Testimonials

Dutch Cargo Bike testimonials of Bakfiets, Bullitt, Azor and Workcycles

Bullit owners – Hannah and Simon Withaker, Melbourne

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Bakfiets Cargo Bike owner – Cameron Murray, Brisbane 

I convinced myself not long ago that a bicycle for carrying children was a completely unjustified expense.  Luckily, I soon convinced myself that it was indeed worthwhile, and that it wasn’t actually that expensive, in fact, it represented value for money.

The sparkling new Cargo Bike “Bakfiets” brand, supplied through Dutch Cargo Bike, arrived a week ago to my local bike shop.  Since then, I have used the bike daily for the commute to work, to the shops, to day care, to pick up my wife from yoga – you name it. It is now time for an early review. But first, I need to explain how this value conscious economist ended up with a $3000+ bike and even became a promotional family for the Dutch Cargo Bike brand in Brisbane, Australia.

For the non-cyclist the prices of these bikes can be a shock.  We see so many bikes for sale for $500 and so many second hand cars for sale for $5000 – we have trouble seeing where all the money goes on a bicycle! Bikes are meant to be cheap, cars are meant to be more expensive. Avid cyclists would know, however, just how much high quality equipment can cost, and this bike is very high quality.

You need to understand that the ongoing costs for cycling are extremely low, and lower with higher quality components.  I can imagine in 5 years when our youngest child is happily riding themselves we might have less use for the bike, but it would be reasonable, given the high quality of all the parts on this bike, to expect the bike to be very good condition.  If the bike sold for $1800 in five years time, you are looking at a total 5 year total cost of around $1500 (including servicing, tyres etc) or about $300 per year, or $5.70 per week –a little more than one bus fare – which is a bargain for a young family given the great health and social benefits from family cycling.

This bike represents good value, but what are my first impressions?

The Dutch Cargo Bike team arranged delivery and assembly at my local bike shop. What first struck me about the bike was the attention to detail – rubber antislip coating on the floor of the box, with a ledge for kids to use to help them climb in, a magnetic latch for the very stable four-prong kick stand (patented design by Maarten van Andel), and built in elastic straps for securing loads to the heavy duty rear rack, not to mention the very bright hub generated LED lighting as standard equipment.

The bike rides incredibly smoothly.  In fact I can cross manoeuvrability from my cons list and shift it to the pros list. After a bit of practice you can steer this puppy easily through tight gaps, even loaded with four children. And slow, well, it’s actually not as sluggish as I expected either. After a week of riding this fairly weighty beast my legs seem to have built up the strength to ride at breakneck pace and tackle those hills that seemed so intimidating at first.

The box is extremely strong. It looks like flimsy plywood in photos, but is almost one centimetre think, does not scratch easily, and does not flex under heavy loads. Even with my wife and son (80+kgs) on board it feels solid and safe.

The most unexpected benefit of the bike is that after a laid back ride and lots of smiles from passersby, you always arrive happy. I would never consider owning a second car again, and most people, after test riding this bike, are easily convinced of its merits as part of the urban family lifestyle.

http://ckmurray.blogspot.com/2010/09/dutch-cargo-bike-review.html

Azor Tandem

Electric Bakfiets owner – Adam & Amy plus family, Perth

We just bought an electric cargo bike and we love it so much we want to spread the word. Cargo bikes have been around since about the 1920′s; in their modern form they originated in Holland (or Denmark depending on who you talk to) and are really popular over there, mainly as a means of transporting children around. They are bikes with big wooden (or aluminium) boxes on the front, like this: 

They are the SUV of bikes, being up to 2.5m long and able to take big loads (up to 80kg in the box). This means they are perfect for taking kids to school (up to 3 or 4 in the box), doing the shopping, going to the park with our 18 year old dog Porridge who can’t make it on foot any more, going to the beach, etc….

We’ve really struggled cutting our car mileage (we’re a 2 car family I’m afraid), so this should really help. About a third of car trips in Perth are less than 3km in distance, meaning many could realistically be done by bike. If you’ve got some gear a regular bike just doesn’t cut the mustard though.  We even ride ours to work every now and then without any cargo (40km round trip). It’s not your ideal commuter bike, but it’s pretty good to crank the motor and head home into the sea breeze. And how ideal is a car in terms of sustainability? Amy was driving to work recently in our station wagon (on her own). Stuck in traffic, she looked around her and wondered “What I am doing bringing an arm chair, 3 seater sofa and spare room to work with me?” It’s a good point, what are we thinking (or not)? 

Here are the specs of our Bakfiets long bike:

• Factory fitted with a 24V 10 Ah Li-ion pedal assisted electric motor. It’s a pedelec system, which means that the motor only engages when you are pedalling. This is good for safety and for conserving battery power (but Amy sometimes finds it hard to take off, especially uphill where a throttle system would help).
• There is a controller on the handle bars which tells you how much juice you have left in the battery and allows you to change the level of assist you get (5 levels). We’ve just installed a bike computer and seem to be getting about 50 km+ per charge. A full charge takes 6 hours and uses 0.4 kWh, which costs between 4 and 10 cents depending on the time of day we charge it (that’s 10 cents for 50km, a bit cheaper than the car). It just plugs straight into a power point (and no, I’m afraid it doesn’t recharge under braking like Hybrid cars). We really recommend the electric version (especially if you don’t live in super flat Holland) because these bikes are very heavy (40kg).
• Shimano roller brakes front and rear for very smooth and effective braking (important for up to 200kg total weight)
• Shimano Nexus 8 hub gears (very low maintenance compared to derailleur style)
• Low in step and quick release saddle means Amy and I can both use it and swap riders easily
• Dutch upright style frame (good for the dodgy back)
• Integral locking system makes it very hard to pinch and impossible to forget the lock
• Stabilo 4 legged stand makes for easy parking, loading and unloading
• It’s unique, so you get lots of looks if that tickles your fancy (Amy)…..

I could go on for a while, but maybe the technical stuff’s getting a bit boring. The question most people ask is “isn’t it hard to ride?” and the answer is a definite no. It is a dream to ride, probably easier than your average bike. It seems effortless and it’s so comfortable. I’ve never driven a Bentley before, but I think our bike rides a bit like a Bentley car drives (stately and sedately come to mind…..). It is 2.5m long but the width of most standard bikes (63cm). It is so much easier to manouevre than a ‘tagalong’, which many parents will know of. Tagalongs are articulated which makes them tricky to manouevre sometimes and almost impossible to reverse. No such worries with a cargo bike. By the way, kids absolutely love these bikes (I would pay off the bike pretty soon if i charged $1 a ride…..).

So, what’s the down side I hear you say? Well, the only one I can think of (except for where the bloody hell do we store a 2.5m bike) is the cost. Cargo bikes are pretty pricey, especially the european made ones. But I think it’s worth it. A bike mechanic friend who has a chinese made one told us to get the chinese one, but when he saw the Bakfiets he said that it’s worth the extra (about twice the price). It will last us many years and give us many miles of pleasure and if our plan comes to fruition it will soon pay for itself. You see we’re going to rob a bank with it….. No, what I meant was our plan is to get rid of our second car within a year and the cargo bike will be an essential part of that. Amy and I both work and we need two means of getting around with room for Quin and other gear, so it would be pretty hard without the cargo bike.

I think transport is a weak point for many people (including ourselves) in terms of their carbon footprint. So many people who otherwise have a low footprint blow it all by flying for example, but that topic’s for another post. But cars are huge users of oil and in this age of peak oil and climate change we need to find alternatives. The car may still be king for now, but its’ days are numbered. If Amy and I can become a one car family then we will have made another big step towards a lower footprint. We will also save ourselves lots of dough since the average car costs $12,000 a year to run. By my reckoning you could run an electric cargo bike for at least 25 years on that. As the Weezer song goes, “You take your car to work, I’ll take my board, and when you’re out of fuel, I’m still afloat”……(it’s a surf song, but replace board with bike and you get my drift).

http://sustainaburb.blogspot.com/ for more details.

These bikes will help save the world. Happy cargo bike riding!