1900 Bicycle Trailing Car (Passenger Trailer)

“TRAILERS need to differ so much in point of strength and weight according to the class of work they are required to do, that we find it very necessary, in order to give satisfaction to everyone, to build them to suit the special wants of our clients. Light trailers built for use with ordinary Cycles are useless for Motor work, and strong Motor Trailers are needlessly heavy for Cycle work.”

 

1900s Bicycle Trailing Car

(Passenger Trailer)

26 x 1 1/2″ Wheels

(Fitted to 1905 Raleigh x Frame Tricycle for illustration purposes)

Many firms supplied these Passenger Trailers in the early 1900s, though they were not a satisfactory option for transporting a passenger by cycle as they were too heavy to pedal uphill. The advent of the motor tricycle and the motorcycle solved that issue, but created a new problem – mud splattered onto the rear passenger from the wheels of the motorised machine in front. By 1904 human ingenuity managed to solve that problem too …by inventing the sidecar!
The ‘trailing car’ thus became obsolete overnight.

This example is in good functional condition. The previous owner reports that there was initially an issue with woodworm on part of the wicker seat, which was then treated.