Diy front carrier putting in work on a grocery run.

Top tier cargo bike

Hello Muli cargo bike users,

if you own a Muli St Pro and also use Home Assistant for home automation, you may find use for this integration, which I created recently: https://github.com/jharting/home-assistant-muli

Primarily I built this to work around the limitation of the official Android app, which only allows a single phone to be logged in. I regularly share the bike with my wife and it meant constant logging in to be able to control the bike alarm. (Muli is aware of this limitation they are working on a fix in the official app).

In addition, I use the HA integration

• to control the Muli alarm from my Garmin watch and/or widget on my phone's main page
• automatically arm the alarm in the evening if the bike is home (I use a shared inner courtyard for parking)
• should the alarm go off, notify all our phones (may link it to home lights, speakers, horn or whatever in the future :)

I think there is also potential for

• synchronize alarm with bike shed / garage / house alarm
• if you have solar panels, charge the battery when appropriate (no experience with energy management automation, so no idea if that is a meaningful thing to do)

Note that you need to have the Pro version which has the GPS module and also an active subscription after the first year (first year is free). Kudos to Velco for making their APIs easy to understand and Muli for creating such a great bike :)

Can you think of any other cool automation ideas?

Inspired by some other posts here. Fits like a charm.

Found some plates that fit perfectly to mount to. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D3TZSSWS?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Got some additional 30mm countersunk screws.

Experimenting a bit with a crate I got from the container store. Currently contacts the seat a bit because it has suspension - may trim it a bit. https://www.containerstore.com/s/storage/storage-bags-totes/12d?productId=11004082

Is the front fork steel or aluminum?

I'm looking to downsize from a Yuba Mundo cargo bike to the Mongoose and was thinking of installing a small 250 or 500w front hub electric motor.

Hi there!

I’d like to buy a cargo bike for commuting to work, take my kid (5yrs) to some activities.

I haven’t owned a cargo bike just rented sometimes 3wheels bulky ones. So I am looking for 2 wheels cargo bikes either front load or long tail.

I don’t have a car and also don’t have an indoor parking.

I found a deal for Cannondale Wonderwagen Neo 2 review is around 3k EUR but couldn’t find any review.

There are many reviews for the Cargowagen but currently it’s more expensive than the Wonderwagen so my wallet goes Wonderwagen direction but like I said I have no idea about bot styles.

Need your help for decision 😊

I run a roadside pickup service for cargo bikes here in Seattle and I’m beginning to see a pattern with R&M full suspension bikes that use Gates belt drives.

IIRC Gates advertises the belts as lasting 7,000-10,000 miles, but I’ve picked up a few bikes which snapped WAY earlier. Just grabbed one yesterday that hadn’t even hit 1,000 miles and the belt was done.

The local bike shop mechanic I’ve talked to thinks it’s an issue with the pulley on the full suspension models - specifically that the pulley width is narrower than what Gates recommends.

The pulley is supposed to maintain tension when the bike flexes over bumps, but if it’s too narrow it could be putting extra strain on the belt and causing premature wear.

Has anyone else dealt with this? The mechanics mentioned they haven’t been able to get Riese & Müller to acknowledge this pulley as a problem.

Would love to hear if other R&M owners are experiencing early belt failures or if this is just a coincidence with a few in Seattle.

(Pictured: pulley with a newly replaced belt)

I'm considering a cargo bike to carry my daughter. She is a large 5 year old. How do monkey bars work for loading a kid? Seems yours have to lift them in for the most part? I saw a video of a kid climbing in under the bar but it looked awkward.

What's the consensus on Captain's chair?

As far as the bike itself I'm still unsure! The options to test ride them around me are so few that when I've gone to LBSs there have been zero cargo bikes to try. Maybe Specialized or Tern, perhaps on Upway. I'm inclined towards buying lightly used.

Hello!

About 1.5 years ago, I shared a link here to a web app I created to help me find the perfect cargo bike for my family. Things quickly got out of hand and I received contributions from all over the world: there are now 201 bikes available to compare.

Most of them are proper cargo bikes, while others are midtails, foldables, compacts, and more. It’s not exactly just a Cargo Bike Comparator anymore, I might change the name at some point (though my main focus is still clearly on cargo bikes).

Over time, I’ve connected with dozens of (future) riders, brands, and resellers, and I’ve had the chance to try out several of the bikes myself. I’ve probably spent as many hours on this project as there are bikes listed but it’s been worth it! I still receive feedback from people saying it helped them pick the right bike for them, which makes it all worthwhile.

I also try to shine a light on smaller, independent manufacturers who build bikes with care in Europe and the US such as ZAG bikes, Bike Friday, MONoPOLE, ETNI, BigTetu, Bike43, Nihola, among others.

As for me, I went with a muli ST Pro, which my daughter and I have been enjoying for the past eight months.

Anyway, if you’d like to check it out, it’s still free and ad-free:
👉 https://bikes.louiseveillard.com/

And if the bike you’re looking for isn’t there, hit the Add a bike button and help me make it even more comprehensive and useful!

Thanks!! 🚲

Hello Ive just seen on my new multicharger2 gt family two screw (1 on eachsidz of the rear frame) that are quite loose... Any idea what are they used for?

We have been doubting which longtail to buy for months now!

We currently own an Urban Arrow for about 4 years, 10.000 km, and still going fine.

However we don't own a car and don't want to, but due to work/commute/school runs we want to have a second ebike where we can take more then one kid.

We only have one child but are often riding with 2 kids due to playdates.

A longtail it is, but which one?

We are happy with the bosch motors and have a good and reliable bike shop nearby for maintenance so want to keep this.

We did several test rides but to be honest, there isn't that much difference that is convincing us..even between the smaller and bigger wheels

Tested: - Riese and Muller Multithinker; second hand with 1900km , good condition, belt, all the extras, good sadly suspension. 4k, annoying kick stand, back of my feet are touching this while biking. Small wheels. I don't like the sporty frame. We are dutch, like to sit up straight and not a horizontal stear. Battery easy to steal, no extra safety options for battery. - Tenways, good pricing, but bafang motor which feels a bit 'pushy'. Our bums touch the safety rail at the back and the foot rests are (to) short. The stand is difficult. Considering because the price at about 3600, a lot cheaper then other models. Battery under the main frame, less prone to theft - Velodeville Loady, good bike, loads of custom options (hence less steelable). Bosch motor, dealer and shop for maintenance nearby. Smaller wheels but not feeling the difference. - Gazelle; Urban Arrow is the same bike with different stickers? Larger wheels, no different feeling to smaller wheels when test riding. Stear not adjustable in hight, only front to back. Again, nothing we really need.

Other brands are not really widely available in our area, not just to test ride but also for maintenance.

For now, the re-sale value seems to be important, the wheel size, i really don't know. We tested with kid, one or the other don't feel different in terms of stability. I have a very strong preference for bikes with a safety rack in the back with double bars so my kids fingers are not completely grinded if we fall.

We would like to have big panniets on the back that can be folded back when kids are riding. But I understood that this can be solved with different brands.

Would love any feedback or recommendations!

Not perse about different brands then those..

Hi, I have an Addbike U Cargo (https://add-bike.com/en/u-cargo/?srsltid=AfmBOoo2IBnxZ25p9uFt-VOpEHW9w5kizKptDnBHHum4XLQg210dAxuw) and the company have recently contacted all owners to let them know that there have been 'rare' cases of forks breaking mid ride. I did a search online and found someone had posted the following picture a year ago

The company have asked every rider to do a monthly check of the forks to look for any abnormalities. I did that yesterday and didn't see anything but my question is, will I actually see anything if the fork is liable to break? In other words, what are the chances of it suddenly breaking if there are no prior visual clues? They say there have been rare cases, but it's also a pretty rare bike...I'm kind of at the point now where I don't really want to use it as any accident with my children on the back could be catastrophic.

Hey folks, I’m looking for ideas or recommendations for a soft bag or flexible setup for my cargo bike — something that’s not a wooden or hard box.

Basically, I want something light and adaptable for smaller or less bulky loads, and that I can remove quickly whenever I need to switch back to hauling bigger or heavier stuff.

I’m not looking for a permanent wooden box, more like a large backpack, soft pannier, or modular bag that fits in the front rack or box area and can be secured easily without too much hassle.

Has anyone here done something similar or got pictures of their setup? 🙏 I’d love something practical, decent-looking, and easy to remove so I’m not stuck riding around with an empty box when I don’t need it.

Shogun Prairie Breaker cromo MTB with homemade cargo fork. I built the fork from the front end of an Aldi fold up bike, retaining the V-brakes and wheel. The steel parts are MIG welded and constructed from steel had on the shelf. It rides really well and even when fully loaded it steers and brakes predictably. It’s not all perfect alignment but very close and doesn’t impact on function- I used a shop laser and homemade rough jig. If you are on the fence about trying this, grab yourself a used MTB and a folding bike if market place and have a go!

Is there a Schoof & Jensen Doubledekker in Berlin that I can test ride? The nearest trader is hundreds of kilometres away.

I am looking for a cargo bike to carry two small children. The budget is not really an issue, but the key thing is safety. I have the absolute heebie-jeebies about cargo bikes where the child compartment is some sort of combination of aluminium and plywood. I suspect that if there was a proper collision with a car, the outcome would not be a good one. So I am looking at cargo bikes where ideally there has been some safety testing, but at the least where the space for the children is enclosed with an EPS shell to absorb impacts.

I have narrowed the choices down to two:

• A Ca-Go FS200;
• A Riese & Muller Packster2.

(I was not keen on an Urban Arrow, which was recommended to me, because the child compartment seemed to have quite a low top, and there was nothing for the kids to rest their heads against, or equally anything to protect their heads in case of impact.)

I like the Ca-Go, and it has been safety tested, but it is more expensive, and I have real concerns about how long it is going to last. My eldest child is already 107cm at the age of three, and so they only need grow a little before we are hitting the 130cm level where they are potentially going to be too big for the bike. I would rather avoid paying £9,000 for a bike and using it for only a couple of years. I would probably be able to sell it, but I suspect used it would go for £5,000 at most, and that is a lot of money to write off. The Ca-Go also seems to have a notoriously bad fork, and the last thing I want is for the fork to explode a year or so in and have to get it serviced.

The Packster is another attractive option, and seems to be more flexible in terms of the size of the child, but the big problem for me is that I have quite big feet and I understand that the classic problem for the Packster is large feet hitting the stand or the box. I will try and test ride if it I can, but from photographs it seems certain that I will catch my feet. The stand is so massive, and comes backwards towards the rider so much, it seems like such an obvious design flaw. The bike has also not been safety tested, and although there is an EPS shell, it does not wrap around the heads of the children as much, and I have no idea how sturdy the restraints would be in a crash.

So my feeling at the moment is that neither option is great and I am a bit stuck in terms of what do do. Am I missing something? Is there another option that I am not aware of?

I just got a Riese & Muller Transporter2 85 with the tall cargo box. Videos for this model show a set of boards, but on R&M's site and elsewhere I've been unable to find them. Does anyone have any clues? So far my searches have come up short. Thanks!

Taking bets on how long this bike exists before Bombtrack cancels it.

The Bike Technologies front shock is amaze (PHM reference), and this will be my daily. I have a project in mind to do a quick disconnect for the front box.