Ride to the Zoo, and a comparison with a kiddy trailer

K and I took the cargobike for a spin through Brunswick to the Zoo at Royal Park. It was our first ride in a few weeks, except for a spin around to the pub for dinner earlier in the week.

We met up with M and his daughter, S, who have a more traditional (in Australia) kiddy trailer set-up. It was interesting to ride with M and compare how the different bikes handled the terrain.

One great advantage of the trailer is that it converts to a pram, so when we got to the zoo, M simply unhitched it and pushed it in. I carried K in her Ergo, though she could have ridden in the trailer-as-pram with S. When K is a bit bigger we will be able to free up some of the capsule space and potentially carry a bigger backpack or umbrella stroller, if that's necessary.

On our departure from the zoo, the babies were both asleep, and I said to M, "that's cool-- you can just hitch the trailer back up and leave S asleep!" but M pointed out that that was not the case, as S still needed to have her helmet put on, which would wake her. (We don't put a helmet on K at this point as she is too small. We figure the capsule really acts as a full-body helmet for her).

The other difference I noticed between the bikes was that the cargobike was far easier to manouvre around bollards, parked cars and up and down kerbs. M was slower picking his way through these obstacles of inner-suburbia, needing to ensure both of the trailer wheels were able to get smoothly onto and off of footpaths, and were clear of obstacles on the shared paths.





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Cargobikes: good for carrying babies and birthday cakes

We asked our friends to come to our local pub with us this afternoon to celebrate my birthday. There was cake! We arrived, with cake and baby K, via cargobike.


I noticed that a 2-wheel cargobike is actually ideal for cake transport as it leans into the corners. I'm sure physics has a more elegant term for this observation!

It was also great that about half of our friends also arrived by bike.


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Longest day of commuting for little K

I'm thrilled. K and I had our biggest ride yet today, in three parts. She coped with a three rides, interspersed with an ABA meeting, three hours of work at the bike shop and a trip to the shops for ingredients for an orange cake. And she didn't complain once about being on the bike!

The last few rides we've done she's had a little hanging toy fish to play with, which I think has made a difference to her happiness on the bike. It used to be that she would generally cry if she wasn't asleep or sleepy, and there was one horrible trip to CERES when K was about 13 weeks old, and she cried the whole way, despite heaps of breastfeeds and being all warmly wrapped up. It was quite demoralising and made me wonder if we'd made a terrible mistake buying a cargobike!

The last two weeks have been far more successful. Funny how babies change so quickly and what is hated one day is loved the next.

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A closer look at the Bullitt

There are a few different types of cargo bike, and for each type, many different manufacturers. We chose the Larry vs Harry Bullitt for a few reasons:

1. 2 wheels, not 3. We liked the fact that it would ride more like a regular bike, and that like a regular bike you can take it around corners at speed. It seemed to us that the 3-wheelers were more stable at low speeds, and 2-wheelers at higher speeds. 2-wheel cargobikes seem to all come with excellent stands, so there was no issue with the bike staying upright while being loaded or unloaded.

2. (Relatively) Lightweight, with no motor. There are hills in every direction from our place. It was important that the bike was as light as possible to help me pedal up them! We considered the alternative of an electric-assist bike but seeing as one of the points of having a cargobike was for getting exercise, we figured that was a bit silly. After all, we do have a car, and it has a motor. The main reason the Bullitt is light is its aluminum frame. Cheaper cargobikes are usually made of hi-ten steel, which is heavy.

3. High quality components. We knew we were going to use the bike a lot. We reckon we could potentially get at least 7 years of child-carrying from it. Lesser componentry might not last the distance. This should hold up well and also have value left if we choose to on-sell the bike after a few years.

4. Sporty geometry. We considered the more upright Dutch-style cargobikes but we're used to riding road bikes and the super-high handlebars just felt weird to us. Also, the Bullitt's more aerodynamic position means we can travel a bit further or a bit faster without extra effort, and since our place is 10km from the city we needed to make that kind of distance commutable.

What did we do to research all this? We attended a Cargo Bike Picnic where distributors of all the cargo bike brands in Melbourne were offering test rides. We hauled each other around the park to see how the bikes performed under load. We also talked to lots of people about their experiences with the bikes. Baudman and Barefoot, two cargobike owners from the BV Forums, have been inspirational in the way they've shared their day-to-day cargobike stories, and helped us envisage high usage being possible. Barefoot was actually one of the first local importers, and he spec'd out a low-cost cargobike from China and imported a whole containerload, back when euros were expensive and almost no-one was importing any kind of cargobike anyway. With the company, Cargocycles.com.au, he was quite the unassuming trailblazer! I test-rode Baudman's CargoCycle back in 2009. Dutch Cargo Bike Australia can thank Baudman for the cargobike marketing efforts he's made over the years, online and in person. I know he's insanely jealous of the Bullitt, and it's really thanks to him that we came to know about cargo bikes and saw that one would work as part of our everyday lives.


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What we blew our 'baby budget' on

As people who love riding bikes, mainly for fun but also for the additional benefits of personal transportation, fitness and cheapness relative to owning a second car, S and I were very concerned about how having a child would impact our (particularly my) ability to get around by bike. It's the main way I keep fit, and it's my main source of fun.

We also wanted to share our love of cycling with K. We'd like it to be something we do regularly as a family, and we'd like to demonstrate to her how personal transportation can be environmentally sustainable. We also wanted her to be as safe as possible while out riding with us.

So, we bit the Bullitt (I'm so punny!) and bought one of these. It wasn't cheap, but it was much cheaper than a second car. As far as we can tell it's by far the safest way to carry a baby on a bike. You need the cargobike, and you need to put a rear-facing capsule in it for the little one. The capsule's effectively a full-body helmet for the baby. It sits, strapped, in a steel bracket with suspension, specifically designed for the purpose.

As K gets bigger we'll modify the bike's setup for her. One day all-too-soon (though we can't imagine it yet) she'll be big enough to sit up in a seat and wear a helmet, and that seat will replace the capsule and bracket on the Bullitt's platform. We might even build a box on the platform, creating a true 'Bakfiets' (Bak=box, Fiets=bike). The platform can hold at least 100kg, so there's no problem carrying a couple of school-aged kids on it. We figure we'll get many years of use out of it and it will definitely be our 'mothership' on family cycling adventures for several years to come. Hopefully I'll have the dedication to bring those stories to you here on Sprogbike!

A new Blog

I have often marvelled at the vast number of parent bloggers out there. Why do so many people pick up the blogging habit when they become parents? Especially since the demands of a little human leave his/her carers little time to scratch their bums, let alone pick up a new hobby.

I figure the main reason is that new parents have this great new project of childrearing to remember and share (and of course, the world's most delightful little being to document). If they are like me they also spend many hours breastfeeding while reading blogs on their phones, and become inspired to blog as well.

I, too, have a delightful little human to care for. She's four months old, likes rattles, hands, toys with eyes and smily mouths, and her favourite thing is surely breastfeeding (as her rapid weight gain since birth attests to). For the purpose of this blog I'll call her K. The other main human involved in her care is my husband, S.

Our lives are pretty normal for a young family in Melbourne. S works full time, I'm looking after K full time (unfortunately with no job to go back to). We live in a tiny house with carpet in the kitchen and bathroom, 30 minutes by bike from the CBD -- having chosen good location/small house over poor location/large house.

The most unusual thing about our family is probably the fact that we are cyclists, and we've gone out of our way to make sure we can share that with K. Hence the title of this blog: Sprogbike. I don't know how common it is to call kids 'sprogs' but I like it. Hopefully I can share some stories of our cycling adventures with you.