Cargo Bikes

Someone previously suggested uberbike in this thread. I ordered some (shimano pads) but have yet to fit them so I can't comment on quality. Yours will be under here I guess?

On the hunt for a used Bullit non electric if anyone has one for sale?

I don't know if they are popular in the UK, but Babboe has been ordered to cease trading and do a massive recall.

wow thats big! and sad.

Vans going Monday all being well, then we wait for bike delivery!

Known issue they've failed to investigate, let alone address apparently.

So funny thing.

My mechanics, both are great people, and crack on with jobs without breaking a sweat.

Tern GSD are incredibly common in our workshop and we have a routine on doing it so while it's a great bicycle, it's not the most exciting bike to service.

However, my mechanic came to me a little giddy showing me the new rotor and upgraded brake on one Tern GSD, turn out to be your, gotta tell you not seen a mechanic getting quite excited about a Tern GSD before!

Good call on the bigger rotor, really helped with the heft of the GSD and actually does reduce pads/rotor wear while taking less effort.

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/392541/

Thanks for the brake pads advice.

On closer inspection I had very uneven wear on the old pads, possibly a stuck piston?

Bike was new in late October, can't decide if it was a set up issue or if a piston seized over Christmas when the bike was sat for a couple of weeks. I will probably just resolve myself rather than involve the shop, but thoughts would be welcome.

1 Attachment

for sticky piston? Bring them out by squeezing lever, you can press on one side to bring other out. Be careful they can pop out so stop once they are about 3-5mm out. Clean on their sides with cotton buds and clean mineral oil. Repeat until the cotton buds dont return with black muck. I usually pair this with a bleed.

Loads of them in Berlin.
Breaking just where the reinforcement stops. I have an older bakfiets short with that solution that's not from babboe, seems fine.

Given how bad their welds are know to be could be a heating issue, or to thin of tubes or just a bad design. Bakfiets seem to last forever. I still want a shorty someday.

On mine the welds look like they were done by me. And that's not a compliment.

I was in France for Wine Paris so picked up the cover & brought it back over.
55€

1 Attachment

Ah interesting, a regular brought an babboe with strange handling into me last spring, frame was snapped clean through on one side near the kickstand. He bought it used, but had literally a few hundred miles on it from new, never heard what happened, but suspect he got a local metalworker to sleeve it and weld/brace it.
Saw another where it started to crack on the top tube infront of the seat-tube, just about 10mm away from the welded area (too much heat, or mismatched tubing types, a proper metal worker will know what type of defect that is). They got it repaired locally and been fine ever since. Big benefit of basic steel tubing, any bugger can fix it. That bike had probably 50k KM on it though, stored out doors, used every day, Glasgow roads so getting an absolute pounding in the big pot holes, dutch guy, very tall, automatically makes the rider 110kg or more and always in use, always with lots of stuff on board. So to be fair, he got his money's worth until the failure.

Ha, wasn't a great day to try and test it out in the rain, but once it dried out it was a huge improvement. Thanks again!

On closer inspection I had very uneven wear on the old pads, possibly a stuck piston?

Bike was new in late October, can't decide if it was a set up issue or if a piston seized over Christmas when the bike was sat for a couple of weeks. I will probably just resolve myself rather than involve the shop, but thoughts would be welcome.

I have never seen a pad in that shape. looks like a faulty pad to me and that you lost your compound. I bet your rotor is fucked. If it's not, I'm mystified.

Interesting you say that as the compound "fell off" the other pad yesterday whilst I was investigating. I think the rotor is ok as it was immediately obvious whilst riding that something was wrong with the pad (i.e no more compound) and I was able to get home on the rear brake alone.

Worth saying that the prospect of pad compound spontaneously falling off a cargo bike with child on the hills of Sheffield is somewhat terrifying.

We're they nonbranded pads or something? I'm only to use magura genuine pads from now on. Mainly because the non branded ones have thicker metal backing plates so are near impossible to fit without adapting them somehow.

Worth saying that the prospect of pad compound spontaneously falling off a cargo

Would let wherever I bought it know about this.

Tektro branded pads, fitted to the bike from new.

I've got a Babboe two-wheeler (apparently their three-wheelers are OK) I bought second hand.

Not sure what my next step should be - there's no official recall yet, they've just told people to stop using them. I doubt they'll do a repair to all of them and surely replacing them all would put them out of business.

It's how the kids get to childcare two days a week so in the short term I don't really know what to do either.

I would start with thoroughly inspecting the frame for signs of fatigue and cracking. Its not as if every fame has failed. I would just start checking it often.

Babboes are cheaper than everyone else to be fair. If they can be reinforced cheaply by a local welder, then you’re still quids in.

Yes it's a tough one for the end users. I wouln't expect much from the brand or the importers (the Danish distributor almost shrugged it off as a paperwork issue), but as @young_gun said you can always inspect it on a regular basis. If the main failure is the main tube cracking at box level , it should be preventable by welding a sleeve over it.