Bikkhu

Err. What do you think of Surly's Big Dummy cargo-bikesque frame? I am not too keen on the "modular" approach that requires specific racs etc.

Come to think of it, I think Bilenky and Burrows 8Freight seem much better designs.

Oh, if someone has one built up I'd love to see cargo bike photos, thanks.

East Hill

Can anyone help answer this question?

East Hill

Doug5150

People different places (online) who have gotten the Xtracycle kits seem to like them, but it's not what I'd consider ideal for a cargo bike. It would seem to me that there's too much effort involved in "packing" on an Xtracycle for it to be real convenient.

What I'd prefer more is something like the Henry work cycles cargobike long but with a big deep stainless-steel wire basket instead of a wooden box. I don't want to have to "pack" stuff, I want to just toss it in and go. Maybe I could bother with tying a cargo net over the top of the basket.

Sadly I cannot afford a real cargo bike, and don't exactly want one anyway....

I have a RANS Fusion I am building a bigger rear rack for, does that count? A standard rack will fit but it ends up too close to the seat, and I had disk brakes put on and now a regular rack won't even fit at all (the brake blocks it on one side). RANS sells a rack kit but I find it to be of questionable structural integrity. And it only mounts a regular rack, and I don't like regular racks because they're small, and held on with tiny screws.

So I am attempting to build something larger, that grabs right onto the seatstays. The top of the rack will be 10" wide and 18" long (instead of 6" wide and 12" long). And I may try to make some side baskets too; I have the biggest Wald baskets I found but they're only 13L x 9H x 7W inches, and I'd really like some that were maybe 18L x 12H x 10W inches.

(Amazingly enough, there are already at least a couple people who have put Xtracycle kits on RANS crank-forward bikes. The Fusion's chainstays are 30 inches long to begin with....)
~

Bikkhu

Thanks. That Dutch delivery bike was exactly what I was looking for

BostonFixed

What was the point of your response?


There are some shots of the big dummy built up on surly's blog:
https://www.surlybikes.com/surlyblog.html

Nermal

Clearly, she was bumping the question up so it didn't get lost at the bottom of the page. It's a courtesy.

Eli_Damon

The Big Dummy looks totally fabulous to me. I can certainly see the advantages of a bicycle with a big basket or platform built in, but the Xtracycle design seems much more versatile than that. I am very excited about it going on sale and desperately wish that I had the money to buy one.

supton

What about a homemade setup? I had to put a board ontop of a regular rack, and I've never found another milkcrate like this, but it worked well in college. A bit unwieldy with a couple weeks of laundry, but ridable. I don't know what you are wanting to haul, but a big box worked pretty well with just throwing stuff into it.

JanMM

The Dutch mom and 3 kids all without helmets gives me the willies.
https://www.workcycles.com/workbike/b...port-bike.html

Dahon.Steve

What gave me the willies was the price of that bike 1579 Euros!!!

Allen

The big dummy is not avaliable to the public until late this summer.

I have an Xtracycle and have found it to be quite handy. It is no more difficult to pack than the flatbed trailer I was using before.

As far as work bikes, Dutch style and otherwise, look at:
Worksman, USA company that has been around for ever.
Dutch Bikes US, a retailer of several different brands in Fla.
Clever Cycles, a retailer of Dutch style bikes on the left coast.

M_S

I saw one of only a few prototyes for it. It's owned by one of the owners of Clevercycles for those of you in Portland.

All I can say is the prototype sure has a weird structure. I mean, lots of little bracings and pieces of tubing here and there.