The Dump Tramp

A man travels with his home-built home on a bicycle. That’s all I know about this one. Thanks to artist friend Abner Preis for the tip but don’t go searching for his website – it seems to have been hacked into a porno site, I assume NOT Abner’s doing.

Speaking of houses on bikes I’d forgotten about this fantastic camper bike from Kevin Cyr:

kvincyr-5_camperbikeride2

UPDATE: Jason Moore in the first comment below reminds me of another bicycle camper/motorhome, this one traveled with and lived in full-time by Brian Campbell. His bike, which has gone through several iterations is ingenious. Brian’s situation though isn’t one to be envied; I’m under the impression he doesn’t live in his bicycle entirely by choice. You can read about Brian on Bike Portland, and also the sites of many others who’ve met Brian during his travels. Photos by Jonathan Maus of Bike Portland.

Brian and his motorhome bike-1

Brian and his motorhome bike-2

But then I begin to google camper bikes further and find that a whole new world has opened to me: bicyclists not content to merely travel by bicycle but who also insist upon sleeping in or on their bicycle. Take these Midget Bicycle Campers from Australia for example:

midget camper

And then there’s this one by Paul Welkins, as seen on the Design Boom site:

burning man trailer

Check out Welkin’s site for an amazing array of self-built, efficient vehicles and other random stuff.

Even the sober “doe maar normaal” Dutch are at it. Check out “Met een bakfiets op vakantie“.

camper bakfietsen

And a family from Zeeland (as in the original Zeeland that New Zealand is the new version of in the same way that New York is the new version of Amsterdam… or something like that) who used to ride their old bakfiets as a camper, kids riding alongside on their own little bikes.

zeeland-camper-bakfiets

A few years ago there was an Italian firm called “Tasso Italia” that offered (though probably didn’t ever sell) a copy of the Main Street Pedicabs trike with a pop-out camper tent on the bed but they seem to have disappeared into the ether.

Of course that’s all good fun but we shouldn’t ignore the countless rickshaw drivers in Indonesia, India and elsewhere who sleep in their bikes out of necessity and not for kicks. It’s about as easy to forget as the fact that a great number (a majority even?) of transportation cyclists in the US are neither “cycle chic” nor “cycling enthusiast”. In fact they’re people who cannot drive; they’ve either lost their licenses or are too poor to own a car, and their accident statistics are so appalling that they skew US bicycling safety stats markedly toward the danger direction.

8 Responses to “The Dump Tramp”

  1. Jason Moore Says:

    We have a pretty cool camper bike that cruises through Davis often: http://daviswiki.org/Human_Powered_Housing_Project

    Brian rides his styrofoam and bolt together aluminum spaceship all over North America.

  2. henry Says:

    Jason,
    Thanks for the reminder. I had indeed seen Brian Campbell’s bike on Bike Portland a while back but couldn’t remember much about it. I’ve added it above.

  3. alexis Says:

    …spaceship like ‘scraper bikes’ ….

    a tip from my pal Anthony who saw a film about these kids at the bicycle film festival. (see https://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com/ ). ive no idea why organiser Brent Barbour doesnt bring the show to Amsterdam…? i shall ask him. ive always seen something jaw dropping amongst all the fixie porn.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQGLNPJ9VCE

    …bike chic in da hood!

  4. alexis Says:

    I just found a great film that casts a little more light on the Scraper Bike Movement. here;

    https://www.streetfilms.org/archives/scraper-bikes/

    jolly good.

  5. Smut Bike Says:

    Finnish recumbent builder Sakari Holma has nice looking wooden trailer (and trike): http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3478/3928532665_711023ac00_o.jpg

  6. Chop! Says:

    Hi Chaps & Chappesses!

    Great site, thanks a lot! Can you add a link to my site which includes my Long-John, my Becak (Indonesian rickshaw) and lots of folders.
    Also there’s an A-Z of folding bikes

    Thanks safe cycling!

    Chop!

  7. henry Says:

    Hi Chop,
    Ahh, I now remember that I’d seen your site a long time ago, before bakfiets-en-meer existed. I just added it to the links – I hope you do the same if you haven’t already done so. Thanks.

  8. Anonymous Says:

    \In fact they’re people who cannot drive; they’ve either lost their licenses or are too poor to own a car, and their accident statistics are so appalling that they skew US bicycling safety stats markedly toward the danger direction.\

    I don’t believe that any of this is \in fact\ there are no studies differentiating and to posit that a person’s economic position is an indicator of their ability to bike safely (or as you imply- to not bike safely) is appalling.

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