[quiff]

Talk to me about cargo bikes! Following cargo related comments in the live blog today, I thought I’d spin it off into a forum thread for people to share experiences of cargo bikes. Front-loaders, long-tails, electric and acoustic, all welcome.         

Topic

[quiff]

Thanks, there was another

Thanks, there was another vote for the Helios in the live blog comments yesterday – I have seen one or two around, but hadn’t appreciated the platform is adaptable. Will have a look.    

[JustTryingToGetFromAtoB]

I currently have Tern envy, a
I currently have Tern envy, a family near me use it for the school run and shopping. When on mat leave I considered it but because I was going back to work it seemed a lot of investment for a short period of time. Plus, storage.

We’re quite hilly round here, I think the breakpoint for me on cargo will be when I get older and the hills become more challenging with the shopping. At that point I’ll be all in.

[HoarseMann]

We ditched the 2nd car for

We ditched the 2nd car for three years and I did the school run on a Circe Helios tandem with one kid stoking and another in a GMG Yepp junior seat on the rear rack (seat with a 35kg/9 year old rating & solid rack rated to 55kg). No electric, so it was a bit of a grind uphill. At some points (when I called out for a turbo boost!) I could feel some extra effort from the stoker, but most of the time, it seemed I was pedalling to move my kids legs around as well as propelling the bike forward!

It’s an adaptable bike, can take an adult stoking or a kid and you can replace the rear seat with a cargo deck. However, it doesn’t have weather protection for kids like the GSD.

I fawned over a Bullit, but it was way more expensive than the Circe and the kids would have quickly outgrown it.

If looking now, I would get the Helios if you would use it as a tandem with your other half, or the Tern GSD otherwise, with electric assist. Or a Junior seat if you can find one in the UK and your current bike/rack would take the weight.
 

[Rich_cb]

Mine has enabled me to ditch
Mine has enabled me to ditch my car club subscription which is probably saving me about £300/year.

Will pay for itself in about… 15 years

[dave atkinson]

Most of the time I ride a

Most of the time I ride a Tern GSD S10 – it’s my commuting bike, and shopping bike, and town bike, and pub bike. It’s without doubt the best bike i have ever owned*. It’s great. You can get a fully grown friend on it, or two kids, or about £200 of Lidl groceries, and ride the steep hills of Bath easily enough. It fits through nearly any stupid bike infra and it lives in the shed like a normal bike.

I’ve ridden and reviewed the S10 (derailleur) and the enviolo and rohloff ones. I prefer the S10, personally. okay it’d be a faff to do derailleur tinkering and stuff but the drivetrain is so well protected that you hardly ever need to. round here all you need to do is change the brake pads with alarming regularity.

*i don’t actually ‘own’ it 🙂

[Steve K]

I’ve got the chance of a deal

I’ve got the chance of a deal on a GSD.  Seriously tempted, but not sure I can justify it at the moment.

[quiff]

Thanks. The kid experience is
Thanks. The kid experience is another part of the equation for me. When we tried a box bike and the Tern, my little one definitely preferred the former because she could see more, and I guess it was novel when she’s used to being on the back of a regular bike. While for me alone I like the idea of a manual bike, I think whatever I get will be electric to maximise usability.

[Creakingcrank]

I had a Workcycles Bakfiets

I had a Workcycles Bakfiets when our two kids were small. The nearest current equivalent is their KR8 I think. We used it from when our youngest was a few months old, in a baby car seat strapped in the front, up to when they were about five or six. With a second seat in the front box, it carried 4 kids. Children loved riding in it.

I’d echo the comments elsewhere: The steering is weird initially, but you quickly get used it. We had nothing but positive responses from everyone who saw it. My favourite experience: cycled the kids to a nearby village show. The guy manning the carpark asked if we were exhibitors, I said no, just visiting. “Would you like to exhibit it?” We were placed next to the miniature steam engines and spent a pleasant couple of hours eating ice creams and extolling the virtues of cargo bikes to passers-by.

The bike was manual at first, but I eventually adapted it with a Heinzman front hub motor. Made a big difference, but range was limited due to the crappy NiMh battery. I would go electric if buying one today. It had other limitations compared to modern bikes too, like Shimano roller brakes which were puny for such a heavy lump. 

We lived in a terraced house at the time and storage involved manhandling it up two steps to the front door and wheeling it through the house into the garden. Unwieldy!

[jayinbarwell]

Si Richardson did a video a
Si Richardson did a video a week or so ago on gcn on what he’d found over a year of using a gsd (I think!). Not a review or anything like that, just some things he though worthy of consideration, might be worth a gander, might not. I found it interesting but am easily pleased.?

[quiff]

I’m definitely keen on trying
I’m definitely keen on trying a Bullitt as a comparison, and fortunately there is somewhere nearby that I can do that. If I was buying a car I could test a number of brands on one industrial estate, but cargo bikes not so much. Were your Bullitts electric or mechanical? What made you switch to the UA?

[Owd Big 'Ead]

I’ve owned a couple of

I’ve owned a couple of Bullitts and now ride an Urban Arrow and like learning to ride a bike for the first time, the handling characteristics of a front-loader are quickly learnt, especially if it’s an e-bike that gives you an initial shove to get yourself and your load moving.

The biggest negative I find with front loaders is storage, they do seem to take up more space than something like a Tern GSD or RadWagon, but all of my bikes are happily accomodated in the hallway of my terraced house with no garage. They make a great clothes horse next to the radiator!

Like anything a test ride is definitely recommended. I’ve always used Outspoken Cycles in Cambridge for their excellent customer service and variety of different bikes available in stock.

Any specific questions, just ask.

[Rich_cb]

I just have the clubhouse,
I just have the clubhouse, haven’t got the storm shield bit to go on it, the poor kids just have to wear waterproofs!

[quiff]

Yeah, I’m keen on the belt
Yeah, I’m keen on the belt and hub. Do you have any of the clubhouse kit for kiddy-hauling in the rain?

[Rich_cb]

I can’t really fault ours.
I can’t really fault ours.

From an ease of use perspective I’d recommend the belt drive/hub gear variant. It would be very awkward to service a derailleur or even oil a chain. Had to tighten the bolts on the disc rotor and even that was a massive faff.

[Rich_cb]

I do have the variable drive,
I do have the variable drive, took a bit of getting used to but love it now, only issue is it can be hard to turn in gloves or when it’s raining.

I don’t store it upright at the moment as have a kids seat right at the back, this necessitates the use of a curved back bar which prevents you storing it upright. Once the youngest is out of the seat I’ll pop the standard back on and store it upright.

Every time I ride it I get positive comments, drivers have even slowed down alongside me to ask me where I got it, I assumed I was in for a mouthful and just got a smiling bloke complimenting me on the bike!

[Author]

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