Cargo Bikes

Wife's experience of Bullitt not great

Same, its a cyclist's cargo bike. Standover too high as well.

I tested a Packster 40 in Fully Charged, was great, cargo space was too small for us.

Also Urban Arrow Family look great and are well reviewed.

Just checked... they are actually 540’s!😂

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I had planned to bring my work hack spare bike into work today but it was too big to fit in the box. I brought the front wheel in to make it feel like I could justify riding 40+ kg of enormous bike 10 miles instead of just using the car like any sane person would.

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i'm in glasgow so probably not much use to you, sorry!

Yeah this is it, Bullitt and Omnium are aimed at keen riders, R+M, Benno, Tern, UA and Douze are aimed at not regular riders. Softer handling, less intimidating (I guess is right term?) to ride for those who aren't familiar with them yet and more upright riding position (some more than others) and fit a wider range of riders.
Douze is the only real crossover bike, offers sharp but not punishing handling, sensible weight, really good steering system with moderate and a low bar option, little softer riding than Bullitt or Omnium too. However seriously hard to get hold of (they are high in demand everywhere, hardly any make it to the UK, less so since the obvious happened).

Those persons upto 5'3 (many women unfortunately are that height) are at the bottom range of what most of these bikes are designed to fit so end up struggling with a few aspects of them. I think R+M, Benno and Tern do the best job of fitting folk at the shorter end of the spectrum. We have two users who are 4'11" of a Tern GSD mk1, the saddle is slammed all the way down, the bars are at their limit, but they manage it with two kiddo's on the back just fine.

What does a bare non-assist Bullitt weigh once built up, out of interest?

around 25kg.

I was actually going to ask how your Bafang is holding up? Have you had to do anything/service since install? Did you change any parts?

Holding up just fine.

All the extra bits (speed sensor, brake sensors, etc) seem quite cheap and easily broken, but the motor itself seems plenty sturdy. The casing for the speed sensor broke early on - removed it and I'm just running the motor with the limitless setting continuously rather than having it cut out at 16mph. On the settings I'm using I tend to max out at around that on the flat anyway.

I haven't really gone through chains or cassettes much quicker than I'd expect on a regular non-electric cargo bike, but maybe that's because I'm mostly using the motor as a assist, rather than using the pedals as a throttle, as lots tend to do with Bafangs.

I should probably get around to doing some preventative maintenance now (which looks pretty easy, just a case of taking it apart and greasing up the internals), but I think it's as quiet as the day I fitted it.

@stedlocks PD-6500 are tiny and narrow if you can find a set.

What’s the e-cargo bike to get, circa £4k with off the peg child seats and canopy? (don’t fancy building/adapting my own).

Why don't you PM amey directly? Eh?

Ha yep. Will organise a test here.

I have but he’s not giving me the answers that I need. He’s talking big numbers, I don’t have the war chest to match.

I brought the front wheel in to make it feel like I could justify riding 40+ kg of enormous bike 10 miles...

We send out the jewellery we sell on Etsy in little cardboard boxes that are about the same size as a double cd case. They fit in a hoody pocket but you know I use the cargo bike to take them to the post office!

Cheers, but these are just fine...! It’s the transition from inside the cabin, to poking the rack out of the side cratch cover... once I get it there, I put the right side pedal in the three o’clock, and it pops out a treat! The rack is 50cms and the doors are 55cms, so that little bit of wiggle room allows it to turn enough. !

Dog box Mark two was a total success! They love it...! And I was petrified they wouldn’t, and I’d be back to square one. Now, I can adapt a wonderful old apple crate my friend has donated to the cause, to gat something a little more elegant!!

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£4k? It's going to be difficult.

All new e-Cargo are already £4k+ without the child carrying options.

Best bet is to find a used one at that price point

(and yes, it is cheaper to buy, service and insure a cheap car over 5 years period)

Problem is I want to use C2W which is easier to finance than a cheaper second hand bike.

Unfortunately sub £4k and you're in the Babboe, Radwagon, Ridgeback price bracket for eCargo

Is it your budget or C2W that is limiting the spend? Maybe go non electric and get a Bullitt?

^^^^ exactly what I said.

£4k is neither here nor there.

£4800 gets urban arrow family with disc brakes and rain cover, excellent value IMO

Both budget and C2W. More than the £4K limit is a little extreme. What’s the beef with babboe?

Get a Saturday job in a shop for a bit and get trade price?

Nothing wrong with Babboe, personally I have not got a huge amount of experience with them but I do know they’re pretty heavy.

The thing is any decent pedal assist motor is £1700-2000 and most decent non electric cargo bikes are £2500ish

I’m sure there’s something out there though, to be fair the Ridgeback e8000 cargo bike looks pretty cool, not sure who’s stocking it though

Ridgeback is actually available directly from my work’s supplier easiest to get but they don’t have any off the shelf seating or canopy options and I’m too inept to make some myself.