Large capacity cycle goods trailers are generally rather ugly contraptions, particularly if home-constructed, so I thought you might like to see the matching trailer I made for my Giant Lafree.The basis is a 13kg French Vantly cargo trailer bought from discounter Cycle King of Croydon for just £79! The original steel surround was removed, and this much larger aluminium frame attached with four coachbolts.The materials used were two Beldray 7-tread step ladders on offer at Do-it-All for £15 each, plus an old 2-step ladder.

Step ladders sound an unlikely raw material for trailer construction, but if you think about it, they're cheap, well-finished and light. Tony has since produced a longer body using the same construction. Several suitable cheap trailer chassis have come onto the market recently

The ladder’s rubber feet were attached at the rear, so the trailer stands on it’s tail whether loaded or not.The construction is pop-rivetted and amazingly strong.

The weight with the hitch is 14kg – only 1kg more than the original trailer, despite the huge increase in capacity.The hitch is designed to put the trailer directly behind the bike to help negotiate the many combined pedestrian/cycle paths in my heavily-trafficked home town of Croydon.The low pulling point and accurate tracking make the trailer a pleasure to use. On the bike, the load is spread between several points on the rack – I expected to add a frame brace, but in two months, carrying loads of up to 70kg in this hilly area, it hasn’t proved necessary.

Incidentally, I fitted the non-standard crossbar (a length of chromed-steel tubing) on the Lafree because dealers only had stocks of the step-thru ‘ladies’ bike when I bought it. One operational point – the Lafree’s rear ‘horseshoe’ lock makes an excellent handbrake when parking the outfit on hills.

Total cost of the trailer was £120 – completely out of proportion to the interest attracted by its co-ordinated appearance. I’ve ruled out a matching silver lurex leotard though! (Shame. Eds)