Family & Cargo bikes & trikes
Most bicycles commonly for sale in the United States were never intended to support all of a household’s local transport needs year-round. Most of us make do using some ever-evolving, never-quite-perfect combination of backpacks, panniers, trailers, and of course, the family car or van.
Our mission is to change that, and to that end we carry a variety of bicycles from far and near that were designed and built with your everyday transportation needs in mind. We know they work because we use them ourselves: for the daily preschool run, the weekly grocery haul with kids, quarterly Costco provisioning, an occasional furniture purchase, delivering local purchases, and even moving house.
An unsung secret to most of these bikes is the kickstand: double-pronged and extra-sturdy, it keeps your bike stable and upright when you aren’t on it, no matter how heavy, squirming, or lopsided your load.
Longtails
Longtails are a type of bike with more than the usual amount of space behind the rider for cargo, passengers, or both. They ride and feel much like a regular bicycle, with a lower center of gravity adding to the stability of the ride, especially under load.
These bikes were invented for use in the developing world, and are widely used in several countries for carrying heavy loads, such as bags of coffee berries, up and down steep mountain tracks. We find them incredibly useful here in Portland; you’ll see many families with a young child in a seat and an older sibling sitting on the back deck, feet nestled between grocery bags or resting on stacks of lumber, grinning as the world flies by.
Our favorite longtail is the California-based Xtracycle, recognizable by its skateboard-shaped deck and capacious side panniers. You can buy one ready-made or we can help you convert your mountain bike. We’ve been riding these since 2001, and developed our Stokemonkey electric assist specifically to complement them.
Xtracycling parents love being able to set out with their child riding at their side. When young legs get tired or traffic conditions get uncomfortable, the parent can carry both child and bicycle safely home. Our Xtracycle or Big Dummy specific pages have more information.
Long Johns and Bakfietsen
Long johns feature a low-mounted cargo or passenger area in front of the rider. These bicycles excel at handling the very heaviest loads gracefully, and facilitate social interaction between rider and passengers.
The Bakfiets Cargobike (plural: bakfietsen) is a long john with a roomy wooden box up front. It’s the cargo bike we built this business around, and the one you’re most likely to see on Portland’s streets, often with a couple of kids sitting on the bench inside, waving at passing dogs or engrossed in a book under the raincover.
Truck Bikes
A truck bike has a sturdy frame, a large front rack, and geometry and gearing optimized for nimbly carrying heavy loads across town.
The Workcycles FR8 is our truck bike of choice. Options include a step-through frame, and a rack with its own kickstand for extra stable loading and unloading.
Family Tandems
A nice step towards independence for kids who are still getting ready to ride their own bikes, or for families who want to travel longer distances together. For more options for extending your family bike train, take a look at our child seats, trail-a-bikes, and trailers.
KidzTandems, out of Colorado, put the kid up front and the adult steering, braking, and stoking in the back. These bikes come with a range of custom modifications, including child seats for special needs kids and a large basket to take your kid’s place up front once they’ve grown up. There’s even a triple tandem!
Trikes
Trikes are often a better choice than bikes for loads over about 200lbs, because you don’t need to balance them. Even with more modest loads, many people prefer the relaxing low-speed stability and maneuverability of trikes to bikes of similar large capacity. Trikes are slower than bikes. If you understand why slow is good, how it elongates your life out of doors with your kids and stuff in view, how it makes you see more, a trike may be for you. Trikes, like bikes, have a learning curve that is not to be underestimated. They are neither easier nor harder to ride than bikes, but very different. Handling at speed in particular requires skill to prevent tipping. Come try them out!
July 25th, 2011 at 19:38
What is the best bike to transport 3 kids, ages 2, 4 and 6? The Christina Boxcycle Trike or the Backfeits Cargo Bike? Would use this to go about 1 mile back and forth to school every day. Thanks!
July 26th, 2011 at 14:30
Ellie, either will work. The one whose ride qualities you like best is the best, and there’s simply no way to assess that other than you trying them. The Christiania is definitely more spacious, and lighter, and less expensive. It is also likely to be somewhat slower, and if you have hills on the route, there will be a learning curve learning not to tip it at downhill speeds! If you are used to bikes, trikes feel plain weird at first, and that is a show-stopper for some. Conversely, people with anxiety issues about tipping a bike loaded with children tend to love trikes. The Bakfiets Cargobike is better equipped (LED generator lights, Nuvinci N360 hub, chaincase, skirt guards, rear rack, Brooks saddle etc.), and rides like a bike, albeit an unusual one. But it’s going to be more cramped with 3 kids of those ages, unless you have one of the kids in a Yepp Maxi mounted on the rear rack.