From Seville (Spain) a fried of “Paco Bici” a funny inventor of bikes.

Being in Holland and the distributor for these bikes, I’m certainly biased toward the Bakfiets Cargobike. My wife and I happily ride one with our 4 month old baby, as do thousands of our customers.

But, yes, the Bakfiets was designed for its home environment and some of the things that make it so perfect here are less than ideal elsewhere. It’s heavy because its built to last regardless of where its stored. Hardly anybody here has room to bring any bicycle indoors, never mind an 8 foot long bike. Apartments are generally small, garages nonexistent and staircases narrow and as steep as ladders. Even carrying my 19lb racing bike up to our 4th floor apartment is a hassle.

But that’s also the manner of use we advocate: the bicycle not as a toy for enthusiasts, but as your trusty urban vehicle waiting by the door. Kids and dogs jump in, toss the groceries in and go where you need to go. If we go as a family baby goes in the box, I pedal and my wife sits on the rear carrier. There are few things more fun than riding like this along the canals in the evening.

Just as big a factor in the design and construction of a Dutch bike is that it has to be suitable for riding in normal clothes, day and night, throughout the year. This means upright sitting, good lighting, full fenders and flaps, chaincase, internal gear hub, hub brakes, jacket protectors, bell and then also a rain canopy for the babies/kids. Doing this with quality equipment costs quite a bit and adds weight.

I agree that this degree of Dutchness is overkill for many in less bicycle developed countries. The resulting heft and sit-up position make it impractical for the hilliest of cities. In such cases one of the various longtail options might be more suitable. (plus lots of tweaking and tinkering if carrying the kids is part of the plan… and it usually is eventually part of the plan). We might even make a longtail format bike sometime, but you can be assured it’ll still be a “Dutch bike” at heart.

Speaking of those kids, of which the average family makes something like 2.3. That’s 2.3 times in your life that you have an baby for almost a year. If you’re really using the bicycle as primary transportation that’s about 2 years of your adult life carrying babies around. How do you propose doing that on a longtail?

We sell both the ExtraCycle kit (and we build them up for our customers) and Bakfiets at our Seattle shop. Two very different animals, but we love them both. Many of our customers and friends ride Bakfietsen (plural) as well as ExtraCycles which have been built from a wide variety of cheap to expensive donor bikes – each one lending each ExtraCycle its own unique performance and handling personality. ExtraCycles are all a bit different, because of the fact that all donor bikes and their components are different. Subsequently, I’ve seen ExtraCycles which have broken their donor frames, so it is important to choose a good platform and donor components from which to start. Bakfietsen, at least our current generation of Bakfietsen, are fairly consistent in the way they perform and handle.

My intent here is to speak-up for the widely misunderstood Bakfiets. Because each ExtraCycle is really its own personalized machine, it’s harder to speak of them in general other than they are a brilliant design for kid and cargo hauling, and a great way to re-purpose older bikes which may have fallen out of everyday favor with their owners. Each ExtraCycle project in our shop comes with its own set of challenges and expenses, depending on the overall condition and component group of the donor – really another five pages could be written here.

Back to the Bakfiets…

I’ve carried loads such as 550 lbs of humans (three adults – one on front, one on the rack, me driving) on the Bakfiets, with nary a burp from the bike , eight foot long piles of lumber, four kids in the front and many other wacky loads in all types of weather conditions . I rode my Seattle Bakfiets over ten miles a day, for over a year and it was always parked outside (downtown – Pike ST – would the person who tagged it and threw an old burrito in the box, please step forward and apologize for not leaving me any mexi-fries?). Regardless the occasional “hooligan love”, it was faithfully ready to ride every day without a complaint.

In the course of that year, I adjusted the chain twice, lubed it three times and fixed one flat. In my mind that qualifies as little to no maintenance. I’ve many times ridden it over 25-30 miles an hour, down insanely steep hills (and up them too – every Seattle neighborhood has a hill) and in all types of weather. It handles like a dream, with or without a load. It was my sole form of transportation. Now that I am here in Chicago, I also ride our shop Bakfiets every day, and during the last week or two, through the snow every day. I’m enjoying it so much, I’ll likely put on some Schwalbe studded tires to maximize my winter abilities.

I am not familiar with any speed wobbles or “ass-like” handling of which Mr. Park speaks. The longer wheelbase, relaxed head-tube angle and low-slung frame actually lend themselves to higher stability at speed. I’ve only seen wobbly Bakfiets under the helm of inexperienced riders who are not yet used to the slower rate with which it turns, so typically people attempt to over-correct the steering input, which is very light. Their initial experiences could be described a twitchy. Many people (certainly avid sport bike and fixed gear riders) are not used to having little to no pressure on their hands. Sitting preacher upright feels unstable. Some describe it as out-of-control. This is merely because they have been separated from thier formerly primary connection to the bike – hands, arms, shoulders and upper back. After a few hundred yards of “practice” most new riders learn to relax their grip, realizing they need little to no steering input to control the bike and find the ride Cadillac-like and easy.

We have found that the 2″ Schwalbe Big Apple tires subtly improve everything about the ride and handling – they slow the turn-in rate and cushion the ride. Though for the snow and bad weather, it’s better to have the narrower width, deeper tread and more durable Schwalbe Marathons.

As far as the overall width of the bike, it’s fairly narrow – less wide than the 26″ handle bars – the box is 25″ wide. What takes getting used to is that the whole bike is eight feet long, and you are steering a wheel that’s 7-8 feet from your eyes (do not watch the front wheel – look where you are going). Once you get used to the different rate of steering it becomes as natural as riding any other bike. It just “feels” much bigger – you can look SUV drivers in the eye.

Yes, the brakes (they are actually “roller” brakes not drum brakes) on the older models left something to be desired, but the new generation roller brakes are much better. The lack of any hills higher than a bridge over a canal in Holland inspired myopia when it came to early brake design. The key to roller brakes is that they need to be filled with the proper grease – yes grease. These are an early form of anti-lock brakes, first used on aircraft applications and their proper function (like automatic transmissions) depends on the proper lubricant. There are literally 6 rollers sitting in a bath of grease. While not the most powerful of systems, they are absolutely consistent in their braking application, regardless the weather, they are smooth in the wet, dry, cold or in the heat. I can tell you, right now the smooth-as-butter braking of my Bakfiets is well appreciated here in snowy Chicago. Also, this current generation of Bakfietsen is now shipping with bigger main tubes, even burlier rear racks, bigger headsets and the improved brakes (in part, due to US rider feedback).

Yes, the gearing on my 1st generation model was 38/17 and a little high for most people (I preferred mine that way – I like to stomp), but changing the gearing amounts to adding two or more links to the chain and popping a 20, 21 or even a 22 tooth sprocket onto the rear. All our bike have always had the Nexus 8-speed hubs. We did many what we called “Seattle Gearing” rear sprocket swaps for those first-gen owners. The sprockets are a standard steel style sprocket used on the generations-old Sturmey Archer three-speeds. They just slide on and off, held on with a simple lock ring which can be popped off with a thin screwdriver. Tres facile. All our current generation Bakfiets ship with the 20 tooth sprocket on the rear, which makes for very easy flatland cruising in 5th gear (which is the one-to-one ratio) or the moderately higher 6th gear. The first four lower gears really just become hill climbing gears or accelerating with a load, “granny” gears to get you to 5th or 6th. 7th and 8th, well those are useful for downwind cruising, because on a Bakfiets you are about as aerodynamic as a cathedral and a tailwind is always your friend – easy to reach 20 mph+ if the wind is on your side.

Anyone considering changing their life by committing to a cargo-bike lifestyle should certainly test ride as many solutions as possible, from the Bakfiets to your friend’s ExtraCycle, to a Big Dummy, they are all worth considering based on your budget and use cases.

I like your blog! Very interesting looking bikes.

I carried my sons, now 11 and 8, around in a rear carrier and a pull along until they moved on to a bike with training wheels. They didn’t care too much for the rear carrier since they couldn’t see in front of them. They loved the pull along – especially when we were slipping and sliding on dirt trails. I never tried the tag along because I didn’t see it being useful for teaching my sons how to ride a bicycle; and I didn’t think its limited usefulness justify the cost. I saved the money from not buying a tag along and got them real bikes. I would recommend the same to all other parents.

I absolutely love the FollowMe. It allows me to use the Bobike, unlike any other trail-a-bike that was available (there’s the Roland add+bike but they never replied to my emails and don’t have a US distributor).

I love that we can easily unhook my son’s bike at the park or at school or a bike path and let him ride on his own, and hook him back up if he gets tired.

It’s rock-solid and stable, thanks to the fact that it connects to my bike’s rear axle on both sides and has a nice low center of gravity. I can feel it if my son is wiggling around back there, but it doesn’t throw off my balance any more than it did if they were squirming in the trailer.

The only downside that I can think of is the lack of cargo capacity. When I was using the trailer exclusively, I could stash my bag and the boys’ gear or groceries in there. Now I’m limited to my front basket and what I we can carry in backpacks/messenger bags. I’ve toyed with the idea of getting a rear rack and Basil panniers (they have one setup that will work under the Bobike apparently) but haven’t done it yet. Maybe one of these days.

My daughter’s 5 and very small. She isn’t so enamored of bikes as I am, she just wants to be with me; doesn’t like a tagalong either. Seems like an Xtra would be a perfect means to get her to and from school and me to work and it wouldn’t embarass her for sometime (she’s in K now).

Just have to find an Ohio dealer to try one out and I’m there.

Thanks again!

Was looking for something for my own kid a year ago since she was getting way too big for the 2-kid trailer we have, especially with kid #2 growing up quickly as well. She already had a decent kid’s bicycle (yard sale cheap) we bought for her, and I came across the Trail-Gator (http://www.trail-gator.com/) which is nice because she can still ride her own bike which she is used to, and then later, we can swap it over to kid #2′s bike of his own. It’s also a nice backup for when we start out separate but then the kid gets tired. Or if she wants to bike on her own for a bit at a destination park or something. It’s easily detachable for my solo-rides, or work commute. Kid #2 still rides along with us in the trailer since we usually all go together as a family for the longer rides where it’s needed, and the wife tows one while I tow the other. I do notice though that when the kid leans sideways to look around like kids do, that also affects my own bike and I find myself drifting sideways and have to correct for it. Anyway, just my $.02 worth to share with you guys. Sorry, no blog link.

Ben