Brutalist Bike Trailer

[Philip]

Here is another picture I took. Which I did not think about doing yesterday. There was no cracking when I did that extreme bend the picture shows.

[sgraham]

Here is that 12"x12" sample I said I would make. Thickness .040"





This is a waterproof sample. It does flex. It would hold whatever shape you mold it to. It does have moderate impact damage. Weight on my cheap scales came in around 0.50 of an ounce.

Don't pay any attention to the pattern in the epoxy. I did a fast layup on a black trash bag not thinking about the pattern the plastic had in it.

That's very cool, thank you so much! I got some cheap 2.6 oz weave nearby to try to reproduce this here, and ... did an absolutely abysmal job, more bubbly parts than there were flat.

After some more testing, I do agree that light fibreglass seems like the most appropriate material, but I would definitely need to get more skilled at applying it.

[ghcoe]

I looked at a lot of commercially available bicycle trailers in Europe before I started my build. I wanted to get my head wrapped around their designs and dimensions. Most were teardrop in shape and about the same size as your dimensions. I would not overthink the arrow dynamics and side wind load that much. Just build it and go from there.

The reason I chose my design is that a boat travels by design well through water. I basically flipped a boat upside down. Having a pointed nose does help with head winds. It will also save you from a trip over the handle bars if you should hit something head on with a flat front wall. Having a flat back will push you with a tail wind. Also, having a slight side wall cure from front to back creates a lot of strength into the wall.

In general I don't like fiberglass. It annoys me. I have worked with it, but once I did PMF I wont go back to FG unless I have to for some reason. Foam and PMF is plenty strong and light for bicycle trailers.

Good luck, George.