Cargobike recommendations and advice
My wife and I had a baby a few months ago and we learned that you can put a carseat in the front of a front load cargo bike starting at 3 months. I was already keen for a cargo bike, as was my wife, so we're taking the dive. There are a few common brands available in the USA, namely Urban Arrow, Omnium, and Harry vs Larry's Bullit Bike, and while those are still in contention we're currently in Munich and considering buying one and getting it home. Lots context on what we're thinking and doing and then to questions.
I was able to test drive the Muli Classic and the Carrie from Riese and Muller as representatives of shorter bikes, and we're considering the Load from Riese and Muller, the Loven's s75, the Urban Arrow Family, and the Bakfietz.nl Cruiser. We also rented the Lovens for the month we're here and pick it up today.
Ok, so we have a few questions on our plate. Do we go compact cargobike - like a Muli - or do we go for the full family van - like a Lovens or Urban Arrow? Within those categories are there any considerations we need to be mindful of like repairability? Our concern is that the Bafang engine is loved by all but seemingly hard to get parts for stateside. Whereas Bosch or Shimano would be easier. Could we rock a non-electric version like the Muli Muscle, or is that impractical?
I've been able to talk to a few owners and everyone loves the bike they have. The Muli guys love the Muli. The Lovens moms love the Lovens. It's great signal that cargobikes generally work well for the people interested in them, but not much as to which way we should go.
Last is context on what we hope to do and what we want to use it for. I'd love to go down to a 1 car family. We live within 6 blocks of all our core needs - grocery store, hardware store, pharmacy, repair places - and within .5 miles of our main recreation areas - the forest and the beach - so largely we're set walking. But there are so many great things that are just outside that area, within about 10 miles, that a cargobike would be great to have - parks, larger stores, everything really. And our Costco is about 500 feet off the main municipal bike trail so I would Looooooove to do my Costco runs on the bike. We also have one kiddo and there will likely be a second. I'm going to be getting a shotgun seat for my normal townie and mountain bikes for when the kids are old enough, but I'd also really love to be able to ferry them to school, have their friends join us, and make it the primary transport until for the family. Our friends in town have a street legal golf cart and I'd love to do something similar with the cargo bike. There is some possibility that we end up with 2, like a Muli and a Lovens, but with storage space that is currently very impractical. Also we live up a hill - about 150ft elevation gain over 5 blocks - from the main trail that connects us to the surrounding towns. We live a weird place where our pennisula is bisected by a military base and golf course so that is literally the only way to access any of the other surrounding towns. Also I'm currently a deep memeber of the Surly gang and am finding myself drawn to bikes like that - probably why the Muli keeps coming up on here - but realize that may be a foolish way to choose a family cargo bike. Also the price range is fairly steep $5-10k, so I'm trying to be level headed about it.
I'd love to hear about your experiences with cargobikes: what you rode, what you loved, what you'd skip. If you have friends or family who have indulged. Or just any thoughts really! I realize it's a small group that owns them so any info helps!
Calling out @gpl and @DynamoSunshirt specifically based on the recent bike thread and Dynamo's wealth of knowledge with biking - I'm guessing there is cargo knowledge in there too ;). Cheers!
I used the Aventon Abound for a few years. My kids loved it. I loved it. I never had issues, the battery life and range was great, and it felt stable. It's not a front load bike though.
I used two variants of cargo bike when my son was smaller. First was an old mountain bike with a Crust Clydesdale fork on the front and a kid seat bolted to the back. Second was essentially a bigger version of the same thing, a Dutch Workcycles FR8. Neither were electric.
I found they were good for up to maybe half of your ten mile range, beyond that I would probably want the electric push. I loved the mountain bike set-up and have retained that just for me and hated the Workcycles - overbuilt to the point of perversity and heaviness and geometry that suits Dutch people lolling about, not people that ride bikes normally. It did the job though and it was better than getting in the car. Both of these were a fraction of the cost of what you're looking at.
Probably the only lesson for you from the above is that you can choose basically anything and as long as you can fit what you need and achieve the distance you need you'll be fine. All of the options you've outlined would work, pick the cheapest that puts you in the position you like to ride in and doesn't feel like a battleship. Given you ride a surly I'd be surprised if you like the riding position of anything Dutch. Bullits on the other hand have a good rep in this regard.
Finally, yes, cargo bikes work so well when you have little kids, you aren't wrong about that impression. For most things, much better than a car.
And from what I heard, also much more fun for the kids.
Yep, the car got complaints, bike never did.
these are obviously much nicer bikes lol, but we did very well with a bright orange radwagon until everyone was too big for it