We could make this !! Would be awesome
With possibly some sort of electric assistance perhaps ? I like this even more than the van idea. A friend of mine worked for a company that had tricycles with massive capacity at the back, might be an idea if we have some advanced making skills.
Would the trailer have electric assistance? And you could attach it to any bike? Interesting idea!
Off topic: a couple of years ago, there was a trading standards sting on pedicabs that had electrical assistance, apparently it’s against the law to pretend you’re cycling a pedicab when you’re actually not.
You mean you need licence and insurance ?
I’d guess you need some of that in either case? Dunno.
I wouldn’t think you would for something unpowered
Is it the trailer or the electric assistance that counts ?
If wee need insurance for a bike… let’s take a damn van… Hahahahha
PS this is going off topic… let’s start another thread…
I would think it’s the advertising yourself as human powered bit, if it was Trading Standards who stepped in.
The electrical assistance bit I should imagine is fine. Although, is electrically-assisting the trailer, as opposed to the bike, feasible and safe? Trailers are usually pulled, rather than having them push.
Load cell in the tow bar controls the trailer motor. Feeds back to power / brake as required, basically making the trailer ‘invisible’ to the rider. Wouldn’t need any controls on the bike.
I think this is a brilliant idea.
I always assumed the load was detected on the pedals on these things
How would you get it to attach to any bike without too many tools ? Wouldn’t a dedicated electric bike be simpler ?
A dedicated bike wouldn’t be the right size for the majority of members, would it?
I’d clamp something to the seat post. There are tools in the space 
I seriously looked into cargo bikes a while back. Oh! What scuppered it was that I’d have nowhere to store it inside, and at £3k it wasn’t something I wanted to leave out the front. So… oh, ah, Makerspace has no storage room either.
We could fabricate one though, to keep costs lower, that would either be easier if it got nicked or more soul crushing. Hard to say.
I suspect that the dynamics will be all wrong. Pushing through a flexible link to a bicycle sounds like it might randomly jump in the weeds
My house mate has recently converted his bike (he’s a courier). It’s easy and relatively cheap enough to get a
hub to fit to the back wheel, putting the battery under/on the trailer makes alot of sense though in terms of
centre of gravity.
Yes that doesn’t change the dynamics of the bicycle. Drive is still from the back wheel .
thats a good thing!, same as a rear wheel drive pulling a car right? if if are worries about
the bike tipping back, then u can put the hub on front wheel easy enough, but prob some downsides to that as well.
Or go proper cargo bike instead of trailer
likely cross contaminating threads…I think a makerspace account on the zip van is a good idea, for non personal use anyhow
The dynamics of a bicycle are really complex .
For example if you turn the handle bars to the left you go right . At high speed but at low speed if you turn the bars to the left you go left .
If you don’t believe me try it . Be warned that the bicycle jumps into the corner if you apply sterling input at speed , a small amount of pressure on the inside bar is the best way to get the hang of it.
My point is that pushing the bicycle from behind the seat post may or may not work, or may work but suddenly stop working and put you in the weeds and then start working again.
BMW police motorcycles and zx10s had a similar problem.
My point is that this may or may not be more complicated than it first seams
My idea is not to have the trailer pushing the bike, but only providing enough force to cancel the extra load of the trailer. To the rider it would feel like there is no trailer.
Of course it’s already been done…