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yep, putting a little one soon as have found several frogs in the overgrown section of my plot which are great for controlling slugs.

Did you look at R&M multitinker?
Edit: sorry just saw you wanted shimano, that’s not

Nice find @umop3pisdn thanks

@Tenderloin, lids (covers) are available separately, on the fjallraven website https://www.fjallraven.com/uk/en-gb/bags-gear/fjallraven-specialized/sf-cave-lid-pack

Cheers Lolo, I think! Sorry if my original opinion came off as elitist. Hope you’re well too brother

@Howard
yeah that's totally fair man, I hear you and you could be quite correct. And it's a minefield out there, the market is going mainstream and that brings lots more marketing hype.

There are stories out there about the Rohloff E-14 reliability (in some cases it just dumps its oil over the brake rotor) and servicability is problematic as seals aren't available to consumers anymore. I still spec'd one, we'll see. Personally I'm happy to make the tradeoff on sus because I wanted ABS (where I live is hilly AF) and I get (almost) free servicing for life from my LBS. I'm just wary of the '99% of the time' positions on here (not just you) because invariably they're hyperbolic statements.

Hope you and the kids are well, it's been like 10+ years since i last saw you IRL (Dunwich Dynamo maybe?)

Used prices for R&M's Load 75 (note, not the Load4 75) have tumbled last month.

Basically the Load4 is the same bike but with the Bosch Smart System (ABS, auto-locking, alarm and GPS tracking built in) rather than the older Bosch Gen4 system. The problem has been that for 2023, Bosch Smart System was not dual battery and not compatible with Rohloff hubs. August 1st R&M announced their 2024 models which include both, so there's not really any reason to buy a new Load 75 (non smart-system) any more.

There are used Load 75 bikes out there being sold for £4k which were fetching closer to £6k a couple of months ago. you won't get the alarm system, GPS or auto-locking, or ABS but if you can live without those (or add them aftermarket) then there are some good deals to be had right now.

Regardless there's a good UK cargo-bike buy and sell group on FB which is probably worth joining.

Great that that’s not your experience. I want to keep my adventurous and confident toddler in my line of sight all the time, plus I want to share the same view as him at the same time. On a long tail the child is peering around you to see forward and rider often sees things before passenger.

Your bank account won't thank you but your kids will

You’re right. That said it’s a lot cheaper than an electric car or moving house

What I mean is that we’re not searching for an absolute existential truth, so one person’s decision might be different from another’s and that’s ok. The cost / benefit / risk trade-off is personal and we can put our own choices across without having to convince others that they’re wrong. This isn’t Facebook last time I checked :)

For myself I’d never put my child in a tag-along trailer for example as I don’t trust motor vehicles - almost all collisions I’ve been involved in have been me being rear ended by a car that wasn’t paying attention, and anyway I want to interact with my child whilst riding, so a front loading bike is my preference. Yet both tag-alongs and long tails have been suggested to OP.

Same for suspension or ABS, the benefits may or may not outweigh the costs. It’s useful to hear that other rider’s kids aren’t that bothered about rough surfaces and maybe suspension isn’t always necessary. But remember that OP is asking about riding with infants / toddlers and specifically off-road.

this is a bike forum not a debating forum tho. There’s a huge range of riders and use cases, so the idea that suspension adds nothing 99% of the time and is just expensive complexity is just hyperbole. It depends entirely on the road surface, number of kerbs you have to mount/drop, all sorts of things. i appreciate that places with half decent infrastructure may not require sus but 10km of basically pavé every day might make it useful. It also matters a lot how old the kids are.

assuming the Trek's front box max weight of only 80kg is because of the suspension fork.

it's because the bike weighs 75 KG

Congrats.
The Riese & Muller Load 4 75 has full front and rear suspension and will take 3 kids. I know others aren't sold on suspension but if you're mostly transporting the kids you can dial it in for their comfort first and foremost. I can't imagine there's anything pleasant about being bounced around in a wooden box without suspension which is why I've got one on order. Happy to give you an update when it arrives.

just to add, suspension is useful on a cargo bike, particularly with kids because tyres spend more time in contact with the ground for better braking / control. Obviously there's some marketing guff going on by the manufacturers but I've gone for full suspension and ABS purely because an unloaded cargo bike isn't going to give you a lot of grip at the front

i like the weehoo trailer things

eye protection looks pretty necessary

It’s on the ‘bay now, sorry

thinking about listing my brompton for sale to fund a cargo bike. Anyone interested?
M2L converted by Kinetics. Hope X2 black hydraulic discs, Hope pro 2 EVO black hubs, Chris King black headset, handbuilt wheels with black spokes and powdercoated black rims. Sugino 75 cranks, Brompfication tensioner. Titanium seat post and bars. Little use but a couple of areas where the powdercoating has worn off.

Just got my new plot for next year, having invested a lot into my little nursery plot this year it seems the committee took kindly to me.
New plot is 5 times bigger but comes with a shed, greenhouse (and most of the glass) and a huge walk-in fruit cage.

Best of all my allotment neighbour is a good friend so we’re helping each other out to get the big jobs done and sharing resources. Last weekend we took down another collapsed greenhouse and took a couple of hundred kg of rusty tools to the dump. Lots of potential :)

Bump. Taking any offers on wheels / hubs.

lol. yeah maybe :D

whatsapp me?

Bump - wheels dropped to £330

Yeah I see your point but the wheels are unbelievably well built and with nice spokes, it would be a real shame to break them down.

That said it wouldn’t be a big hassle to disassemble and repaint the rims if you really aren’t into white

further price drop on wheelset. Bargain!

yeah I'm in the same living situation. That said, a more powerful amp at lower volume will bring a speaker to life, compared to a lower powered amp pushed harder.

Anyway, there's reasonably good stuff posted on the Hypex amps at ASR here and here

Totem recommend 30 W – 125 W p/ch

...at 8Ω. This means that the speakers will just about work with a 30W amp but can take up to 125W.

The Ncore NC122MP will only go to 75W at 8Ω, I'd say you need at least twice that to avoid the amp running out of power as it'll start to clip which can be the end of your speakers. If you want to hear what your speakers can really do then I'd pair them with an amp that can deliver a consistent 200w+. FWIW my KEF R300s (similar sensitivity) are rated at 25W-120W and I run them with 500w monoblocks.

I'm far more afraid of damaging my speakers through clipping than I am of attempting to honk 500W through them.

I don't think the Ncore NC122MP has enough power to drive your Totems, as you almost certainly know you want to be really careful with underpowering your speakers and clipping.

There's been a lot already posted in this thread about Hypex amps - worth a read. Personally, I went with NC500s from NordAcoustics (also not 'pretty') but I got a deal with some really nice Sonic imagery 994 opamps that I convinced myself that I wanted.

Anyway, the NC400/500 range is a bit more spendy but when you look at the teardowns you'll see what you're paying for. Look at the size of the power supply on the NC500s for example:

Sugino 75s now sold