Originally Posted by
mel2012
We seriously considered it, but ended up ordering a Haul-a-Day instead, for a few reasons:
(1) Weight -- the Node is 52 lbs, vs. a comparably equipped Haul-a-Day at 35lbs
(4) Our friends who have a Cargo Joe, the earlier iteration of this bike, report that they very rarely using the folding capability.
The Haul-a-Day is lighter, but also has a lower cargo capacity (200lb vs. 350lb). So I think each of these have their place in the market, which is a good thing. If you need the folding and/or the extra cargo capacity, the Node is the right choice. But otherwise I would tend to go with the BF haul-a-day.
Originally Posted by
mel2012
(2) The utter lack of information in the informational materials about the technical components of the bike--what type of disk brakes does it have, who makes the dynamo hub, what kind of drivetrain does it have?
(3) The presentation -- I agree that it seems weird for two established bike companies to have a kickstarter project, rather than put it out the bike out in the market for people to test ride before they buy -- dropping $1600 on a bike based on one or two reviews from real world testers feels strange.
But this is the norm for Kickstarter. Ideally you get a significant price break (over the eventual retail price) for taking the chance on a new product. Note that BF sells their bikes direct also (including the Haul-a-Day which was a kickstarter project too) so it's not really that strange. I would expect shops that specialize in folders and/or cargo bikes to stock these once they are fully in production.