To be able to safely use your bike at all times of the day, you need to be able to see and be visible.

Being visible is from the back for passing cars, from the side in intersections, as well as from the front, for cars turning onto the road you are traveling on, from a side street or driveway. The trickiest one is the last case, as that is the only case where the car’s light doesn’t shine at you, so passive light reflectors will not do the job.

If you do night riding anywhere else but downtown where the roads are already lit up, you need a front light anyway, so that solves the frontal visibility. And in my opinion the front light is the only challenging part of the equation. Passive reflectors are cheap, and many bikes come with them on the front, end, in the spokes and on the pedals. A battery powered back light is cheap and the LED ones are strong enough to be easily visible yet long lasting, so I carry at least two of them on me just to not have to worry about the batteries running out leaving me in the dark. But the front light is harder, because it needs to be very bright and that takes power, even in the case of an LED bulb.

The system I have grown to like over the years for bicycle lighting has a hub-generator in the front wheel hub, so again, batteries are not a concern, a Busch&Muller head light, and a non-battery rear light (in my case also Busch&Muller, so they work very well together, but the type is less important as long as it is an LED light). In particular, look at the Lumotec IQ CYO.

This light has a few unique features, so it doesn’t look any more like a flashlight converted to be bike-mountable. It is LED, which means, that it is able to convert the available energy to an extremely bright light, even though it only has the 3 watts from the hub generator to use – or more exactly 2.7 watts, so the rear light has a share of 0.3 watts too, if it is connected.

It has a directed beam, which means all the light ends up where you need it, on the road in front of you, and will not blind and aggravate others by shining into their eyes. Don’t worry these head lights have plenty of light so they are still visible.

The “Senso” version senses whether it is day or night, and can automatically turn off or adjust the beam to the most appropriate setting. It also handles the rear light, if connected, so that also works automatically.
The “Plus” version can stay on for a few minutes even if the bike stops, thus the electricity from the hub stops, so you remain visible while you wait to cross an intersection.

The “T” version not only makes sure that you see the road during the night, but that you are well visible during the daytime, by using a few extra LED’s that throw their light everywhere, but only during the day.

This whole set (back light, Front light and hub dynamo) is between $230 to $330, because the front hub will have to have the wheel around it. Luckily for us living in the US Peter White Cycles sells all these German-made lights, including battery powered versions, in which case the cost is closer to $100 to $150, but you are stuck recharging the 4 AA batteries after every 5 hours of use or so.

We learned about an exciting event, right in our town: a whole group of Hampshire College students bicycled across the United states to support and learn about co-ops. They arrived to their final destination – Amherst – on September 1st, and folks here put up an outdoor reception to greet them upon completing their journey. See more information on their website.

All happened as people planned. The tents went up, many co-ops and co-op friendly organizations were represented, including Transition Amherst, and we waited for the bicyclists to arrive.

They indeed arrived, right on the planned time too, and told us a tiny bit of their story. What grabbed me most was how much they learned about co-ops on the way, and how excited they were about it.

The welcoming event, for which here is a nicely designed flyer, generated other conversations as well. Organizations with similar goals connected during the three-hour festival, and many learned more about the strength of our community, to which co-ops add greatly. I learned about how interconnected that world is with organizations supporting the movement, individuals expressing a great amount of effort, uncompensated other than the feeling of belonging, a feeling that otherwise ran lower and lower in contemporary USA. And I learned more about how powerful young people are nowadays, while facing a world that, if anything, is even less hospitable than what I, twenty plus years their senior, grew up in.

Just to show how well connected we are becoming across all these community creating movement, I also learned, that they came through Viroqua Wisconsin, home of another group of transitioners, in which a dear friend of mine is participating with honorable amount of zest. From him I learned, that their community outreach event is coming up soon, in fact within a month from ours here in Amherst.

And since I am so enthused to show how bicycles can be used for cargo carrying, I took my trusty Yuba Mundo, and gave rides to people. In a later Amherst event, the block party called Celebrate Amherst several people came up to the Transition table recognizing me partially because I was the ‘one with the great big blue bike’.

During part of the summer Marianne works on Block Island, which is a small island at the mouth of Long Island Sound, so I go visit. Getting there is an exciting event for me, as it involves three buses and the ferry.

And of course a bike. I take my folding bike, a Dahon Speed D7, ride it to the bus stop, and whenever I need to or can use it while transferring. Most often I have to bike through part of Providence while switching from Peter Pan to a RIPTA bus, as Peter pan may not have well timed service for the three miles of distance between their terminal, and Kennedy Plaza, that is used by all the buses providing public service to Rode Island.

This time I ended up having two hours in Springfield, MA, so of course I biked around. The most striking difference I noticed was about how many people noticed my bike. Due to its 20 inch wheels but otherwise full size, it does look different. But never before did four unrelated people yell over friendly comments to me about my bike within two hours. In fact I only remember one comment during the previous several years of using the bike which was something like “Dude, I want your bike!”.

I think the cultural attitude about the idea of bicycling for transportation is shifting in the USA. The high price of petrol, as well as car-ownership in general, lessens people’s appetite for using one for all their transportation needs, so they are, secretly or openly, thinking about alternatives. One of those alternatives is a bicycle. Thus I am not only a ‘dude biking around’ any more, the bicycle itself is more visible. Especially when it looks different.

So all went well with the trip, in fact I dismounted the bus at the Kingston train station because I had learned, that there is a new six-mile bike trail leading from there toward Point Judith, my destination to board the ferry.

Of course the bike trail was beautiful and loaded with people, both directions, biking, skate-boarding, walking, roller-blading, running while pushing a cart with children, and so on. And more over, it lead through quaint little towns where new art and businesses sprang up in connection to the bike trail.

Barely making the boat, but having had a great ride, I still had time to fold up the bike and stick it into a lightweight case, so I don’t have to pay a bike fee on top of the ferry ticket cost. Then on the other side I just unfolded my bike and was at my host in five-or-so minutes.

The island of course has a lot of roads and even trails to bike on, below are some of the pictures from that adventure. Everything is in close biking distance. And luckily drivers are well aware of bicyclists on the roads, as there are a lot of them.

On the way back I got to see what hurdles people who took their cars to the island with the ferry had to go through, in addition to paying for a hefty transportation fee. If you have a reservation, you must line up in rows an hour before departure, and as long as the ferry runs (weather dependent), you will make it to the other side. If you don’t have a reservation, you will have to wait in that line time after time, to see if there would be enough place to get loaded onto the ferry. When my boat left the Island there were two cars, loaded with people and stuff, that didn’t get onto the ferry. What a complicated life…

The other week I had the chance to try another cargo bike, the Trek Transport.
How this came about was that I took my Mundo in to get the front hub replaced with a hub dynamo, so I can mount lights on the bike. I had some cargo on the bike from other errands, so my loaner bike from the shop to ride home on became the Transport. Plus the guys at Laughing Dog already know my interest in this kind of biking, that helped too in getting a loaner bike built specifically to carry cargo.
First of all I am glad that a main-stream large company like the Trek attempts to market a cargo bike. That shows a trend, in which even a US company can think that the cargo market is big enough for them to enter into the ring. It also shows, that building a cargo bike takes skills, design and forethought. Hoping that it is useful info, why don’t I describe in what ways the Trek Transport and the Yuba Mundo are similar, and in what ways they are different. Let’s start with the similarities, as there are quite a few things that are similar about these bikes.

• Their cargo areas are relatively the same size,
• both come with a bottom cargo rack as well as an over-the-rear-wheel platform,
• they both look unique (and in my opinion are good looking),
• they both come in electric and non-electric version,
• they both ride smoothly, and feel similar to a normal bike,
• they also cost about the same: $1400 for the non-electric version, and double that for the electric.

Then many things are very different:

• First of all, when I unloaded the fifty pound chicken feed I was carrying on the Mundo, I put it onto the Transport, and it would have immediately fallen sideways, had I not caught it. Then I learned that even loading my basket on one side tips the bike easily, because of the kickstand is narrow, not very useful for holding up a cargo bike unless the load is almost perfectly balanced.
• This may be because the frame of the Transport is aluminum, so it is lighter than the Mundo. True, the carrying capacity of the Transport is half of the Mundo’s, but light is good, no? Until you put a larger cargo on the bike, and the Transport starts to flex and twist. So far I wasn’t able to cause this on the Mundo, even with lopsided loading: it holds its shape very well, which gives it a feeling of robustness that I appreciate. Another difference about the frame is that the Transport is available in two sizes. I can’t really add any plus or minus to that, since the one-size-fits-all Mundo fits very well to my own 6’4” frame.
• The Transport has a shorter wheel base, because the rear wheel is closer to the front of the cargo area than to the end of it. I needed to be careful where I put the load, as weight put on the rear end of the cargo area would lift the front of the bike up, or would make it even less stable as far as the sideway tipping is concerned.
• For some reason there is no rear fender on the Transport. It is easy enough to install one on it, but I wonder where else Trek tried to cutting cost like they did by just not installing a rear fender.
• Also there are less speeds on the Transport: only a double cog-set up front. I cannot run out of low gears on the Mundo, but I sure ran out of them on the Transport pretty soon.
• I like the fact, that the side supports for the Transport can fold up, lowering the width of the bicycle. On the Mundo this lower platform can fairly easily be uninstalled, but it involves using an Alan wrench on six screws, that doesn’t compare to the ease of folding the lower deck up on the Transport.
• The Mundo gets the electric kit’s battery installed in the empty area between the rear wheel and the seat-tube. The battery for the Transport+ goes over the rear wheel, under the top cargo platform, raising it, and making the bike even less stable. This affects the loaded riding as well as the handling of the bike while pushing it loaded. And I do hope that battery is water proof, since ain’t no rear fender protects it:-)
• The Bread Basket on the Mundo (The front rack) is mounted to the frame, and this way it doesn’t affecting steering, which I love. On the Transport the front rack is fork-mounted, thus when loaded, it makes steering more awkward. Luckily it is considerably smaller than the Bread Basket.
• The bag for the Transport is much nicer than the bags of the XtraCycle kit. Sturdier, more protective against wet weather. But nothing can beat the bags of the Mundo: the oversized top cover not only protects from the weather even when the bags are very full, but it also provides flexibility which the zip on the Transport can’t. I also like the mounting on the Mundo’s Go-getter bag more. Easy to remove, but I know the bag will not fall off no matter how bumpy the ride is.

So what is my overall opinion? For me the differences boil down to the weaker aluminum frame of the Transport, and the rear wheel placement – those are the things I cannot change, and dislike. The weak inferior kickstand, rear fender and limited gears all can be changed. But why would I bother, when I can get a cargo bike that is extremely strong, and stable in addition of having a rear fender and better gearing? Plus I get to support a small company in this country instead of a multinational one.

I have been thinking about writing down the tricks of loading and carrying different cargo with bicycles. Partially because it is quite different than carrying load in a car, and also because with a little preparation and technique the carrying capacity can be extended and the carrying experience greatly enhanced.

• Secure everything to the body of the bike. Moving content may affect your balance, and windswept content not only may get damaged, but can distract you riding in traffic.
• Balance the load. Being balanced is especially important when the ride is hilly, the road is uneven, or you are close to the carrying capacity of the frame (or the carried weight is close to theat of your own). In each of these cases the lack of balance will show up as volatile bike handling or frame torque, that is disconcerting, and a sideway pull, especially while using the brakes.
• Load placement is important from the visual perspective as well. Mark oversize items with a red flag where it sticks out the most, and place the bulkier part on the traffic-side of the bike, so you don’t hit the curb, and are more visible to drivers. They will also give you more space this way!



• If you carry people be careful about load limits. Some cargo bikes have a fairly low limit of weight carrying capacity. For example attaching the XtraCycle FreeRadical kit to a regular bike frame logically makes the combination weaker and more prone to torsion: It reuses the same wheels, and ads an extra piece between the regular frame and the rear wheel, while also elongating the wheelbase. None of these will make the resulting cargo bike any stronger, exactly the opposite. But why is this about people especially? Normally, when I load my bike with dead weight, I am aware how much I load. But when I give a ride to another person, the act of sitting onto the bike is so much easier than loading the bike with the same dead weight. So don’t overburden the bike. See some approximate load carrying limit below.
• It may not be windy when you are loading the bike up, but it will definitely blow more when you are riding. So ensure the lighter and larger objects are securely fastened. And if you carry a sail, be aware of the wind;-)
• Mind your own power too: Depending on your stamina and the length and steepness of the hill you plan to climb, the resulting limit may be quite low. You can in fact calculate it a good calculator is here.



• The lower the center of the weight is, the easier to handle a bike. This doesn’t necessarily true for trikes and trailers, but the lower the center of gravity is, the better in general.

Bike/trike carrying capacity by type (combined contains rider weight, otherwise the limit is without rider):

Bakfiets style bikes: 200 lbs
Christiania style cargo trikes: up to 800 lbs depending on the kind!!!
Bikes at work Trailers: 350+ lbs
Sun Atlas Cargo: 400 lbs combined
Surly Big Dummy: 220 lbs + rider
Surly Long Haul Trucker: 300 lbs combined
Xtracycle FreeRadical: 100 lbs + rider
Yuba Mundo: 450 lbs + rider!!!

References:
Longtail cargo bikes
Joe cargo bikes

I mean the contraption that contains a motor and a battery and most often another box. This all together will help the rider in pedaling the bike ahead, while not limiting the bicyclist’s efforts.

Electric assists for bicycles have been around for a long time, but so far it has not been well known in the USA. I believe this is partially because of how we view bicycling. When it is almost exclusively a sport (racing or mountain biking), people consider using the help of an external power source cheating, or way too heavy an attachment when the idea is to shave every gram off bicycles. Elsewhere, where bikes are a well accepted, and used, tools of transportation, they can make life a whole lot easier.

Plus, to be honest, they can be good for the budget. While there is an up-front cost, once it is in use, a full charge that takes the bike, rider and cargo at least 15-20 miles would cost 7 cents. A lunch for a non-electric assist biker to power the workout? A hundred times this amount.

Some lingo here for the categorizing of the different kits or electric bikes:

1) The battery can be sealed lead-acid (heavy, old technology, cheap), Lithium-ion (newer technology and more expensive due to the rare-earth elements it contains). The LiFePO4 that is quite popular today is related to #2. Either way, the battery is the heaviest part of the kit by far.

2) Motor: Brushless (less maintenance, but once it has a problem it can’t usually be fixed) and with brush (older, but much simpler technology). In addition to that a motor can be on the side powering the wheel through the spinner touching the tire, or built right into one of the wheel hubs. Don’t get confused by their small sizes: a motor can be a very potent tool to convert electricity to circular motion.

3) Power and gearing ratio: most kits and built-in units are stronger than the energy a rider can put into riding. However some is geared for speed some others won’t help you go fast, but give a lot of support for pedaling uphill going slow. The Yuba company sells one of these as part of their Elmundo bicycle.

Where to acquire them?

• There are cheap department-store quality bicycles that come with an electric kit installed on them. They may be priced below $500 and they do work (at least for a while) for generic purposes in a one-size-fits-all way (they likely come with an external motor, and lead-acid battery).
• A lighter system can be ordered from rare-earth rich China for about the same price – minus the bike. Hub motor built into the front wheel is part of the kit. The LiFePO4 battery can be ordered separately. The picture on tops shows such a kit integrated into an old bike along with an XtraCycle attachment.



• There are higher-end bicycles where the whole kit is integrated into the body of the bike. In this case they can support the same ends the bike is already geared toward: light-weight system for light assist, speed (subject to local regulations), and some cargo bikes come with a system, that especially designed to help you take off and keep moving. This picture shows a battery integrated into the body of a bike. Your local bike-shop can arrange for getting one of these.

  My overall opinion is, that they are a big help for cargo carrying, or when you are warming up to biking while struggling with health issues concurrently, and they are definitely a commitment. Above costing hundreds of dollars extra, they tend to make the bike heavier, and you are stuck carrying at least part of the extra weight around, want it or not.

  I described my experience with electric bikes and kits here in an answer to a commenter.

  

  

  

  
  

  

  
  

One can carry stuff without a cargo bike as well. Not as well and not as much than with a cargo bike, but it is possible. Especially if we put some mind into it.

One way is creating a space where load can be placed. In the US bikes many times come without basic accessories like fenders and a bike rack. So having a bike rack over the back wheel is helpful. Panniers on it may also be helpful. But what if you already have them, and you want more?

Another logical place is over the front wheel. It doesn’t extend the length of the bike, and it doesn’t interfere there with pumping legs or hands holding the handlebar. And it places load on the wheel, where there is less load: may make the weight distribution more even between the two wheels. Plus, it can look interesting and unique as they are a lot less frequent.

However, because of the location, some things come into play, which doesn’t tend to matter elsewhere.

The most important consideration is where the rack or basket is mounted. Most baskets are mounted on the front side of the handle bar, and most racks are mounted on the forks/crown of the front wheel. Both of these cases have a few major problems: they make the bike harder to steer – since the load turns with the handle bar or the front wheel forks, every turning action will make the load move sideways: instead of a light wheel, we are now turning a heavy load along. Another problem comes to light when you put the bike on the kickstand: the front wheel area will be unbalanced so the handle bar along with the wheel will turn sharp to one side, and will pull the bike towards that side strong enough so bike and basket both fall over. If the basket or rack heavy enough, or your kickstand doesn’t provide enough support, this may happen with an unloaded rack, that renders the kickstand totally useless or even straight harmful.

There are some clever design solutions to make the front area of a bike with a front basket more stable. One, which I like is shown here. See that little spring, that connects the frame with the rear end of the fork crown? That way the more the front wheel is turned, the more the spring pulls it back to the straight, neutral position. I like this even on bikes, that don’t have anything on the front – I sometimes use the handle bar to carry things, and the spring, if it is present, will make the bike more stable when the kickstand is used.

Another fastening method is to mount the basket or rack right to the frame. It is design-wise a bit harder to do, as on most bikes there is not that much space. However the difference is humongous: no wheel turning, no bikes falling over, no hard steering.

The Bread Basket on my Yuba Mundo is like that, and I love it. Not only the bike doesn’t fall over, but there is a well balanced feeling to the whole bike. A much less serious side effect to this mounting is that all the basket or rack will have to be over the wheel, otherwise the turning of the wheel would interfere with the basket. This makes the point of gravity higher. But with a two-legged kickstand, that holds the bike vertical that will not matter much.

The best test of the pie is to eat it. So try it out! You can order frame mounting front cargo area from… um only Yuba?

I don’t know how it is with you, but for me sitting in a car is like walking on crutches – there is an extra layer, an extra abstraction between me and reality: I can’t I can’t just feel my speed in my body and through the wind, I have to look at the car’s speedometer I can’t just move my body to indicate direction, I need to use the car’s directional appendage, I can’t just cross a road when it is safe, I need to sit there and wait for the green light even if nobody else is around. I am in general not much in charge: a single 4×4 accross the road or parking area stops most cars and I have to park at designated parking spots almost exclusively – empty ones, that is.

I sure feel more comfortable and in charge biking: for example if I am on the road, and my bike broke down or malfunctions, I will most likely be able to manage the glitch, and be on my way a bit late maybe. But with a car it is a totally different story: I will have to wait for AAA or another agency, maybe for hours, getting towed, waiting for somebody else to fix the thing, and worry about what amount it will cost. And the type and complexity of errors that can happen on a car vs on a bike is another story all together: even shops have to specialize in a brand of autos if they hope to keep up.

What can I say: biking feels much more human. And as a reason, I sense bicyclists on the road behave more human as well: we most often acknowledge each other with a nod, talk to each other in passing, and I have yet to meet another biker, who goes out of their way to threaten me. In contrast I frequently get honked at by car-drivers either as a way of greeting or just showing force for fun, startling either way. Some pass intentionally close, some steps on the gas in a loud vehicle just as they pass me. Credit to them, only a few percentage of all drives do things like that, mostly people just pass, many times giving me plenty of space to live, only blowing some exhaust fume my way.

And then there are those petty little annoyances: Since traffic tickets are increasingly viewed as a revenue raising tool for state and local governments, more effort goes into making it lucrative, whether it is through setting up traffic cameras, streamlining the collection process or even changing the laws – this all mostly rests on the back of car-drivers as they are, so to say, the low-hanging fruit. Bicyclists rarely can speed, and they don’t occupy a paid-for parking spot. They do go through red lights, but mostly they don’t endanger anyone and anything (as the first person they would endanger is themselves, and that is a strong deterring factor). Plus processing them can be a lot harder, as the police rarely knows the exact process to follow regarding bicyclists. A friend of mine, after he got ticketed for speeding (in a car) by the police, described the situation with rage in his voice: “I feel they are like vultures, hovering around silently waiting for the opportunity to ticket hapless drivers”.

Believe me or not, I feel more secure biking around on roads full of two-ton behemoths, because at least I don’t feel constantly preyed upon. Plus it is good to know as well, that me making a mistake on my bicycle would lead to nothing serious or me getting hurt at worst. When I drive, I travel with the burden that my mistakes will endanger others, and mistakes I do make (I hear they are human to make).

One reason cars can so easily imprison us, is because we live in a world where we can’t even imagine an alternative. We might be able to change that however : one of these days I will tackle the subject of a world without cars.
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Since there is not a real appropriate picture to go with this post, I decided to experiment with something new. A video anyone?

Leaving with the Yuba Mundo.