Cargo Bikes

Ha! Do it!

Guys, you’re all forgetting that these exist. Stanchions are for posers

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It's a shame that Wren are only offering their inverted cargo forks to OEM customers. I imagine they'd be sweet!

I really like the look of those, but having read all of two ride descriptions I could find I am not convinced.

I haven’t read any ride descriptions tbh. I did see one person on the UA fb group that has a set and seems happy. What have you heard?

Two guys on the German cargo bike forum.
Something about reaction to breaking and loosing traction, this is definitely stuff I don't understand to be honest, and it might be great.

I see, yeah I’d need a bit more context than that before forming an opinion!

Same here, but I'd like to test ride in any case.
As it's only one lever and not moving parallel the front wheel changes position?

https://www.cargobikeforum.de/forum/index.php?threads/doku-reiseradgabel-an-urban-arrow-family-2018-federung-ans-ua-family.8991

Maybe it is lost in translation but they seem quite happy with it. I think one of the owners (who had their bike stolen) is the one on the UA fb group. Another had been running it for about 3 years and 10k km.

I literally just don’t know how much better these inverted stanchion forks can be, I’m pretty familiar with the life span and durability of the spinner forks they ship with the UA xl, the maintenance cycles are too short to be sustainable for a work / daily bikes imo.

I’ve never used a premium traditional sus fork though maybe it will make a world of difference.

I think if terms of bushing overlap and front to back stiffness, inverted forks have an advantage. Where they often lose out is in torsional stiffness. Maybe in a small wheel format this would be less of an issue, maybe on a bike where it's easy to oversteer it could make it worse?

Love the cargo bike, but it is a fucking pain in the arse to wrestle it into a place where it can be maintained. Current solution is to bounce the wheel that doesn't need to come off up the garage step to get some height and then clamp the seatpost with the repair stand. Then I can winch the other end of the bike off the ground using a bit of rope looped over a hook on the garage ceiling and down to go either through the top tube or the rear rack. That gives me about a foot of clearance to get the wheel off and doesn't appear to run the risk of the whole thing toppling over sideways and killing me. There is a lot of swearing involved. Is there a better way? Probably, but I don't know it yet.

nope

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Now THAT is most excellent.

20mm axle should sort out the torsional stiffness, but in the grand scheme of things, the bike will be flexing enough that it won’t make much difference.

My biggest curiosity is the stanchion coating or at least needing some plastic protection. Quite low to the ground.

How would something like this do?
A friend welded this up decades ago based on one he used while working at a LBS. The hooks hold up the chainstays and seatstays.

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Yeah that looks like a whole lot of swearing

The weight of my bike would topple that in half a second, but maybe a judiciously placed wall hook or two might replicate without the stability issue?

Altho it would likely need to be at a height and location where I can guarantee I would regularly smash a leg or bike into it so it probs would not cut down on swearing, rather just distribute the swearing more evenly over time.

As a diy I guess the maker would build to suit. I like the idea of the stand being just high enough.

Where I now work they use two ratchet straps from the ceiling to pull the bikes up. Not ideal as swings, but works and could be steadied with a normal stand.

So far the only time I’ve had to have the wheels out of the Bakfiets I put a ratchet strap thought the rear face and one round and under the box and hoisted it up using the joists in the garage roof. They really are lumps!

I don't know if it's by design or by chance but I can stick a 2x4 under the kick stand on the Trek Fetch +2 and the front wheel lifts off the ground. If I then hang the 5kg chain over the handlebars the front wheel touches down and rear wheel lifts enough to work on the drivetrain, but not enough to remove the wheel without a fight.

So I've hired a cargo bike to take the kids around London on Saturday. An 18ish mile loop to and from Albany Street. Here's the bike in question: https://www.londongreencycles.co.uk/shop/bikes/type/electric/christiania-straight-middrive-steps/

What can I expect laden with 3 kids with a combined weight of around 70kg? Will I get any Strava PRs or KOMs? It runs on a Shimano Steps motor with around 40-60kms. We will be stopping from time to time of course, but I'm trying to work out how long our adventure might take us, with traffic and all.

As it’s a trike, expect it to tip over and jolt around due to speed bumps and speed cushions, make sure you hit them straight on. The camber of the road will mean that you’re always tipping to one side.

Lol. That doesn't sound very pleasant, but so glad I asked. Thank for the tip.

Not a single Spanish speaker in that development team, that’s for sure.