When I was researching urban cargo bikes and trikes in considering Jon’s Christmas gift this year, I ran across some extremely cool ways that bikes and three wheelers are being built and modified to be super useful in the city.
For example, check out Kate Winslet’s three wheeler, below, modified by George Bliss at Hudson Urban Cycles. She carts her two kids around NYC in it.
Here’s another view of one of Mr. Bliss’s retrofitted cargo trikes. Isn’t that nifty?
I also ran across some very neat Dutch & Dutch-inspired versions of family cargo bikes. These come in both long and short versions, some with two wheels and others with three, and they are called “bakfiets” (which I understand just means “box bike”). The various types of bakfietsen*** are apparently becoming more and more popular with urban families who are looking to use a car less, or not at all.
Here’s a great write-up from a fella in Richmond, Virginia on how he and his wife use their bakfiets, as well as another cargo bike they own. Doesn’t that seem like a great way to get kids from point A to B instead of dealing with the hassle0getting them in and out of a car?
And here’s some info from Eva of CoolMomPicks on two brands of three wheeled bakfietsen now being sold in the U.S.: the Christiana and the Nihola.
This is the Christiana Boxcycle Trike.
And here is Nihola’s version of a three wheel family cargo bakfiets (with optional cover.)
Obviously, all of these bakfietsen are much spendier than the basic Schwinn Meridian that I just got Jon, which in its unadorned, basic state looks like this.
However, the frame on this thing is insanely sturdy and well made, and it’s also very large, with a very big cargo basket already on the back. Because it’s broad and heavy, it’s also extremely stable, and almost impossible to tip over without major effort. So what if a family wanting a more budget friendly version of a “real” cargo trike had a basic Schwinn like this retrofitted in various ways? I’m betting, for example, that you could get the right craftsperson to rework the basic Schwinn three wheeler into something sort of like the much higher-end, custom ones being created by Hudson Urban Bicycles.
Like this one from H.U.B.
Or you could get the front end of the thing reconfigured with some metal and woodwork to accommodate front cargo, like this two wheeled, long bakfiets has.
(Here’s one homemade version of a cargo bakfiets that I ran across online, although this clever guy was more interested in creating something to transport stuff rather than human offspring. Pretty ingenious DIY job, if you ask me.)
Jon and I are thinking about the possibilities for safely hauling kids and stuff around town, car-free, but as you can see, G already has her own idea of how she’d like to be transported. We are trying to break it to her gently that this particular mode of child-loose-in-rear-basket travel won’t be happening. But maybe if we added a Dutch-style box for her… Hmmm….
Do any of y’all have/use a bakfiets or other cargo bike/trike of any type? Or have you ever tried one out? Do you ever see them around town where you live? (We’ve had no sightings in the wild yet here in Knoxville). Would you ever consider using one for some or all of your family’s city transport? If you do bike with young children but have a more traditional bike, do you use a pull trailer like the Burley? What would you say the pros and cons of using a kid-trailer are?
I would love to hear what other parents think of the idea of using pedal-power for family transportation. (And if you think that you have too many kids to consider the idea, just check out this AMAZING biking-mama of six, riding her large family-modified bakfiets around the streets of Portland!)
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ADDENDUM: Thanks to a Facebook pal, I was just pointed in the direction of these fantastic looking Madsen family cargo bikes, which look like a much more affordable and possibly much more durable (plastic boxes for kid-sitting rather than gorgeous wood ones) type of bakfietsen for typical American families. Madsen doesn’t seem to have a three wheeled version, though. I wonder if one of their nifty looking kid-hauling boxes could be affixed to some other kind of bike, like, say a Schwinn?
Other cargo bike stuff online:
- A very nice DIY bakfiets project.
- Gorgeous bakfietsen (for both human and non-human cargo) from a small, brand new, American company called Metrofiets. These bikes almost look too pretty to use!
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If anyone else knows of a great family cargo bike brand or type that I should add to my blog post, let me know in the comments and I will check it out. Thanks! – Katie
***Thank you very much to reader Pascale for helping me properly pluralize the singular “bakfiets!
Despite growing up in the Netherlands, I haven’t used these types of bikes. Back then (and even now), babies sat in a handlebar-mounted bike seat, and toddlers & up sat in/on rear-mounted seats. Once they outgrew those, they rode their own bikes! Every time I go back for a vacation, I am just delighted by the many bicycles used for everyday transportation. I’ve seen some bakfietsen in use, but mostly what I saw on my most recent visit is still the same as back in “my day.”
P.S. Also wanted to let you know that in Dutch, “bakfiets” is the singular noun, and “bakfietsen” is the plural.
@Pascale – Thanks for the correction! I am now off to edit per your help.
Katie
Given enough duct tape or bungee cord I think G is on to something….
In my experience these bike options depend on the bike ‘culture’ of your town/city. If lots of people use bikes (and ideally, if there are bike lanes), then car drivers are used to navigating around cyclists and it’s safer. If there aren’t many cars on the road, and if there’s an aggressive car culture in your city, then it’s not very safe.
I live in Sydney Australia, where there’s an aggressive car culture and not many bike lanes, and I’ve pretty much given up riding in the city on city roads. Too many near-death experiences! However, I’m currently in Cambridge UK and there’s bikes everywhere – kids, families, elderly people. There are also well established bike lanes and the cars seems to have a healthy respect for cyclists. So I would feel totally fine biking around here.
@Sarah
That’s a really, really good point about how different towns and cities make it more or less (or not at all) possible to consider actually relying on something like one of these family transport bikes.
Here in Knoxville, we are rapidly building out a really exceptional (in my limited experience, anyway) greenways system that when complete, will allow walkers and bikers to avoid having to use the “real” streets and roads very much at all to get wherever they need to go. We are also adding a few bike lanes here and there, but I think the greenways are in many ways a better way to go because we don’t have too many bike-friendly areas of town due to our suburbanization. We are very much a car town once you get outside the 5 mile radius of downtown, where I see many many more bikers.
As for Cambridge, I spent a weekend there once many years ago, and when I close my eyes and remember that wonderful 48 hours, I see only bikes making their way around town, no cars. There must have been some cars, but I sure don’t recall seeing them.
Katie
Katie, we got a Yuba long tail last summer and have reduced out driving by 25-30%. We hope to cut back even more as time goes on. We live in DC, which is pretty bike friendly. There are many, many families across the US who are car-free and rely on a wide variety of bike styles to take them anywhere they want to go!
I have a friend who built a rear-facing seat on her trike like you got John. She made it out of plywood, but I’m not sure how she attached it to her frame. She has old seatbelts and some cushions for her kids, and put on some skirt guards of a sort over the back wheels to prevent hands from touching the wheels. I know a few families who own Madsens, which are a good priced option for family cargo bikes.
I wish my husband had seen these! He recently built his own bike converting a 2 wheel to a three wheel and adding a mount for our infant’s car seat! It is pretty nifty to be able to ride with our four year old AND the baby! Check out pictures on my blog.
Katie, I live in the middle of London in Kensington, and I often see mums or dads riding these bikes down the busy High Street Kensington with kids on board. Sometimes they cycle along the pavement (sidewalk), but that’s illegal, so usually it’s on the road. Scares me with all the London traffic, but I haven’t heard of any accidents.
So does this mean Jon likes it? I live in Portland, a very Bike-y kind of town, but haven’t quite crossed over to being more than a casual weekend bike rider. I love biking, but I’m not comfortable biking with traffic. I’m intrigued if you all try this kind of family transport.
I know one person here in Charleston who used to ride around on
a Dutch bike something like the Christiana model you showed. She used it for grocery shopping, and to take her 5-year-old to school, soccer practice, etc. I don’t know whether she still has it – her child is at least 10 now. I thought it looked really cool, but I wouldn’t want one – I don’t think I’d feel safe carrying a child on a bike in the city, and it wouldn’t be worth it just for shopping. (Also, note to Kate Winslet: Get. Off. The. Sidewalk.)
It depends where you live. I had a bike when I lived in a supposedly ‘bike friendly’ city in North America, and I almost got killed twice despite being a VERY cautious and experienced cyclist. Cars just aren’t used to dealing with cyclists on the road, and bike paths aren’t everywhere.
I cycle in my current European town, and it’s easy as pie. Even if there are no bike paths, the drivers are careful since most of them also own and occasionally ride a bike. It’s good for the kids, too. I’d never transport a child in the city on my bike in North America unless it was bike paths the whole way.
We’re a reasonably biking family in an east suburb of Toronto that has amazing trails but isn’t hugely bike-friendly. My husband rode our elder son to and from daycare every day once he could go up on a “third wheel” trail-a-bike, bikes to school when it is not winter and we bike him to activities where there is a safe route. My almost-2 year old will be in a trailer starting in March (on trails). For errands, our solutions have varied – best past combo was kid on trail-a-bike, stuff in trailer.
Trailers are not that great on roads where cars don’t look; most trailers also don’t corner that well. I like the ones with suspension. But I have to say…my eldest hated it (it was boring) and my little guy is a Houdini, so not sure how it will go. Neither loves the car either but at least they can’t throw things right out. One time my eldest was so happy in the trailer. Because he was watching eggs smash on the trail behind us by throwing them out one at a time.
Safety is a complicated issue but for us, a bike that maneuvers is key. I looked at the pricey bikes (and tried a trike) but i personally don’t find them right for us – the kids are not small for that many years, and we own cars anyway, and also, they’re slow when the nearest grocery store is 3 km away uphill.
FYI I have been involved in two bike accidents in 15 years; I broke my arm in one.
One thing I learned with my oldest is that sitting in a trailer or bike seat for a 40 min bike ride is 40 sedentary minutes for the child. For us (obviously not for the environment) having a two year old run a faster errand in the car seat and run around the extra 20 minutes is often worth it. Also, with my elder we are in the “he bikes himself but it is not fast” years. In a culture where 8 year olds are on parents’ bikes maybe it would work but I think he would resent being trucked around on three wheels. Plus again…sedentary for him.
With all respect to other commenters, -baby- safety is especially hard as wearing a helmet + bumps is tough on them in one way; no helmet obviously is a whole other set. This is a great link: http://www.sportsmansguide.com/Outdoors/Subject/SubjectRead.aspx?sid=27&aid=96047&type=T
I am pro bike but also pro family and family time. Balance is big.
What bike are you riding?
@Shandra – Y’know, I hadn’t ever thought about the issue of biking sloshing a baby/young toddler around with every bump & turn, something that no helmet can prevent. Of course, I’ve never biked with kids of any age (yet), so I haven’t had to consider any of the safety issues. However, that’s a really important one that I’ve never even heard mentioned before.
-Katie
For the person with the 8yo: my 40# 2.5yo is still (barely) fitting in her rear-mounted child seat, but as soon as she is big enough to pedal anything we plan to get a trailabike or a “weehoo pedal trailer”, which has a seat with a back rather than a regular bike seat.
A tandem bike like those means she gets to (but doesn’t have to) pedal, and we can go fast. I think we could even do it with the baby on the grownup’s part of the bike in a regular kid seat, but in Massachusetts you can’t have an infant in a bike seat before age 1, so we have a year to figure that out.
I mentioned we have a trail a bike he went up on at about 3.5 and we used twice daily for years -they are really great, and we still use it, but at 8 he is finding it small/boring. Depends on your kid!
If you want the safest option, an enclosed trailer with 5 point harness is the best. We have the Chariot, and it’s built to not flip over if the adult’s bike falls over, but if it does, the child is protected inside the frame. We have the 2 seater and it’s super comfy and has hydraulic shocks and the baby just bounces along. Our 2nd choice would be the Burley. With child seats on the front or back on the bicycle, the child falls when the adult does.
http://www.chariotcarriers.com/en/US
FWIW- I live in Chicago, it is very dangerous for cyclists, and when I have my child I never take her on busy streets. Always side streets, bike lanes or trails. Unfortunately cars do not at all care about your child, even if she’s dressed in bright orange with a flag attached to her.
I like all of these bikes! Here in London the Dutch box bikes are coming into vogue, but mostly people seem to use them in the parks – although it’s becoming much more bike-friendly, it’s still a very large city with a lot of people in cars and in a hurry. We have an extend-a-bike for my 7 yo and a bike seat for my 4 yo, so can only transport both kids if both parents bike (if that makes sense).
I thought your post about Jon’s gift was sweet and loving and I was cheering along with you. So he didn’t like it, ok. But it’s fun to try. (Ignore the haters, they just gotta hate.)
Wishing your entire family a very happy holiday season.
Thank you so much @Elizabeth. Your comment just put a smile on my face. Love to you and yours – Katie
We evolved from a rear bike seat to a bike trailer when my two children were small. I bought it used, but it’s similar to this one:
http://www.target.com/p/instep-sync-bicycle-trailer-green-gray-single/-/A-12326823?ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001&AFID=Google_PLA_df&LNM=%7C12326823&CPNG=Sports&kpid=12326823&LID=PA&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=12326823
At 9 and 7, my kids are now too big for the bike trailer and ride their own bikes, but we’ve kept the bike trailer and use it to haul towels, blankets, sand toys, a cooler, etc., to the lake and beach. We generally bike on dirt roads, bike paths, and not on major roadways.
My sons often napped in both the rear bike seat and in the trailer. We love riding our bikes, especially when it ends at a place where we can swim!
Me again! As you continue exploring your options, here are some fun blogs to read about families who have incorporated cycling into their lives in a big way:
http://carfreedays.com/
http://totcycle.com/
While you may not want to go that far (or maybe you will!), you may get some good ideas there.
Thank you @Pascale! I will add these to my post later today