get the weakness of the 4 wheel design? It really seems almost better to have 4 spaced apart wheels and the front would be turnable (at least). I really hope this design improves! Oh and be smaller and lighter. I am going to use some other trailer to put it on top of and use it as an emergency shelter. (But it won’t go very far on the road with me).
I think that I can build a rig with a similar setup for about 300 witch makes it affordable shaves off about maybe 20 pounds and shaves off about 500 bucks is this a challenge yes I think so but would it look as nice maybe I would have to put in lots of time in witch thankfully I have for this project me and my wife like to bike around so this is a project with my time well spent I will try to do such a thing and keep you posted