1. Motorcycle Trailers - The Problem

This is going to be different from my other blogs. So far, all of my other blogs have been about renovating motorcycles and cars with the exception of the making of a miniature Land Rover.
This one is more about an attempt to find the ideal transport and personal accommodation for me and my motorcycles when I go to events.

I started attending vintage rallies about 20 years ago when I was talking to a supplier and was admiring a picture of a steam traction engine on the wall of his office.  He asked if I liked them? and I said "yes, I've always liked old vehicles no matter what type". It turned out that the steam engine was his and he said that he was attending a vintage steam rally at Belper in Derbyshire this weekend and would I like to go? He then asked me if I owned any old vehicles and I told him that all I had was a 1960 Lambretta Scooter.

He said "well bring it along". I said well  it's not a steam engine and he told me that these rallies show everything to do with vintage transport including Cars and Bikes, Tractors, old caravans, stationary engines etc. and that if I wanted to bring my scooter along, I would be most welcome. So I rode it to Belper and this picture shows it at that very first show. Little did I know that this was the start of a passion that has lasted over 20 years and the start of long lasting friendships. The man who said I should go is now a very close friend, as is his son who now runs "Unit Two Services" of Ilkeston and does metal fabrication and renovation. Also you will see in the picture, immediately behind my scooter, a lovely Norton Dominator Cafe Racer. I met the owner John at that rally and we have exhibited at rallies many times together ever since.

Although my scooter looked good, it was apparent that I would never win any prizes as there were bikes there where the owner had spent hundreds of hours making them "better than new" or as they called it "concours condition". I was hooked and decided I had to do that too.

Anyway, as I got more and more in to rallying the same problem kept occurring. These rallies are usually over two or three days and I had to ride the bike home every night and back again in the morning in any weather conditions. Also as I attended more and more rallies they tended to be further and further away and to ride a vintage bike over very long distances every day was just impractical. Most motorcyclists brought a tent for local shows and stayed over, but that didn't cure the long distance transport problem.

I was talking to my wife and told her that I was thinking of buying a motorcycle trailer, when she said "get an old caravan". I replied that a caravan would solve the accommodation problem but I still had to get the bike there. She then said in a very matter of fact way "put the bike inside the caravan". It seemed so obvious that I couldn't understand why I hadn't thought of it. What's more I really liked the idea. So we started searching for an old caravan.

We were looking around a caravan sales site and asked the salesman if they had any really old caravans that they wanted to sell and he took us to the back of the site and showed us this lovely old Thompson Glen caravan. It seemed ideal and had a double bed, a sink and cooking hob and a toilet compartment. What's more I could immediately picture how to convert it. So I became a caravan owner and towed it home.

Inside it looked like this, with a chest of draws at the back and two fitted bench seats.











The front had a cooker and sink along with a toilet compartment and a wardrobe.

So now it was time to figure out how to fit the scooter inside.  I cut the bodywork down from the bottom of the rear window and removed the central panel. A steel supporting frame was then added to the bodywork, either side of the opening and another steel frame was added to the door that had been cut out. This door was then fitted with a plywood back and hinges were welded to the chassis at the bottom. Two cover plates were then added onto the door edges to cover the gaps between the door and the body and two wooden feet were added at the top of the door to stop it dragging on the ground.


I moved the window stays higher up so that the window would open and provide a clear entrance and added two bolts inside the door to hold it shut.

Next came the interior. I made the chest of draws "free standing" so that it could be lifted out and then put back in again once the bike was loaded. This enabled me to park the bike directly over the axle to keep the caravan in balance when towing.

I then converted the bench seats so that they folded away to the sides and fitted four hitching points, two under each seat and then made an aluminium ramp to push the bike up. I found out later that it was actually easier to ride the bike up the ramp.

So there it was the complete conversion and ready to use at the next rally. I could now transport my bike and sleep and live in comfort. It was amazing to see people fascinated when I turned up at rallies and took my scooter out of the back of the caravan and then converted the van back to comfortable living quarters afterwards. By the way, the two interior pictures above were taken "after" the conversion.

The next big step was to add an awning and this gave me overnight secure parking for the scooter where it could be chained to the caravan and zipped up out of sight.

The final addition to this caravan, which I did a year or so later, was to add a gas refrigerator in the cupboard under the sink.

I used this caravan for about 8 years until one day, my wife said to me "If you get a bigger caravan, I'll come with you to the rallies". And so I sold this caravan for more that I paid for it and started on my next project, which you will see in the next episode.


You can contact me on hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

Copyright 23.01.18 all rights reserved.

My Other Blogs:
1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/before.html

1961 Ariel Arrow Super Sport Motorcycle :
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/1961-aerial-golden-arrow-restoration.html

Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html?view=timeslide

1971 VW Karmann Ghia Convertible Car:
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.htm