jayshapiro
Adventurer
Stupid Idea -- or -- Stroke of Genius?
Hi Guys,
Hope you can help me with an idea I'm working on.
We're currently building our F-650 based camper called EcoRoamer, for the family's round-the-world two year adventure.
Like "Mogcamper" in his thread What bike on the back of a camper? we want to carry a small dirt bike on the back of the camper for getting into town for groceries, and exploring places to small for an F-650 to fit.
I won't get into the debate here of whether a KTM640 or TW200 are better choices for us (I'll leave that to the ongoing discussion in the other thread) but let's just say we've spent the past 13 yrs living in SE Asia, where the Honda Cub 90 is the local idea of the family minivan:
(so, no I don't by the argument that you need a 600+ if you have two people)
The trouble is we have four people. Two parents and two kids. We thought about getting something like the Kawasaki Mule Diesel 4x4, but that's just too big to hang off the back of a camper. (1600lbs!)
So here was my idea... We have a 2 kid bike trailer / jogging stroller from Chariot that we love:
The wheels come off it with quick release mounts, and as you can see at the front of the trailer are two integral mounts for the trailer hitch to lock into.
I was thinking of custom fabbing an aluminum sidecar that looks like a cargo tray with 6" lips around the side, but build it so that the kids trailer can lock into/onto it. Then on the side of the trailer do a dirt tire floating suspension single wheel, that is also removable.
That way, when we don't want to use the bike, we take off the side car, remove the kids cabin (which folds flat) and the wheel - then mount the side car vertically on the back of the camper together with the bike.
I think this would give us a nice working solution for carrying 4 passengers (and some groceries) and yet be 'foldable' enough to compactly mount up on the back of the camper for when we are underway.
As a caveat I should add - that I have never ridden with a sidecar, so I'm talking out of my *** - but it seems like a good idea.
I thought I would turn it over to all of you to tell me why it is a great/stupid idea.
Any help is most appreciated!
Thanks,
Jay.
Hi Guys,
Hope you can help me with an idea I'm working on.
We're currently building our F-650 based camper called EcoRoamer, for the family's round-the-world two year adventure.
Like "Mogcamper" in his thread What bike on the back of a camper? we want to carry a small dirt bike on the back of the camper for getting into town for groceries, and exploring places to small for an F-650 to fit.
I won't get into the debate here of whether a KTM640 or TW200 are better choices for us (I'll leave that to the ongoing discussion in the other thread) but let's just say we've spent the past 13 yrs living in SE Asia, where the Honda Cub 90 is the local idea of the family minivan:
(so, no I don't by the argument that you need a 600+ if you have two people)
The trouble is we have four people. Two parents and two kids. We thought about getting something like the Kawasaki Mule Diesel 4x4, but that's just too big to hang off the back of a camper. (1600lbs!)
So here was my idea... We have a 2 kid bike trailer / jogging stroller from Chariot that we love:
The wheels come off it with quick release mounts, and as you can see at the front of the trailer are two integral mounts for the trailer hitch to lock into.
I was thinking of custom fabbing an aluminum sidecar that looks like a cargo tray with 6" lips around the side, but build it so that the kids trailer can lock into/onto it. Then on the side of the trailer do a dirt tire floating suspension single wheel, that is also removable.
That way, when we don't want to use the bike, we take off the side car, remove the kids cabin (which folds flat) and the wheel - then mount the side car vertically on the back of the camper together with the bike.
I think this would give us a nice working solution for carrying 4 passengers (and some groceries) and yet be 'foldable' enough to compactly mount up on the back of the camper for when we are underway.
As a caveat I should add - that I have never ridden with a sidecar, so I'm talking out of my *** - but it seems like a good idea.
I thought I would turn it over to all of you to tell me why it is a great/stupid idea.
Any help is most appreciated!
Thanks,
Jay.
