1940 Cyclist Takes Bed Along
Glen, one of our readers brought this cycle trailer from the 1940s to my attention as well as this cool blog that is called Modern Mechanix – Yesterday’s Tomorrow Today.
This page is dedicated to trailers and has many cool ideas from the good old days that we can apply to our thinking today.
Photo and verbiage courtesy of Modern Mechanix.
Cyclist Takes Bed Along in Homemade Trailer
Towing his sleeping quarters behind him in a compact trailer, an eighteen-year-old cyclist of Menominee, Michigan, recently traveled nearly 1,200 miles to Boston, Massachusetts, economically and comfortably. Post cards that he sold to curious spectators paid for his supplies during the fourteen-day journey. Streamline in shape, the sturdy trailer is a homemade product of his own design. He is shown above demonstrating his sleeping quarters to an admiring hotel doorman.
7 Responses to “1940 Cyclist Takes Bed Along”
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Neat little trailer for a bike…probably pretty claustrophobia inducing but a lot like a teardrop…check out that bike…a single speed…probably a pretty rough 1200 miles over some hills and rises….great article….thanks
And, it says he made the trip in 14 days! With 2 rest days, that’s 100 miles a day!!!!!
Great website and some wonderful designs. The bed trailer for the bike would be perfect for Burning Man.
Seen Brian Campbell’s RV bike? http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/bike-trailer-homes.php
Yes Gregg, I reported on it in an earlier blog post, you can view it here: http://tinyhouseblog.com/tiny-house/brians-bike-motorhome/
Thanks for the heads up though as I did not realize treehugger had grabbed the story too.
[...] Dreaming of Simple Housing Posted on 2009/12/10 by Tomas I’ve been taking more time to figure out what I want to live in. I could build myself a mini house with readily made plans or just go a simple route and buy a camper trailer then rent a vehicle to have it towed to my living location. The Tumbleweed House is one option with plans available for $99. It could be built with reclaimed resources from the Rebuilding Center much like others have done. Ideally, I would live like a Technomad. I would take my home from location to location while working as a freelancer in my trailer or where ever I happen to be. I even thought about living on the road simply powered by my own two legs like Steven Roberts and his Behemoth. There are people that live pedal-powered like Brian Campbell as featured in BikePortland.org. Although, I have packed my bicycle for extended trips, I’ve never taken it away for more than a few nights. Someday, I will ride across the USA. I’ve been working on my very own plans for a pedal-powered home via a trailer or trike configuration and hope to have a prototype within 2010. As much as I would like to work on getting my own miniature housing, I’ll be spending the next 36+ months focusing my efforts on going to school for a degree in Industrial Design. However, should the chance present itself to live in a trailer or other tiny space, I’ll take it. More Tiny Pedal-Powered Homes http://thistinyhouse.com/2009/pedal-powered-tiny-homes/ By no means is a pedal-powered home original http://tinyhouseblog.com/tiny-house/1940-cyclist-takes-bed-along/ [...]
What a kid. He was only 18 and he did it on a single speed bike. Today he would have been robbed and beaten. That was a great generation back then. Good article