A trailer increases dramatically the amount of cargo you can move by bicycle, but despite there being a wide range of different types – from designs that carry kids and shopping to those built for expeditions – they are seldom seen on British roads.
One reason might be that it takes a certain amount of skill and confidence to tow a trailer with a bicycle.
Few would deny that trailers are practical, but is their appearance just too utilitarian? Enter the extraordinary bicycle trailers made by Cappel Custom Carts.
Styled to look like a tram, or a steamboat – or indeed anything else you might like to commission – the trailers are quite unlike anything else on the market. We can’t help but wonder what the steamboat trailer would look like at night with its decks draped with a string of battery-powered lights.
Traffic-free island inspires magical trailers
A quick look at the Cappel Custom Carts website reveals that the origins of the company’s distinctive designs. Founder Manuel Cappel emigrated to Toronto Island in Canada, a place where cars are banned and bicycles remain the primary mode of transportation, after walking.
Having discovered the virtues of cargo bikes, Manuel Cappel taught himself to weld and fabricated his first design by grafting the front end of a child’s bicycle onto the doctored frame of a regular adult model; the end result was a machine that looked somewhat ‘Frankensteinian’ but handled well enough and had nearly a half a cubic metre of storage or carrying capacity. According to the account on his website, Manuel eventually sold it to a neighbour; a somewhat back-handed testimonial to its utilitarian virtues evident in the fact that it was promptly stolen.
Cappel Custom Carts now builds all manner of cargo bikes as imaginative as they are practical, but the most creative aspect of the Cappel Custom Carts business remains the bespoke trailers that would surely add a dash of style to any trip.
The electric trailer that pushes your bicycle
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