It just so happened, that last weekend I needed to pick up chicken feed, and since I expect grain prices to increase soon due to the drought, I decided to get some extra. So I took the Mundo, and once at the store, I bought four fifty-pound bags to spur myself to figure out how to secure them all on the bike and haul them home.

Well, it wasn’t hard: one fit into each of the side panniers with quite a bit of room to spare, and the other two I put onto the top platform, side-by-side, again with some room to spare. I certainly felt the two hundred extra pounds, especially on the uphills, but the bike had plenty of gearing, so the hardest part was to balance the bike at other errand stops on the way home. Because of balancing only on two wheels, and having to put two bags up on the top platform, I had to really pay attention to which way the bike leaned. The standalone kickstand took care of the balance once it was set, but getting there required to lift part of the bike, and every part seemed to be quite heavy.

Encouraged by the apparent ease of riding the Mundo with heavy load, I decided on doing an errand, that I was thinking about for a while. The load was steel, so the volume remained small, but it sure turned out to be heavy. Unfortunately, since it was a secret operation, I must keep the nature of the load and the location of the source private – you can surmise parts of it from the pictures.

So Marianne and I got on our bikes on a quiet Sunday evening, timing our trip so that by the time we reached our destination, it would be dark. We even had to travel on a longer way, so we wouldn’t arrive too soon. But arrive we eventually did, and the cache was there, waiting – unfortunately out in the weather, so quite rusty, instead of the gleaming as treasure caches usually wait, no?… We expected the rustiness, however, so in the two go-getter bags I had a good pile of newspapers to help avoid my new bags getting dirty, and also to reduce the noise iron pieces would make when carried over uneven surfaces with a bike.

Once all loaded including the front mounted bread-basket, which I am rather impressed with, I grabbed the bike by the horns to get it off the two pointed wide kickstand, and … nothing happened. I had to lay my whole body into the effort before the bike budged and would move. Getting onto the road was also a workout as the path was dirt and slightly uphill. But I really got to experience the weigh, as balancing a lot of weight on two wheels can be challenging.

Once we were moving though, it all went smoothly. I mean the ride was bumpy all right towards home but only because of the bumpiness of the road surface, and the newspapers only worked somewhat – I guess the pieces were two heavy to be silenced by the New York Times from the neighbors recycling bin. However the whole ride went easier than I expected, and although there was a section of a steep uphill, I even had a low gear to spare – one which I ended up not having to use.

Once we arrived home, and I successfully put the bike on the kickstand, we measured how much I carried on the Mundo. This picture shows the weight of only part of the load. The total turned out to be about 280 pounds. Plus me, of course, the occasionally huffing and puffing 190 pond motor (although it was hard work, I managed to mostly keep up with Marianne, to my surprise – she only had to slow down on steeper or longer uphills during the 3+ mile long journey home.

What did I learn? Carrying a lot of weight on a bike doesn’t have to be very hard. I tried it on a trailer pulled by my bike, and that way it was harder – it is true the weight was also larger. And I carried a bit more weight on my bakfiets, but riding a tricycle with a big box up front is just such a different feeling, regardless whether it is loaded or not, that I was too busy perceiving that, rather than how the weight exactly feel on it.

I also learned, that balancing weight on a two wheeler is harder than I thought. Or, rather, that handling a heavily loaded two-wheeler requires constant and keen presence: once that thing starts to lean to one side, I better be already pulling it to the other, because with each passing instant of the leaning my job to restore the balance will be increasingly harder.

A trick to that is to place the heavier load to the bottom of the bag – the lower the center of mass the bike has, the easier it is to balance it. I felt that clearly: with the 200 pound chicken feed, where two bags had to be placed onto the platform above the wheel, the balancing of the bike was just as hard, than with the heavier evening load, that did fit into the bags, while applying the kickstand was considerably easier with the lighter load.

Another manageability trick is balance. put equal amount of weight onto each side, otherwise paying attention to riding out of balance is just another challenge you don’t want.

Normally you also want to consider the limit of what the bike and the bike-rack can carry – I luckily didn’t have to pay attention to that, as racking up a 450 pound load involves an insane amount of stuff – except if you get to carry iron pieces as I did this time.

Not using a car presents simple challenges, that is fun to overcome and makes life more interesting. For me one of them has been how to transport bicycles in various working conditions, while on my bike (from the dump or tag-sale to home, from home to the bike-shop and back, even to do a favor to friends without a car-attachable bike-rack).

I have learned how to ghost-ride a bicycle, that is, to lead one with one hand by the handle bar, while handling my own bike with the other hand. Years ago, after some awkward attempts I finally was able to lead another bike if both wheels were able to turn freely. I use it frequently ever since, and luckily very rarely do I manage to mangle up the two bikes any more. For short distances it works best; I don’t even have to put my feet down when stopping at a red light, as I can balance as I am holding on to the ghost bicycle. But this approach has shortcomings: longer distances can get tiring quickly and uphills, downhills and braking are especially taxing on the holding arm, having to push the extra bike uphill, and having to hold it back on downhill stretches or while slowing down (and don’t ever use the brakes on the ghost bike no matter what, as that is a pretty good recipe for falling!)

Just a few weeks ago a situation came up where I had to transport a bike home from work. The distance is 3 miles, and quite hilly, and once I did do it years ago, when I had to take a small bike home – I still remember it was no fun, as I am tall and like to use upright bikes, but the handle bar of the gost bike was way down, so I had to reach deep down with my ghost-guiding hand, and hold my own bike’s handlebar (and the weight of my upper body) with an almost fully bent elbow.

Well, I read, that you can get a towing tray for the Yuba Mundo. However I didn’t want to wait for the part, because the prize for transporting the bike home was shower-accessibility for everyone at work, as the bike that I needed to remove was stored in the shower room, belonging to a person not working there any more, but living very close to me. So I tested if I can safely mount a bike onto the Yuba without a towing tray like the picture suggests on Yuba’s website with the tray. Surprise, surprise, for a bike with full-size wheels I don’t even need a towing tray, as the base attachment for the Mundo is already the right size. So, armed with a single bungie cord and the Mundo, I went to work.

It worked like a dream. After filling the tires of the extra bike with air and mounting the front to the back of my Mundo, I hardly felt the extra weight of the attachment: sometimes I needed to look back to see if the other bike is still in tow or not, it was so easy — quiet and effortless.

Unfortunately at that time I didn’t have easy access to someone making a picture of me while I rode home transporting that bike, but on the right is a picture after I arrived home unscathed and at ease.

While I was at it, I played around a bit to see how other bicycles handle when they are being towed. I selected a more complicated-to-hook-up bicycle, my regular commuter with a large front basket. The basket’s support studs made it harder to mount the bike, but by raising the front of the towed bike a bit with a piece of bent pipe that worked out fine as well, as you may be able to see from the picture. Okay, it did take two bungee cords, instead of one, to attach the second bike securely.

With this setup I really wanted to test the limits, so I rode up and down, on less smooth surfaces, I turned, I pushed the unit forward and back and turned around in small spaces while pushing, but the integrity of the connection held out. The only thing I noticed was, when I pushed the attached bikes backward to help turning around in a limited space, the back bike pulled out to the left, and I almost lost the balance of the front bike because of the resulting shift of the load. But the bungee cords didn’t get lose, so the setup survived, and after I pulled the front bike back, I could continue turning and riding again.

The cargo bike market in the US is growing fast. This is partially so because there are relatively few of them on the roads. The other component is the love-fest the US had/is having with the car, and attachment to comfort in general. Who wants to sweat pedaling under a heavy load when you can just use what everyone else already uses – a car.

Both of these relationships have been souring on us as gasoline prices and the bills related to car ownership slide higher and, simultaneously, our girth wider. Maintaining our relationship with the car takes more and more sacrifice.

Enters biking for transportation, and cargo bikes for carrying stuff. Cargo carrying with bicycles is relatively new in the USA, but it has been around in other countries almost as long as bicycles were around. Whether it is on a tricycle with a big basket, a trailer hooked up to the bike, or longer and stronger bikes with racks, people carried pretty much everything using largish wheels and their own energy, for over 100 years.

The newest development on the scene is bikes with longer frames. Ones that have a cargo area behind the rider, and ones that the cargo area is in front of the handle bar. I have used each in different situations, and found they excel in different ways. Let’s call the back-loader ‘long-tail’ (the Yuba Mundo), and the one with the cargo area on the front a ‘front-loader’ (one I rigged up using a regular frame from a used bike), as I don’t particularly like ‘long-nose’:-)

Loading cargo is easier with the long-tail. The bike tends to be more stable, as the loading area is closer to the kickstand (not even counting the extra wide kickstand the Yuba Mundo, pictured here, comes with). I even loaded a 50 pound bag of chicken feed on one side of this bike, with no load on the other side, and the bike remained standing. I am lucky if I can find a position on the front-loader to place the same bag in any position, and have it remain standing.

If the load is alive, however, it may be beneficial to use the front-loader. A child, seated on the front is easier to keep an eye on, and communicate with, than one sitting behind. And I find, that I can talk to my girlfriend when she rides on the front in a quiet voice, even keeping eye contact (it’s so romantic!), neither would be possible on a long-tail bike.

I guess the most important difference between the two is in steering. With a long-tail, especially a stable bike like the Mundo, the weight of the load doesn’t affect steering. With the front-loader, the steering is indirect (chain, wire, or a rod connects my handle bar stem with the front wheel way ahead) so steering feels a bit different even without a load. But with a heavy load steering becomes even more sluggish.

So, overall, carrying load with a long-tail is easier. But for me, carrying load with either is fun, and carrying heavy load is a welcome challenge.

To learn more about the Yuba Mundo, click here.
To learn more about either the Front-Loader or the Mundo and other long-tails, come to the Neighborhood Bicycle Resource Center

Coming from Hungary I never really got into wanting to own or use a car, and when I had easy access to one, I would very rarely choose to use it. And when I did, I found myself being angry at the low speed limit or inpatient with other drivers being too slow or even angry at myself for using all the resources while just slugging away on a comfortable seat being carried around by the car. Also I was afraid being caught by the police if I didn’t carefully monitor my speed or follow road-rules to the letter, or nervous when I forgot to carry my license.
When I learned about the precarious state of the three ‘E’-s, riding a bike has got a whole different meaning. From being a cop-out, not being able to fit in, it became a virtue: I wanted to know how to conduct all my transportation needs on bicycles, and show to others, that it can be done.
The biggest challenge was carrying loads. I still wanted to carry around tools, construction lumber from the hardware store, logs for firewood or milling, feed for my chickens, or stuff for gardening. Finding solutions to all these challenges strengthened my connection to, and interest in, bicycles. Since then I learned how to weld, so I can create bicycle trailers, or bikes, built to carry cargo, set up the Neighborhood Bicycle Resource Center, and took a more active role to promote bicycling in my community.
What makes this topic more complex is not the difficulty of carrying cargo with bicycles, but rather, how many different ways it can be done. Is it a really heavy load, that otherwise is fairly compact in size? Or the opposite is the load bulky and shapeless, but it wouldn’t break your back, if you could just figure out how to lift it? Is it something you regularly carry, or unique today? Put it differently, are your loads predictable or not? Long but not wide, like lumber or a ladder? Is it one large piece like a furniture or lamp, or many smaller pieces, that may be sensitive to pressure like fruit or fragile like glass?
All these different timing and loads take forethought, creativity and flexibility. I will do my best to outline my bike choices in the different circumstances and reasons for the preferences.

I commute to work. I carry my lunch to eat locally, and tend plants to make the office better looking, pick up useful items next to the road, or collect seasonable fruit or greens for tea, stop at a store to pick something up, all random things. I found, that for flexibility a regular bike with carrying capacity is the best. Pictured here is a Jamis Commuter 4, with a front basket and rear rack. The basket can take larger and not too heavy things, bags of groceries, and the rack has a channel on it that fits all Topeak bike bags in a way, that makes it easy to place and remove the bag – it is only a slide-and-click operation rather than having to fuss with bungee cords or Velcro. Some of those bags are also insulated so they are great for keeping food cool until lunch.

For more or heavier groceries, like lots of sugar for canning, a long-tail bicycle is ideal. They still look and feel like a normal bike but they have space for a lot more cargo. This picture shows a good old regular bicycle, that I inserted an XtraCycle Free Radical kit into. That kit is built to make a regular bike be able to carry more cargo by extending the back of the bike and placing the back wheel further back. It also comes with big side panniers, and different attachments to accommodate different loads. The chain and the cables need to also be extended for proper installation (which then would lead to a functional bicycle). This way you cruise around with a bike that more-or-less feels ‘normal’, but with some load carrying capacity. Some, I say, because at around 100-120 pounds, especially if the load is in any way lopsided, I start to feel the flexing of the frame. The fact that the pieces are attached by screws to each other makes this bike have a lower limit as to how much you can carry on it.
   
   

If you want to carry heavier loads, there are several companies, who make these long-tail frames to be one piece. One of the cheapest, and interestingly enough also the strongest, is the Yuba Mundo. I only have tried it up to about 230 pounds but it felt just as stable and robust, as without any load. I also like the side-panniers that it comes with: They have well covering lids, and the material doesn’t let the water through. The bike also comes with fenders, so when I want to get a load somewhere protected from the rain, the Mundo is definitely my choice. Like the XtraCycle, it also has different attachments, so you can carry people comfortably, children or babies safely, and the limit is really how much effort you are willing or able to make, or how good your balance is while proceeding slow uphill, as the gearing is set low, so you can pedal fast while riding slow. Also it has space in the frame intentionally left open for an electric kit, and the same company sells a kit designed for slower and loaded cargo bikes (as opposed to faster riding: those kits aren’t able to support you while going slow, it is mostly out of their range).

Going further up on the weight scale needs more wheels and even lower gears. This bike here is a trike. Or, rather, it is a big box rolling on wheels with ways to push it while pedaling. The upside of it is that it can carry enormous weights, and going slow you don’t have to keep your balance, as it has three wheels. The downside is, that riding it doesn’t feel like a bike any more. It feels more like pushing around a big box while pedaling, and going fast is not a good idea – like it is not a good idea to push a big box around fast while on wheels. Plus storing it or getting it up the stairs take quite an effort.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Another way to carry cargo is using a trailer. Just be careful how close you are to the curb. But, as you can see, it is possible, to help each other out, when the load is big, and a detachable trailer means flexibility – but they tend to be not hooked on your bike when you see that great sofa or cabinet on the side of the road, that would be just perfect for your living room…