Vulpine Designs Unlimited

At Vulpine Designs Unlimited we have no room to park any motor vehicles, hence the business is based on orders delivered to your door. To get around this slight inconvenience, I decided to create something both environmentally friendly and practical whilst at the same time being small enough to fit through our hallway and alley. Based on the design at Re-Cycle.org, this bike trailer is a great way to shift larger objects or quantities of items without adding to our carbon footprint and is itself made from a recycled bicycle, a recycled recycling box, a ladder and a pipe bender!

Click the picture above to see the work-in-progress gallery.
Starting with a Townsend Impulse bike, I dismantled it, removing the wheels, the seat, the reflectors, the chain, the brakes, the derailleurs, the front fork and the handlebars.
Then I cut the frame on the top bar behind the handlebar column, a few inches above and also a little below the top bar on the seat column, and below the rear wheel hooks to release the upper rear forks, using a hacksaw with a new blade.

The top tube/bar slotted together perfectly with the front fork. The handlebar inner column, meanwhile, fitted nicely into the lower seat column, which is attached to the other end of the top tube/bar.
I lined up the desired angle of inclination for the towing arm (top tube) on the front fork, then drilled a hole through both and bolted them together with a 50mm roof bolt.
I drilled large holes in the sides of a small stepladder to take the wheelnuts and attach them to it near the curved top. Where the forks taper around the wheels, a pair of brake bosses could be found on each. At first I thought these could be fastened through the ladder frame directly, however this left the trailer wheels non-parallel. Using old computer case steel, my drill, a pair of phone books and tin-snips, I fashioned a pair of spacer brackets to hold the brake bosses and so the forks the right distance from the ladder frame to make the wheels parallel enough and held on with 50mm roof bolts.
I also used the bottom bar from the bike frame, including some of the handlebar outer column, to act as a rigidity bar across both forks’ brake & reflector bracket holes with more 50mm roof bolts.
The coupling on the towing arm is made from half a 22mm diameter pipe bender, brake cable and the handlebars.
First, cut the handlebars to one side of where the central bracket holds them to the column. Remove any remaining brake or gear handles and the rubber handle from this piece, and use a hammer and anvil (or failing that, concrete surface) to flatten one end. Do not try to use a small metalwork vice like mine, this only ruins the vice. If you have a large enough vice, however, use it. Drill three holes in this piece: one large and one small in the flat end of the tube, and one large in the semi-flattened taper of the tube to thread the brake cable through. The rubber handle can be re-used on the seat column left sticking out of the upper rear fork as a towing handle.
Cut the remainder of the handlebar in two and cut a notch in the end of the piece with the middle bracket usually around it.
Cut the pipe-bender roughly in half (aim to have 3.25 inches or so exposed between the handlebar pieces) using a hacksaw and pliers with serious caution due to the springy nature of pipe-bender. Don’t try to rush this.
Whichever half you think is the right one, it’ll probably be the other that you need. Pick the one that fits the handlebars best so that there isn’t too long or short an exposed length when both ends are fitted over it. Thread the brake cable through its large hole and an eye-bolt in the small hole. Leave semi-loose until the other end has been tied off around the notch, having been threaded up the inside of the pipe bender. Then tighten as tight as it can go without deforming the pipe bender. Ensure the spare cable is aimed away from the other large hole to avoid getting in the way.
The towing bar can then be attached to your bike’s rear wheel hub through the large hole. I also recommend the use of an elastic bungee cord stretched down from your bike’s carrier to prevent the coupling from loosening and dropping to the ground.
A box for the trailer was found in the form of an old recycling tub obtained years ago from a defunct-at-the-time-but-now-re-invigorated Kerbside recycling firm. With holes drilled at carefully selected points in the bottom, to match with where holes can be drilled in the ladder’s steps, I threaded bolts through those steps and then lowered the box onto them, using large washers to spread the pressure of the tightened nuts on the plastic. All that then remains is paint: I suggest a red oxide primer (particularly on the cut and drilled parts) and metal paint either by Hammerite or, for a colour not in their range, Halford’s mix-while-you-wait paint service (NB: strong fumes, use outdoors only). For decorating the box, Humbrol Enamel. Take care to avoid drips and spills.
This done, you’ll have a bike trailer that can lug a fair weight (limits yet to be tested – but I have stood on the ladder frame prior to the box being attached with no ill effects).
Originally, it had been intended for the ladder to still be able to fold out and be used if the trailer was tipped on end. This ended up not being the case here, but I’d like to see if someone else can make one that does this. Bike trailer transformer…

(Updates will be made to this post)