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Cargo Bike Businesses – Go By Bike Episode 34

elise — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:28:00 +0000

What can you do with a bike?

One of the cool things about the internet is all of the cool posts people put up about all kinds of unusual things! And one of the cool things about cargo bikes is all the cool uses people are putting them to. Beyond the typical “mini van” or “pick up ” uses, there are a bunch of people doing fun bike-based businesses. What a great idea!

These are just a few businesses I came across, so let me know what you’ve found! Post a link below.

Mattress delivery: http://bikeportland.org/2010/05/17/need-a-mattress-get-it-delivered-by-bike/

Soup: http://www.cargobikecult.com/?p=135

Bike Repair: http://www.cargobikecult.com/?p=229

Ride on!

-Elise

Go By Bike is a daily video series that talks about how to be green by riding more and using your car less, including electric bikes, electric kits, cargo bikes, bike safety, and getting motivated to bike

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Keep the Kids Dry – Go By Bike Episode 29

elise — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:56:55 +0000

How to keep the Kiddos Dry on a Rainy Day?

When cycling with kids in tow, most of the time we try to pick good weather. But what do you do if it rains or want to cycle anyway, even if it’s a little wet? In today’s episode of Go By Bike, I give the “high tech” solution that I use (don’t worry, it’s really not that high tech!).

Have you used this solution or others? What do you do about rain?

Leave your comments below.

-Elise

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Why some days just need an electric bike

Morgan Giddings — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:50:00 +0000

Some may accuse me of being heavy handed in promotion of electric-assist for bikes. To me, this is not a marketing schtick. It is an education schtick. Ever since I got my first electric motor kit for my bike in ‘94, I’ve shown it around, and many people – especially avid cyclists and bike shops – have been dismissive. I think this stems from an attitude that bikes are a recreational tool rather than a transportation tool. After hearing that attitude for all these years, perhaps I’ve grown a bit defensive about it over time. But, really what I want to accomplish is education – letting people know that electric bikes exist, and can help many people with the goal of biking more often (i.e. from none at all to at least once or twice a week would be a big step!).

So, to do that, I like to tell little stories about my experiences, and here is the latest. We recently became a Madsen Bicycles dealer, and got some of them in stock. One of the things that is exciting about this bike is the ability to haul up to four kids at a time, all sitting nicely seat-belted on benches in the rear bucket.

This is a Good Thing for those of us with families that exceed the carrying capacity of the Xtracycle, Yuba Mundo, or Big Dummy (all of which carry only two kids, max).

So, I have been using the Madsen for short trips hauling kids around the local area, and it is great. But our area is hilly enough, that hauling 120 pounds of kids up the hills is a slow endeavor. The first hill starts right at my driveway, with a 50 ft climb. And there are many more hills riding around Carrboro and Chapel Hill (this is the Piedmont, after all). So we have been planning on putting an eZee electric hub kit on the bike, but presently they are out of stock at our store, so the bike is currently un-assisted.

Anyway, on the Saturday of Easter Weekend, I was taking the kids for an Easter Egg Hunt activity put on by a local organization. I really wanted to bike over there with them, rather than use the car, because it was a beautiful, sunny, 70-degree day. By the time we got the stuff together, we only had 45 minutes to get there. If I knew exactly where I was going, and if it was on the closer side of town, that would have been enough time to ride. But I didn’t know that area of town well, and I recall that part being quite hilly. Well, anyway, we loaded up into the bike and started up the first hill out our driveway, and I quickly realized that I just didn’t have the energy to haul these kids over all those hills for about 20 miles round trip, while being in a hurry to get there on time (and possibly getting lost in a hilly area of town). So we turned around, back down the hill we went, and we got in the car and drove instead.

Now, if we had already had the electric assist installed on this bike, I would not have hesitated to go by bike. The hills would have been much less of an issue, and I also would have felt less time pressure, since I would have saved 10-20 minutes of riding time.

So here is a case where if I had electric assist, I would have gotten well over an hour of moderate exercise pedaling the assisted bike to and from the activity, whereas instead I got none (and didn’t have time for another bike ride that weekend). And, I burned up well over 37 kWh (kilowatt hours) of energy by driving the car over, when the e-bike would have burnt up much less than 1 kWh.

Someone who lives in a flat place (e.g. Davis, California or much of Texas) reading this might not be able to relate. One thing I’ve noticed with my Big Dummy cargo bike is that when it is fully loaded, pedaling it on the flat lands is only a tiny bit more energy than pedaling it unloaded. But once it gets to a hill, all that extra load weight becomes very noticeable. So, anyway, if I lived in a flat place, pedaling the Madsen with the kids 10 miles each way wouldn’t have been such a big deal. But with these hills, it is a big deal – enough so that it makes me much less likely to use the bike, and instead, just take the car. I’m looking forward to having that assist on there! (Aside: These bikes are now available for rent for trying out).

The Xtracycle is my inspiration

Morgan Giddings — Thu, 29 May 2008 00:21:00 +0000

The title sounds like it’s out of a Disney movie, and my apologies for that.

But today I was reminded again of why the Xtracycle was so inspiring and revolutionary when I first got it.

My daily load hauling machine: An Xtracycle carrying 8′X10′ carpet, office chair, and other miscellaneous items, for a 7 mile ride. It handled fine.

I went by a friend’s house to drop off something I borrowed from her. She is (sadly) moving out of town. When I got there, she had put together a big bag of food that they don’t want to move across the country. No problem, it fit right into the expandable Freeloader bags on my Xtracyle. Then, I called home before heading there, and found out that we needed a few groceries, and that we had a pickup of our food share from the

Carrboro Farmer’s Market

. Two stops later, I had a well loaded bike with the equivalent of four large grocery bags stuffed full of food and other items like laundry detergent, books, and clothes. I rode merrily on my way home.

In the past before my Xtracycle (now a distant memory) it would have gone something like this:

Go by friend’s house. She offers me food and items. I accept a few items and stuff them in the remaining space in backpack or pannier, but I can’t take the big jug of laundry soap and big box of detergent, nor the books, nor several of the other large items. Then I call home, find out that I need to pick up groceries and stuff at Farmer’s Market. So, I ride home (7 miles), drop that stuff off, and then because it is late already, I get in the car and drive back to pick it up (there is no way that a big bag of groceries and the whole farm share would fit in my backpack or pannier, or even a big basket). Then, all that money and CO2 saved goes right out the tailpipe. That is how my bike life used to be before the Xtracycle. It was frustrating at times, to say the least.

And the thing is, the Xtracycle, though it looks a bit odd, has little impact on the feel of the bike. It still rides like a normal bike, and in fact, it is more stable than a normal bike. Sure, it is 7 pounds heavier – but it is a 7 pounds that has saved me from extra trips many times. It has freed me of paying for an expensive University parking permit (the cost of which could buy a new bike every year). This thing is incredible.

Sometimes, when I show it to people here in the Southeast, they kind of say “cool” and then quickly move on. They don’t know what to make of it. There are no “celebrities” they’ve seen on TV riding one. Their friends don’t (yet) ride one. So they just see it as an oddity from the “Left Coast” and dismiss it. Sometimes it makes me sad, I want to tell them in a loud voice: “this thing could change your life, it changed mine!” But pushy proselytizing never works.

But, if it weren’t for the Xtracycle, Cycle 9 would likely not exist. It was this one single product that made me realize how much more a bike could be a part of everyday life. I really long for the day when more people are riding bikes like this, realizing they don’t have to be financially chained to their car. Do I hate cars? No. They are great in certain circumstances. But I love not being dependent on one every day. Not being dependent on foreign oil, on gas stations, on insurance people, on auto mechanics (I do all of my own bike maintenance, it is not very hard). It is freeing. So, my personal goal is to share that sense of freedom with more people. And that is one of the important reasons why we created this little venture.

Yuba Mundo is here!

Morgan Giddings — Sat, 03 May 2008 10:29:00 +0000

The Yuba Mundo Cargo/Sports Utility Bicycle Has Arrived!

This is a serious load carrying bike. Originally designed as part of the WorldBike project, this has now hit the USA, and we at Cycle 9 have been fortunate enough to get our hands on a few for testing and for customers.

We’ll have more hints, comments, and observations as we further experiment with the bike.

Available now in our

online store

, or in our Chapel Hill store.