My Next Cargo Bike?

[btj]

So I own a Bullitt and I love it. However, I am about to move to a different office where it would be significantly tougher to store it during the day and am looking for alternatives. I’m not strictly looking for a cargo bike but I do need to transport my 4 year old about a mile to preschool and then continue the final 6 miles on my own. The new office has some of those indoor wall bike racks where you hang the front wheel from a hook on the wall so it’d be nice to be able to use that.

I could go the traditional kid seat on the rear rack of a standard bike but where’s the fun in that? Any ideas / suggestions? I’ve got my eye on a Bike Friday Haul-a-Day (https://www.bikefriday.com/bicycles/cargo_bikes__haul-a-day) but have never even seen on in person (though appears I can test ride on at a shop in College Park). With the Haul-a-Day I could attach a kid seat to the back OR go with the Whoopee-Deux (https://www.bikefriday.com/bicycles/haul-a-day_accessories). I’m leaning toward the Whoopee-Deux.

How old do you think a kid should be to ride on the Whoopee-Deux and be confident they won’t fall off? I’m pretty sure my 4-year-old can handle it but wondering when others started their kids on the back of long/mid-tails with similar seats?

Any other bikes I should consider? A Boda Boda is seems pretty comparable.

Topic

[dasgeh]

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.

[dasgeh]

Oh, and you may also want to ask the DC Family Biking FB group

[peterw_diy]

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]

@peterw_diy 132950 wrote:

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.

I’ve seen kids climb through wrap around bars (sans helmet). Our kids climb onto the rack from the back of the bike, which I imagine is equally possible with the hauladay deux

[peterw_diy]

@dasgeh 132954 wrote:

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

True. Ingress & egress are possible without a helmet.

[Bruno Moore]

Side notes:

—Kona is not producing the Minute this year, only the full-sized Ute; you might call local Kona dealers, though (like Proteus and Bikenetic) to see if they have a 2015 kicking around. It’s explicitly designed for cargo hauling/trail work/Portlandia car replacement, rather than kidschlepping; your accessory milage without fabricating and creativity may be limited.

—I’m pretty sure the (Min)Ute, like the Big Dummy and pre-2015 Xtracycles, doesn’t work with the new Xtracycle LT2/Leap accessories. If you’re scouting out the used market, caveat emptor. It is kinda possible to retrofit a few LT2 accessories onto LT1 standard bikes and Free Radicals, but it usually involves a fair amount of bodging, fabricating, and fudging. I don’t know what the new Tern folder will work with, given that it’s not out yet, but I suspect it’s going to be an LT2 bike. Just because it says “Xtracycle accessory compatible” doesn’t mean it necessarily is, especially for older bikes and newer accessories. Yuba, as best I remember, plays pretty nicely with Yuba.

—I don’t know what Bike Friday models College Park Bikes carries for demo purposes, but I somehow doubt that the cargo-specific one is going to be on that list. They are a BF dealer, so it might be worth at least calling them up, but the cargo market’s pretty small out in my neck of the woods, the folding market’s not any bigger, and I don’t want to speculate what the folding cargo market would be.

[btj]

Thanks for all the replies! I’ll give College Park Bicycles and Mt. Airy Bicycle Company a call to see if they have any I can test ride (they are listed as Haul-a-Day dealers).

@dasgeh to answer your first question, I don’t think I’m going with e-assist. Secondly, thanks for the rundown on different models, I wasn’t aware of all of those.

[dasgeh]

@btj 133278 wrote:

@dasgeh to answer your first question, I don’t think I’m going with e-assist. Secondly, thanks for the rundown on different models, I wasn’t aware of all of those.

You’re welcome. Happy to put this knowledge to use.

But I forgot one of the coolest options: The Workcycles Fr8. This is probably the one I’d get if I were to replace the Boda. A woman at my office has one and loves it. I can try to make the connection if you have questions. I imagine I could arrange a test ride in Foggy Bottom.

[peterw_diy]

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

[btj]

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…

[peterw_diy]

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.

[FFX_Hinterlands]

@peterw_diy 133457 wrote:

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

I have a Torker Cargo T, which is very similar to the FR8. Low step-through, overbuilt racks, etc. It’s basically a US copy of the Batavus Personal Delivery Bike. Any of those short wheelbase Dutch cargo bikes with low step through would be good candidates. The Torker could probably picked up for next to nothing if you can find one.

The key is the forgiving geometry that seems to be even more stable when you add weight/cargo/kids to it. This is the opposite of how many more sporty bikes react when you add cargo.

[dasgeh]

@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.

[btj]

So, I just ordered a canary yellow Haul-a-Day! With all accessories I selected (fenders, foot rests, rear top deck, whoopee deux bars, etc) it came out to 36lbs which was a huge selling point for me. I still have some time to make modifications so I may second guess the color choice…

[peterw_diy]

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

[Author]

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