Cargo Bikes

We’ve got one of these on the way. Sold our Babboe long john now the kids have grown out of it and we want something a bit nimbler. Did a test ride on Saturday with the dealer in Edinburgh and it worked well with two kids (5 and 8) on the back. Getting it with the EP8 and Enviolo HD for the hills around here.

I bought a bike off someone who turned out to be the founder in a personal capacity and googled the shop due to the stickers on the bike.

He seems like a nice guy and the shops (they have bricks and mortar stores in Cambridge, York and Oxford and maybe more places) seem highly rated.

Maybe you could go in person if this bike is in Cambridge and have a look?

Is it? There is a hard stop for the steering, I'll have to look into this a bit and check if it could be adjusted to allow turning the wheel more.

I managed to fix the electrics. The battery connector had seen some heat and one of the pins didn't have a proper contact. I cleaned the melted plastic off and the bike started working. I'll change the connector as new ones are available from Aliexpress for a few euros.

Previous owner had extended the front light wires in a somewhat non-professional manner, I'm suspecting this might be the reason for electrics failing in the first place. I bought the bike suspecting it might need a new battery as he didn't disclose this to me, but don't really feel that bad as the fix is significantly cheaper.

I haven't familiarized myself yet with steering properties of cargo bikes really. Compared to this, our long Bakfiets feels really stable and easy to ride even one handed, with this I'm nervous to take a hand of the handlebar for signaling. Might this be partly because there's more weight on the handlebar as the riding position is less upright? Turning the stem around to positive angle helped a bit, I'm thinking of getting a wider handlebar or something with a bit more angle compared to the narrow'ish flat bar.

I haven't familiarized myself yet with steering properties of cargo bikes really.

Think you should get some time on it your brain will adjust to the quirks and it’ll feel ok on no time- unless something is wrong and it’s really fkd and sketchy.

Every steering bar I’ve looked at has had some way to adjust the turning circle, just think it’s worth investigating !

No idea sorry!

Ah great - I was emailing them over the weekend. Main question is if they can add some parts to it and also do it through C2W scheme. The Load4 60 cant do a double battery I don't think so I'm just mulling that over.

What’s the appeal of double battery setup? Over just carrying an extra battery with you if you think you might need it

Someone selling a benno boost on Facebook (3.3k asking price)

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I guess just ease and a sense of may as well - not vital though!

This was the spec I was going for

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Are the batteries tucked away on the R&M? They’re so easy to steal, having two on display and potentially losing two at one time would be brutal!

I have a double battery setup but prefer to carry the spare one with me rather than fit it, so that I only need to recharge one at a time. Otherwise both run down equally.

Because Im doing through C2W then I may as well get the double battery rather than buy down the line, so would likely only carry one at a time. Does that make sense?

i’d give a smaller business my money than fully charged (saying as someone who bought from FC)

On the subject of batteries being stolen, do the ones on Lime bikes get stolen much? They seem like an easy target.

Im totally up for that but not got any email response since Saturday...and wanna get it order soon!

Hey there,
I build another super compact cargo bike.
Why first build, that got painted.... at least half :D

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So, the turning circle is adjustable, with an angle grinder. Angle stop is a welded tab on the frame that another tab welded to the steering-rod-thingy hits. I think I'll leave this be for now and see if I'll get used to it.

Steering feel issue is likely mostly a bike fit issue, there's a lot more weight on my hands than on my other bikes. Seatpost has a very limited amount of setback, I'll replace this with a normal post and see if that helps. I anyway decided that I don't like the flat bar and replaced it with a more laid back one I've had stashed away. The new handlebar made the bike feel more stable as I'm sitting more upright on the bike.

Kickstand of the bike is okay, but not great, especially when there's a three-year-old used to having a Bakfiets as a jungle gym. Kickstand is made of 22,2 mm tubing, so I just added a pair of barends to make it a bit wider, it's now significantly better.

It's been a busy evening with the above fixes, replacing the chainring with a narrow wide, putting new pedals on etc. It's pretty obvious that the bike was made to a price point and small upgrades like these make huge improvements to usability.

Oh very nice, good idea with the backwards extension! And Tempelhof, hope to see you there with it one day.

On the subject of batteries being stolen, do the ones on Lime bikes get stolen much? They seem like an easy target.

Was wondering the same thing the other day. Couldn't see any mechanism for physically removing it from the bike so I assumed it was something that has to be done via the app by a sysadmin?

Those batteries look familiar. Does a cargo bike brand use the same ones?

I'd buy this, full suspension and mesmerising process:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie3uTHq4LSE

I think all the batteries are pretty much the same inside, a collection of smaller lithium cells wired together- it's just the casing and connectors that vary between brands. I'm sure you can harvest cells across if you know what you're doing.

Thanks. But much better is, how it rides.
It's quite sporty and even some untrained ass like me could do a tour with more than 100km loaded. :D
There will be a second version of it soon.
no sliding dropouts as you get super close with your shoes to them because of a shorter but still 135mm wide rear.

And I could imagine myself watching him building stuff all day long :D

There's a bloke knocking around CP who rides one. He looks happy. I think they look great, but someone above suggested an orbea katu which also looks excellent. Get him down to fully charged or flying dutchman to try one out.