Know-How Exchange : Other

There seems to be a few open questions. In regards to makers of bike trailers - guess you will need to talk to bike builders and such. Bay Area has quite a few, but they often are high end. Stop in at some of the local shops and you would get names.

Other option would be to buy off the shelf trailers and just modify them. B.O.B, Burley, Xtracycle, Carry Freedom, Extrawheel , and Croozer are brands that make trailers.

With this route, seems you have a few options. One option would be to get a trail along bike (single wheel - example being Target's WeeRide Pro-Pilot Bicycle Training Accessory) and remove the pedals and saddle and turn it into a large flat double-sided sign.

Another option would be a 2 wheel trailer (side by side wheel - like what is used to haul kids) and turn it into a 3 dimensional sign, either a 3 face or 4 face (so not just visible side to side, but also by front or back).

I'd lean towards 2 dimensional sign, as the single wheel means less wide, so easier to fit through traffic and such.

Might be worth thinking through the sign size and how it is mounted. If you choose a standard size for the sign (one which a local print house could make for a reasonable price) and make the mount so that the signs can be easily removed/replaced, you could make it easier to use these as ad campaigns change. But you also want to choose signs that are as large as possible for visibility, but not so large that it becomes unwieldy for the cyclist to control.

The trailer I pointed to is some $150 at Target. I'd imagine for another $50-100, you could hit up a hardware store for off the shelf parts to make a workable sign mount. Add in printing of your signs, and you could have a trial going pretty cheaply. Wouldn't be the lightest/sharpest set up, but a cheap way to get going.

If you wanted to make new custom trailers, I know a guy who took the bike building class at Bicycle Institute and has picked up the equipment to start making frames himself. He has only made a few so far, but that could mean that he would be price competitive. Lives in SF (and that is where his equipment is), but works for a bike shop on the Peninsula.