It seems only natural, then, that the bike camper market finds itself maturing beyond oddball, one-off garage creations to polished retail trailers. Over the years, we've seen a small but diverse array of European bike caravans, from the folding Scout, to the inflatable B-Turtle, to the amphibious Z-Triton. Now another emerges in the form of the Mody bicycle caravan, a classic tiny teardrop made from lightweight composites and specced for road touring, mountain biking or a little of both.

Founded in 1995, Rösrath, Germany-based ModyPlast specializes in composite race car components. In 2020, it watched the market instantly shrivel to nought as the COVID-19 pandemic blanketed the globe and forced the cancelation of racing events. So ModyPlast turned its attention to a dormant side project: a compact caravan designed to be towed via bicycle. Beyond having some newly found free time to seek a new revenue source, the company determined the timing impeccable — modern advances in electric bicycle design have made bike campers more attractive and practical.

ModyPlast's Mody bicycle caravan utilizes the structural strength of composite design to eliminate the need for a metal chassis or internal frame, thereby cutting weight for easier bicycle towing. Made from the buyer's choice of vacuum-sealed foam-core carbon fiber or fiberglass, each trailer is cut and shaped into a teardrop-style form with a sharp-dropping roofline. Given the absence of a metal chassis, the tow bar and axle are bolted directly to aluminum inserts in the floor, which is crafted from a heavier, load-supporting composite/foam construction.

Unlike other bicycle camping trailers we've seen in the past, ModyPlast's caravan doesn't feature any foldable or collapsible mechanism, riding along as a full-size mini-teardrop. At 146 to 150 cm (57 to 59 in) tall, depending on version, it rides lower than the cyclist doing the pedaling but is certainly too wide to travel down singletrack or tight, crowded paved paths.