Crazy inventor builds a caravan to tow behind his 1400GTR!
Tiny home-built caravan is pulled by Kawasaki sports-tourer
Inventor Kevin Riggs built this caravan for his Kawasaki 1400GTR and says every time he takes it on the road he’s treated like a celebrity. “Cars pass on dual-carriageways and slow down alongside,” says the 55-year-old engineer. “You look across and everyone in the car is videoing and smiling. It’s the same at bike meets. I took it to Paignton and was getting more attention than £100,000 bikes!”
Riggs was inspired to build it after hearing about tiny caravans made by Swift years ago. “They made 10 as display pieces and were sold through Harrods, but I wanted to make one for a bike – so I did!”
“I spent a very long time working out the dimensions and whether it actually was possible,” Riggs told MCN. “My caravan is classed as a bike trailer and is the maximum size permissible: 2.5m from the towing hitch to the back and just 1m wide. So I bought an axle and then just built it in my back garden. People think that it’s made out of glassfibre but it’s actually constructed from plywood. But it’s still light, even fully-loaded it weighs just 141kg.”
It’s also fully-equipped: “There is lighting, USB points to charge your phone, a 12v fan for ventilation and an electric toilet with a removable cassette for waste. It’ll sleep two as well, though you do have to sleep on your side. You can lie down easily: I’m 6ft2in and it’s just a couple of inches shorter inside than that.
“I’ve done around 1000 miles in it so far. The GTR pulls the weight without any hassle, though you don’t want to go above 60mph. It’s not so much the stability as the aerodynamics; all the buffeting gets passed back to the bike. I’m thinking of taking it on a road trip to Germany, but I’ll avoid the autobahns!”
‘At Paignton I got more attention than £100,000 bikes’
CARAVAN BUILDER KEVIN RIGGS