My Next Cargo Bike?

First off, are you thinking e-assist or no, or not now but maybe later?

We have a Boda Boda, and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you just get the frame and build it up to your liking. Yuba has been called the Ikea of bikes, and that fits my experience. Of course, having a mid-tail instead of a long tail for times when I’m hauling one or no kids is awesome.

So you could get a MinUte, which is also a midtail, but the reviews are not as great for kid-hauling.

The haul-a-day is technically a long-tail, but with the ability to scrunch down to mid-tail size, which is nice. I haven’t ridden one, but I’ve read pretty uniformly reviews.

In the true long-tail market, there’s the Xtracycle Edgerunner, which is the gold standard, the Mundo, which is Yuba, Surly’s Big Dummy, which gets reviews like the MinUte – great bike, but not the best for kid hauling. The Tern-Xtracycle Node, a folding long-tail, is coming out soon. Xtracycle just announced the Leap, which is the newest version of their long-discontinued Free Radical (you add it on to an existing bike). If you’re going e-assist, there’s the Spicy Curry, which is also Yuba but gets great reviews, the Xtracycle Edgerunner 10E, which seems to be the gold standard, and the Felt BruHaul, which I’ve seen good reviews for.

So those are all the options. Knowing what I know of you and those bikes, I would look at the Haul-a-day and the Edgerunner, if I were you.

As far as kids on a mid/long-tail, our now 5-year old was happily on our Whoppee-Deux-like DIY hack (ape hanger bars on the back of the Boda) when she was 4, and we’ll put our 3 year old back there for short rides. It’s all about the kid — are they the type you can trust not to try to get down while moving/at a stop light? I’m guessing yours is, but you know yours better than I do. Oh, and I don’t think the bars will work with a sleeping kid – so do you think your kid will be sleeping on your rides. You’re welcome to take the Boda for a spin with your little on to try it out.

We have a Mundo which we like. We removed the child seat when kid2 was 3.5yo, switched to the Yuba hold-on (very similar to BF’s whoopde un option). It’s been fine though we have not taken him out on exhausting trips where we feared dozing off. I like that the minimal bar allows kid2 to mount & dismount by himself. The wraparound bars I’ve seen from Yuba and Xtracycle wouldn’t allow that. Neither, it seems, would the BF whoopde deux.

A nice thing about the Boda Boda and, I expect, the Haul a Day is that it’s short enough front-back for taking on MetroRail. The Mundo spec is an inch to long; IIRC the Xtracycle Edgerunner is longer than the Mundo despite the small rear wheel.

@dasgeh 132954 wrote:

I’ve seen kids climb through wrap around bars (sans helmet).

True. Ingress & egress are possible without a helmet.

The Fr8 rear seat platform looks dicey. Way too much is behind the rear axle.

Rule 5, btj, rule 5.

I wonder what the real Haul A Day weight is, as the stock model doesn’t include fenders, kickstand, footrests, rack top panel, etc.

@peterw_diy 133457 wrote:

The Fr8 rear seat platform looks dicey. Way too much is behind the rear axle.

It gets great reviews, and I haven’t seen complaints about the weight being too far back. It may have something to do with the geometry being more dutch than, say, the Mundo.

@btj 133470 wrote:

The Fr8 looks promising but seems like it might be pretty heavy (50-60lbs? I couldn’t seem to find an official weight). Part of my daily commute will be up the Rosslyn hill…

I have heard the workcycles folks are responsive – you might just email to ask.

That sounds very nice! I hope you’ll post pics when it arrives.