Market research, design drawing, material selection, and fabrication.
The goal of this project was to expand what a person can accomplish with a bike without expanding the space needed to store it. When this bike was built, most cargo bikes were amazing for hauling cargo, but were also enormous. This made cargo bikes fairly impractical for anyone who didn’t have extra ground-level space for bike storage. We set out to build a bike that would be a capable hauler while also being easy to store in a small apartment making it a great choice for most urban cyclists.
The first big change we made from most cargo bikes is moving to 20” wheels. This offered many benefits. Besides being an incredibly strong wheel size with the increased bracing angle of the spokes to the hub, the 20” wheels allowed us to maintain very standard cockpit dimensions while gaining a huge 22”-long rack on the back. The 20” wheels also reduce the rack hight which lowers the center of gravity of the cargo making for a more stable carry for the user. Further adding to the stability is the double top tube and oversized head tube which gives this bike incredibly torsional stiffness. This gives the rider the control to tackle huge loads with confidence.
Once we established that we could make a very capable cargo bike with a huge rack while keeping it the length of a normal bike, we started designing the frame. We opted for TIG welded Chromoly steel tubes for the basic material as it is fairly easy to weld, is inexpensive, and is very durable. Each member was placed to maximize load capacity as well as torsional stiffness. We tried to make up for the lack of vertical compliance of the frame by designing around fairly large 2.5” tires. These help absorb the bumps in the road to give the user a smoother ride.
Having now risen this bike for a few years, there are a lot of things that I would change. Many refinements to bar placement, rack design, bag integration as well as a few geometry tweaks. Over all though, this bike is an amazing tool. The ability to carry huge amounts of cargo without needing to lug around an enormous bike makes commuting by bike even easier. While you can still bring the bike into any office and fit into elevators, an impromptu stop at the grocery store doesn’t leave you deciding between milk and orang juice. You can actually just buy the things you need and fit it all on the bike.
I think that the bike is going to be a big part of the way we move forward as a society. It is more environmentally friendly and it is more people friendly. Cities are nicer to be in when we get cars out (look up walkable cities). To move in that direction we need to make it more convenient to do with a bike what previously people did with cars. This bike makes so much possible to those who live in small apartments where a normal cargo bike is not an option. This bike now has an E-assist which expands its cargo hauling capabilities even further. From dishwashers, to 20 foot steel pipes, to carrying two passengers 7 miles across the Williamsburg bridge, this bike shows what bikes can do!
This was a collaboration with Abe Sucky.
