does anybody here use a cargo bike?

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Alphaville
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Re: does anybody here use a cargo bike?

Post by Alphaville »

macg wrote:
Wed Apr 07, 2021 3:08 pm
Aren't there different types of e-bikes though? Ones that are more moped-like, with a throttle, and ones that are pedal-assist only, no throttle? I've never used any, to be fair, this is just what I've understood from reading different articles...
yeah, like copenhagen wheel has no throttle runs off bluetooth etc. but the pedal acts as the regulator. the motor is a force multiplier. think scifi exoskeleton.

Image


and price, weight, and tech wise... it's a motor vehicle. needs plugging. without the power, they're heavy unwieldy beasts.

i did consider them for a long while, but decided against getting one. ultimately on minimalist grounds.

an electric cargo bike like @gdp originally mentioned here:
Gilberto de Piento wrote:
Tue Apr 06, 2021 10:21 am
Cargo bikes, particularly electric ones, are all the rage right now in urban/suburban, middle/upper-middle class yuppie family circles for kid hauling purposes. They also seem to double as mild status symbols, great for Instagram.
costs the same as a used car, which for me (among other things) beats the purpose of having no car.

behold:

https://www.rei.com/product/187355/tern ... ctric-bike
$6199 plus tax!!!

i see that and im like... i'll just get a beautiful vespa :D

(but not today. today i pedal and grunt.)

eta: i also considered kludging my own ebike with a battery and motor, for lower cost, but it's just one thing after another, often with trash components, so i'll just pedal and grunt as long as i can. my current steel bike is 23y.o., not sure how long batteries will last by comparison.

Western Red Cedar
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Re: does anybody here use a cargo bike?

Post by Western Red Cedar »

Alphaville wrote:
Tue Apr 06, 2021 7:34 am
wondering if i could build something similar to the burley with similar folding/lightweight qualities. aesthetics are not important for this particular build.

i need something that can carry sacks of food, cuts of lumber, bags of dirt, that sort of thing, which cannot be loaded on the bicycle proper. this bicycle marketer (not really a manufacturer) originally sold an attachment for "surfboards" (lmao) that i think could be used for planks of wood.
You may have noticed I picked up a DIY trailer along with my new bike recently. It's got nice design as it folds up flat and the wheels easily come off for storage. It has a small lip. The guy who built it said he used to carry large bags of compost, but he would occasionally use a larger tupperware container or boxes with bungee cords.

viewtopic.php?p=239860#p239860

It might be easier/cheaper to score a used trailer for free or at a very low cost. I only live a block away from the grocery store and don't really buy much that needs to be hauled, but I figured it could come in handy if our lifestyle changes in the future.

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Alphaville
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Re: does anybody here use a cargo bike?

Post by Alphaville »

Western Red Cedar wrote:
Thu Apr 08, 2021 7:43 am
You may have noticed I picked up a DIY trailer along with my new bike recently. It's got nice design as it folds up flat and the wheels easily come off for storage. It has a small lip. The guy who built it said he used to carry large bags of compost, but he would occasionally use a larger tupperware container or boxes with bungee cords.

viewtopic.php?p=239860#p239860

It might be easier/cheaper to score a used trailer for free or at a very low cost. I only live a block away from the grocery store and don't really buy much that needs to be hauled, but I figured it could come in handy if our lifestyle changes in the future.
yeah, i saw, commented on your thread! is it heavy? did he build from scratch? was it kludged from preexisting?

i do groceries on foot too, to build hiking strength. a couple of miles with a backpack is not bad.

but i want a trailer for heavy duty stuff, like those hay bales.... like the burley flatbed or @7w5's tree carrier or the trailer you got.

but i also would like the thing itself to be fairly lightweight... my wife would like to use it sometimes and she's not a weightlifter.

i've been trawling craigslist recently but no luck yet... i'm sure something will come up eventually. still scratching my head trying to figure out what works.

Cam
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Re: does anybody here use a cargo bike?

Post by Cam »

I'm beginning to think of a good test to see if a particular internet forum is a good match for me. All I have to do is see if there's a forum devoted to cargo bikes. If there is then I'm likely to fit in! :lol:

I got a steel frame cruiser bike for free from a bike repair program I helped out with a year or two ago. I helped fix up bikes that went to those in need, and we had some extras at the end. So I brought it home and welded a rear rack onto it to make it a long-tail cargo bike. It is not pretty as it was my first serious welding project, but it sure is strong. I carried my dad up and down the street on it with no signs of stress. Sure the poor tire was crying out, but the rack itself held up great. I've used it to bring my grinder to a job site to clean up paint spillage, and tested it with all sorts of other loads too. When I do this again it will definitely be on a bike with more gear options. The fact that this is a 7 speed keeps me from taking very heavy loads on it. I was going to upload a bunch of photos but I think a link to my permies post will work well: https://permies.com/t/80/53867/Show-Hau ... ke#1222528

Western Red Cedar
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Re: does anybody here use a cargo bike?

Post by Western Red Cedar »

@Cam - that sounds like a good test!

@Alphaville - Sorry, I realized I never answered your questions. The trailer isn't heavy and is just made from some basic scrap wood with some lightweight (maybe aluminum?) metal to connect the wheels and the trailer to the bike.

I still haven't hauled anything in it. I don't really buy a lot these days, and definitely not large items. Any luck with your trailer search?

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Alphaville
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Re: does anybody here use a cargo bike?

Post by Alphaville »

Western Red Cedar wrote:
Mon May 31, 2021 7:52 pm
@Alphaville - Sorry, I realized I never answered your questions. The trailer isn't heavy and is just made from some basic scrap wood with some lightweight (maybe aluminum?) metal to connect the wheels and the trailer to the bike.

I still haven't hauled anything in it. I don't really buy a lot these days, and definitely not large items. Any luck with your trailer search?
hey, thanks, just spotted this! aluminum sounds good. steel can get heavy at those sizes. welding aluminum is not easy though, as i understand.

the... i looked around, there's nothing that meets my idea of a perfect trailer, but the burley flatbed approximates best. actually a flatbed base with a foldable nomad hood would be ideal. but i haven't really had the need for one after all, so it's now in my maybe/someday pile. nothing urgent really. price seems $$ too so another reason to wait around and maybe score a freebie.

as things are shaping up i might end up with a rack and panniers instead. but i really don't know... i'm juggling 3 different bike builds at the moment, and i must downsize those first--at least one bike must go, maybe even 2.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: does anybody here use a cargo bike?

Post by mountainFrugal »

Has anyone here (or know anyone) used a https://www.bikesatwork.com/ trailer for more heavy duty hauling? I see these mentioned in the forum search, but only as suggestions not as actual users. I am curious if someone has used them on gravel roads? Currently considering one of these (or equivalent) to haul firewood gradually over the summer. Seems like some of the shorter bed ones could haul a decent amount of wood each time while still being nimble enough to move on moderately uneven roads.

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Alphaville
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Re: does anybody here use a cargo bike?

Post by Alphaville »

mountainFrugal wrote:
Sat Jun 05, 2021 6:49 pm
https://www.bikesatwork.com/
hubba hubba

first i hear of this--truck!!

wow

a bit pricey... but if something ever made me curious about welding, it would be something like this...

white belt
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Re: does anybody here use a cargo bike?

Post by white belt »

Re: the ebike discussion. What about adding a motor to a bike trailer? That way you could still use the bike regularly but when you have the extra power for hauling a heavy trailer load only when you need it. I’m unsure whether this would create handling issues.

Edit: https://www.atomiczombie.com/cyclebully ... -diy-plan/
Last edited by white belt on Sat Jun 05, 2021 10:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: does anybody here use a cargo bike?

Post by mountainFrugal »

@alphaville haha. They are pricey for sure. Seems not too crazy to reverse engineer these for a paired down version using some "off the shelf" www.mcmaster.com parts. Before I invested the time on a design build I was curious to interview users. I will of course share the plans if I go that route. I do not think their design requires welds, but I will need to double check.

https://www.mcmaster.com/aluminum-extru ... -channels/

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Alphaville
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Re: does anybody here use a cargo bike?

Post by Alphaville »

white belt wrote:
Sat Jun 05, 2021 10:07 pm
Re: the ebike discussion. What about adding a motor to a bike trailer?
electric everything is big now, but personally im trying to stay away from batteries and motors for as long as i can hack it

eta: oh im repeating myself lolol. sorry. but one has to be judicious with the uses and abuses of lithium, cobalt, etc.
mountainFrugal wrote:
Sat Jun 05, 2021 10:10 pm
I do not think their design requires welds, but I will need to double check.
it all looks to be bolted, and aluminum is hard to weld anyway as i understand. but the axle is steel...

given an axle though, i'm thinking the platform could be made out of anything... reeds? bamboo?

i heard somewhere about rob greenfield's bamboo bicycle and now i'm wondering about a renewable trailer/basket, or at least something upcycled. eg... what about adding wheels to a readymade aluminum ladder or something like that?

i don't know, so many ideas, but... this one is a mind-opener. there's a burley trailer with a single wheel and i'm wondering about a similar... constuction. maybe a good way to recycle old parts... especially kid or bmx bicycles with 16" or 20" wheels... 🤔

Gilberto de Piento
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Re: does anybody here use a cargo bike?

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

Alphaville wrote:
Sun Jun 06, 2021 7:48 am
but one has to be judicious with the uses and abuses of lithium, cobalt, etc.

there's a burley trailer with a single wheel and i'm wondering about a similar... constuction.
One middle ground solution if someone wants an ebike and are OK with cobbling together a drivetrain is to use previously used batteries. I've seen electric bikes running on either used deep cycle lead acid batteries (the powered trailer above looks like it uses those) or used lithium batteries. The small lead acid batteries come from battery back up systems, exit lights, etc. They are heavy and bulky though. The lithium batteries can be harvested from old laptop batteries. Often one cell goes bad so you can still use the rest if you are able to weld the cells into a new configuration (requires some specialized gear). All of this is going to come with hassles and compromises compared to a new bike designed by engineers but if you like tinkering and value reusing things it could be an entertaining direction.

The BOB Yak trailer https://www.bobgear.com/yak-bike-trailer is sort of the iconic one wheel trailer and there are lots of knockoffs, some with interesting variations like a fat tire, etc.

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Alphaville
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Re: does anybody here use a cargo bike?

Post by Alphaville »

Gilberto de Piento wrote:
Sun Jun 06, 2021 8:52 am
I've seen electric bikes running on either used deep cycle lead acid batteries (the powered trailer above looks like it uses those) or used lithium batteries.

[…]

The BOB Yak trailer https://www.bobgear.com/yak-bike-trailer is sort of the iconic one wheel trailer and there are lots of knockoffs, some with interesting variations like a fat tire, etc.
wow i wasn't aware of that trailer either. impressive! and glorious chromoly... added to my project folder. much nicer price too. wow.

so, yeah, i used to sell my old lead-acid batteries to the recycler (worn out from solar, trucks etc). brutal weight, even for a single one.

but i didn't know tearing up old li-ion batteries was possible... thrifty move, but still, idk, seems a dirty process... perhaps even dangerous? fire hazard? no?

i'd rather stick to beta-oxidation power for as long as possible.

recently i saw (here maybe?) some kind of lightweight battery technology that attaches to the handlebars. needs a front wheel conversion though. maybe when im old (that's coming soon...) :D

basuragomi
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Re: does anybody here use a cargo bike?

Post by basuragomi »

I use a simple system to haul up to 40ish kg of stuff instead of a cargo bike:

Image

IKEA bags are fairly tough and spacious, but if I just hang it off a rack they will get caught in the wheel and fray or jam. So I got a scrap plastic plank with holes drilled to match the frame. This matches the centre of gravity of the bag, so the leading and trailing edges don't get caught in a wheel. Tie the plank to the frame and hang the bags over a rack by their straps and carabiners. I need to make sure the bags are set back enough to avoid clipping the pedals, but if something is closer to 50 kg I walk the bike home anyways. Other shapes work pretty well too, I've moved things like vacuum cleaners, PC towers and air conditioners this way.

Much more useful than panniers and comes on and off in a minute. Nobody will steal a plank or drop garbage in one either.

Edit to add: The absolute most ingenious trailer cargo setup I've seen was a handcart, with the handle tied to a rear rack.

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